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

[AlanOfTheBerg]

May need to use a single or double quote around the street name so that Waze understands that it's not an abbreviation that needs to be expanded.

Do quotes still result in being backslash-escaped to \' and \" ? I haven't tried recently.

[gettingthere]

Do quotes still result in being backslash-escaped to \' and \" ? I haven't tried recently.

I don't know. I'll have to set a route to somewhere in downtown Tijuana and find out how it's pronounced in the TTS.

[bgodette]

Any automated solution is going to result in a lot of one-off or edge cases that don't work correctly. I think the best solution is to provide a TTS input under the Label input. Use the default TTS rules if no values are provided, and show the expanded value. And if "customize TTS" or some other checkbox is selected, allow the map editor to put in plain English (or their language of choice) into the TTS box. E.g.:

Label: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St N
TTS: Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Street North

Label: N St.
TTS: N Street

Label: Geo Wash Pkwy
TTS: George Washington Parkway

This way the label can match the sign, but the editor can fix the TTS if we see the default isn't correct.

Actually this needs to be expanded on further, what we need to know is which Open Source TTS engine is being used so we know what the TTS hinting syntax is, so we have direct control to correct regional pronunciation as well as non-English words in a predominately English environment.

[GizmoGuy411]

Not at my PC at the moment, but my best guess is that the are using this based on files I've explored on my phone: http://www.nuance.com/for-business/by-p ... /index.htm

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[CBenson]

The credits for the Android Waze 2.9.99.120 says: "Text to Speech: (c) Copyright 2011 Nuance Communications, Inc."

[palmerit]

Any automated solution is going to result in a lot of one-off or edge cases that don't work correctly. I think the best solution is to provide a TTS input under the Label input. Use the default TTS rules if no values are provided, and show the expanded value. And if "customize TTS" or some other checkbox is selected, allow the map editor to put in plain English (or their language of choice) into the TTS box. E.g.:

Label: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St N
TTS: Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Street North

Label: N St.
TTS: N Street

Label: Geo Wash Pkwy
TTS: George Washington Parkway

This way the label can match the sign, but the editor can fix the TTS if we see the default isn't correct.

In another life, I dealt with TTS quite a bit. The idea of a 'TTS override' field is very common.

The first field should match the street signs as closely as possible, and be visible in the UI. the TTS field should default to empty, and only be filled in if the spoken TTS is wrong or pronounces something oddly. For instance, barberton OH is pronounced like barber-ton (think haircuts) but many TTS engines will pronouns it bar-burton (with the 'Berton' part emphasized for some reason.)

Anyway, +1 for the TTS override field.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk

[jasonh300]

Just a note: Bus, as in US Hwy 90 Bus E is being pronounced 'bus' again. I don't know when this happened, but it was working before and now it isn't.

[dmcconachie]

You can find the engine being used in the preferences file. One of our users (Xteejx) located it and tried sending commands manually but it didn't even adjust for "St" as "Street". Waze is clearly intervening in the command before it is sent to the engine!

[harling]

You can find the engine being used in the preferences file. One of our users (Xteejx) located it and tried sending commands manually but it didn't even adjust for "St" as "Street". Waze is clearly intervening in the command before it is sent to the engine!

That's how I heard it explained (by Ehud IIRC). The routing engine parses the street names into phrases, and passes them to the client along with the original names. When the time comes to announce a street, the client displays the un-parsed name, but sends the parsed name to the TTS engine. So, changing how Waze "reads" street names does not require a client update, as it's all done on the server side.

[dmcconachie]

Sounds like everything is there. I don't see why you wouldn't add an extra field to override the TTS. Default (grey out the field) to the street name but allow overrides!