Spoken directions in maemo-mapper, *without* using extras-devel
 

People have been trying to get voiced turn directions on the N900 for a while. There's basically two ways to go, that I know of:

* get flite from *extras-devel*, which is scary, and use the trick at a post from woody14619 to make it actually work
* get espeak from extras and edit /usr/bin/flite look like this:

Props to penguinbait for the idea.

In case you're not comfortable with the editor, here's the step-by-step like woody's post:

Re: Spoken directions, maemo-mapper, *without* using -devel
 

I have to say, I kind of like this method better and will probably be switching to it soon. Esp since espeak has an active maintainer, where flite does not. Thanks to penguinbait for the idea and rlpowell for the post. I've linked this into my solutions thread so it should see some traffic.

Please feel free to add more solutions there if you think of them, find them, or create them! :)

Re: Spoken directions, maemo-mapper, *without* using -devel
 

It might take a while to find ideal settings for espeak to get intelligible (for purposes of driving) instructions.

I've found the lower the pitch, speed, and volume, the easier it is to understand. Pitch can be set to minimum, speed close to minimum, but not too low that it's excruciating, and volume low enough that you don't get the "screeching" effect.

But since espeak also has Russian and Chinese (various dialects) libraries now, that opens up some interesting paths.

Re: Spoken directions, maemo-mapper, *without* using -devel
 

on my N900 x-terminal says:

"shift: can't shift that many"

should I try the devel way instead? If it is not risky, and i'd follow instructions closely. Please help me out ;)

Re: Spoken directions, maemo-mapper, *without* using -devel
 

Whoops. Try "shift 1" instead of just "shift".

-Robin

Re: Spoken directions, maemo-mapper, *without* using -devel
 

FWIW, I now use: /usr/bin/espeake -a 40 -s 120 "$@"

This works pretty well.

Now, if only I could figure out how to get "media player" to not totally take over the sound system. To get directions *and* music i have to use MediaBox, which is very CPU intensive; on top of Mapper itself, which isn't exactly lightweight, it causes problems with espeak.

-Robin

Re: Spoken directions, maemo-mapper, *without* using -devel
 

Very good tip, but there's one glitch. Mapper is in english and tells directions in english, right? But english pronunciation is very different from portuguese (my native language) pronunciation and when I use the default english language, it would tell the street names in an unrecognizable pronunciation, but if I use the portuguese language (espeak -v pt) it wouldn't tell the english words correctly.

I am assuming. I tried this recipe but all I got was some unrecognizable words from mapper after I've traced a route. I still didn't drive using it.

Re: Spoken directions, maemo-mapper, *without* using -devel
 

hmmz, still doesent work, same error ;o

i checked for misspelling twice, what am i doing wrong? not enaugh rootfs? over 34 mb..

Re: Spoken directions, maemo-mapper, *without* using -devel
 

Nice, I gotta try this out next time I'm in North America.

Re: Spoken directions, maemo-mapper, *without* using -devel
 

Try this instead:

That's working well for me. This may all be a moot point tomorrow when PR1.2 hits. Does the new update to OVI Maps do turn-by-turn and/or voice output?