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Introduction

This service supports voice-based interaction. The text_to_speech service enables the use of the Google Text-to-Speech platform within your application. It artificially produces human speech from text. It can also be used in combination with social robots to replace the robot’s own ('onboard') speech synthesis capabilities.

Docker name: text_to_speech

Input

• sensors: none

• actuators: none

• parameters:

  • text:

    • value: text to synthesise

    • type: string

Initial (One-Time) Setup

1. Download the keyfile JSON from the TTS Google Agent

   • Note: the JSON file can be changed in the application at runtime using the TTSConnector's set_tts_key(<path to keyfile>) method

2. Choose a voice ID for the text synthesising from here

   • the language is automatically inferred from the voice ID

   • Note: the voice can be changed in the application at runtime using the TTSConnector's set_tts_voice(<voice ID>) method

Output

• sensors: none

• actuators: speakers

• data:

  • value: synthesised text as speech

  • type: bytestream

Service Configuration

In order to use the service, you first need to create a TTS Agent. For that, visit this page to set up a Google service account and download the JSON keyfile.

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You should now be able to use the TTS Google Agent.

Usage

Regular Usage

1. Create a TTSConnector instance.

2. set the keyfile and the voice ID in the TTSConnector

3. call the connector’s say_text_to_speech([text]) with the text to be synthesized

Example

See this for an example usage.

Events

• PlayAudioDone is raised when the speech synthesis is done. The event can be listened to

Known Issues

Google’s TTS has no limitations on the number of characters. However, depending on your subscription plan, there is a limit on the monthly number of spoken characters.

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