MEMORANDUM
To: Wiraman Niyomphol and
NFB R&D Committee
From: T. V. Cranmer, Chairman
Subject: Thai Language Synthesizer
Date: March 12, 1994
You pose an interesting and very complex question. There are
surely various ways you could approach the many technical problems
to be overcome to bring Thai speech access technology to your
Countrymen. Here are my first thoughts on the matter.
You may wish to consider an arrangement with one of the
manufactures of an existing speech synthesizer that would induce
them to offer a version of their product with a text-to-speech
algorithm for the Thai language. If this were a project of the R&D
Committee, which of course it cannot be, I would proceed by
discussing the matter with the ranking officer of companies like
Blazie Engineering, Aicom Corporation, Arctic Technology and so on.
I might even approach InfoVox in Sweden, since they are big in
multi-lingual synthesizers. I would ask each of these companies
how much they would charge, or better still what would it cost
them, to develop the Thai language algorithm for their synthesizer.
I would then offer to pay a major part of that cost if they would
agree to add Thai speech as an option on their product. I would
not ask for any royalty or other payback from future sales of their
synthesizers in Thailand or elsewhere.
If one of the synthesizer manufacturers agrees to add Thai, then I
would approach the screen access program companies, such as Henter-
Joyce, MicroTalk, et cetera, and ask them to support the Thai
synthesizer. Again, you may have to find a small grant to help
defray the cost of development.
I believe that the only way to induce the hardware and software
manufacturers to enter a new market with limited prospect for
short-term return, is to participate in their development costs and
to serve as a catalyst to promote sales in your country. Your role
would be to find the money, preferably in Thailand, and to
coordinate the activities and monitor progress.
One word of caution: Beware of open ended financial arrangements
based on estimated time and hourly charges. At least, that is what
I try to do. We sometimes send the grant money after the product
is finished.
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