Test of Text-to-Speech (TTS) Abbreviations in Waze Clients

[GizmoGuy411]

Based on harling's and jasonh300's last posts, I think our catch phrase when this is all said and done is going to have to be, "When in doubt, spell it out!" At least until we get an emulator.

Maybe that should be added to the Wiki now as the first rule of thumb for the use of abbreviations in WME.

[harling]

We have a "Summer St" in town. TTS correctly pronounces it "summer street". Off of that street is a court, named "Summer St Ct". TTS pronounces it as "summer saint court". Wait, what?

We have a "State Street Dr", which is an extension of State St in a different neighborhood. But the "Street" is always spelled out in "State Street Dr". I think there are other streets in that neighborhood that are the same way.

Around here, the signs never spell out the "street", just "St". (Many of them date from the '40s or earlier and are made of cast iron with raised letters, and are not likely to be replaced any time soon.) At present, the text on the display matches the signage, which I think is the best arrangement. Personally, I think it would be better for 'St.' to be "saint" anywhere, and "St" to be "street anywhere. But if the decision comes down that these abbreviations will remain positional as well as lexical, I'll start spelling them out.

[GizmoGuy411]

At present, the text on the display matches the signage, which I think is the best arrangement.

+1

Personally, I think it would be better for 'St.' to be "saint" anywhere, and "St" to be "street anywhere.

+1

But if the decision comes down that these abbreviations will remain positional as well as lexical, I'll start spelling them out.

+1

[GizmoGuy411]

I think CBenson also caught part of this "Saint" and "Street" issue in the past.

Since case has not seemed to be important based on our test results so far, I've only added a subset of those possibilities to the list.

For the use or not of a period in the abbreviation, I think I've add all possibilities.

Here are the iterations added to the list and test rig:
st middle st
St middle St
st middle st.
St middle St.
st. middle st
St. middle St
st. middle st.
St. middle St.
st st st
St St St
st st st
st st st.
st st. st.
st st. st
st st. st.
st. st st
st. st st.
st. st. st
st. st. st.

In each case we are hoping for "st" to say "street" and "st." to say "saint".

[sketch]

I feel it's probably best that "St" returns "saint" if it's at the beginning.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

I thought we decided long(er) ago that differentiation should be with the period or without. Positional should make no difference. St=street, St.=saint, Dr=drive, Dr.=Drive, etc. Why make it more complicated?

[CBenson]

I thought we decided long(er) ago that differentiation should be with the period or without. Positional should make no difference. St=street, St.=saint, Dr=drive, Dr.=Drive, etc. Why make it more complicated?

Did you mean Dr.=Doctor?

[AlanOfTheBerg]

I thought we decided long(er) ago that differentiation should be with the period or without. Positional should make no difference. St=street, St.=saint, Dr=drive, Dr.=Drive, etc. Why make it more complicated?

Did you mean Dr.=Doctor?

Yes. #Typingtoofast.

[sketch]

I thought we decided long(er) ago that differentiation should be with the period or without. Positional should make no difference. St=street, St.=saint, Dr=drive, Dr.=Drive, etc. Why make it more complicated?

No problem. I probably wasn't following at that time. Just looking to get out of a bunch of future edits

[GizmoGuy411]

I thought we decided long(er) ago that differentiation should be with the period or without. Positional should make no difference. St=street, St.=saint, Dr=drive, Dr.=Drive, etc. Why make it more complicated?

No problem. I probably wasn't following at that time. Just looking to get out of a bunch of future edits

But just think of all the points you will get!