I live in Florida, where we hve a lot of roads called "State Road" followed by a number, e.g. "State Road 202." On my Nuvi 360 Jill (the voice) routinely pronounces these as Stage Road instead of State Road. She usually does a good job with other street names, but you'd think she'd be able to pronounce the word "state." Anybody else noticed this, or have any ideas on how to improve her pronounciation?
Re: Jill's speech impediment Tue Jul 22, 2008 3:17 am
I noticed she pronounces St (street) as saint, but not always. Yesterday I downloaded the latest speech files and I didn't notice the mispronunciation yet, hopefully they fixed it.
So does the male voice though.
merlynsdad wrote:
I live in Florida, where we hve a lot of roads called "State Road" followed by a number, e.g. "State Road 202." On my Nuvi 360 Jill (the voice) routinely pronounces these as Stage Road instead of State Road. She usually does a good job with other street names, but you'd think she'd be able to pronounce the word "state." Anybody else noticed this, or have any ideas on how to improve her pronounciation?
One of the English voices (Australian?) like to pronounce "Dr." as "doctor." The British voices like to speak full numerals ("take route six hundred and ninety six" instead of "take route six ninety six").
Joined: 23 Mar 2008 Posts: 30 Location: upstate NY
American Jack Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:24 pm
You should hear Am Jack pronounce Wyndham. I like his voice better though than Jill. The "recalculating" does not sound as annoyed as Jill. I don't need another woman to tell me what to do. My wife does a good enough job!
If she has to recalculate several times over a brief period, you get the feeling she wants to slap you. I'd prefer that she sound more like a girlfriend than an ex-wife.
Does anyone know in what country her programmers reside? If they can't pronounce the words, it's no wonder she can't.
I just got my 360 today and quickly went for a drive. I came up on Eureka Road and Jack began to tell me to turn left on "You-reek". He left off the "A".
I just got my 360 today and quickly went for a drive. I came up on Eureka Road and Jack began to tell me to turn left on "You-reek". He left off the "A".
I thought I needed deodorant or somethin'
Perhaps not, just that the instruction was interrupted by data transfers. Have you tried it again, does it always drop the A?
I live in Florida, where we hve a lot of roads called "State Road" followed by a number, e.g. "State Road 202." On my Nuvi 360 Jill (the voice) routinely pronounces these as Stage Road instead of State Road. She usually does a good job with other street names, but you'd think she'd be able to pronounce the word "state." Anybody else noticed this, or have any ideas on how to improve her pronounciation?
I just tried it with American Jill on my Nuvi 760, and it says "State Route 29" instead of "State Road 29", but "State" is pronounced correctly.
One of the English voices (Australian?) like to pronounce "Dr." as "doctor." The British voices like to speak full numerals ("take route six hundred and ninety six" instead of "take route six ninety six").
Can you indicate me one example of one drive road "Dr." pronounced as "Dorctor"? Please be specific enough so I can find the road.
I have some experience with the TTS file and I'd to change the equivalence table. The current abbreviation table contains the following:
Dr. <- Dr
Drive <- Driv (and) Drv
I want to check if Dr. is a pre-defined word converted to doctor. If it is the case, we can change the table for
Drive <- Driv (and) Drv (and) Dr. (and) Dr
In this last case, they will all be pronounced as "Drive".
Joined: 23 Jul 2008 Posts: 10 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Re: American Jack Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:47 pm
Gene wrote:
You should hear Am Jack pronounce Wyndham. I like his voice better though than Jill. The "recalculating" does not sound as annoyed as Jill. I don't need another woman to tell me what to do. My wife does a good enough job!
I haven't received my new Garmin 350 yet. But when I do, I won't be using Jill. My wife's name is Jill and she actually does have a speech impediment..
I tried all English languages on my 760 and they all pronounced "Dr." as drive. Maybe this is what Garmin is doing with the new languages. Not sure though.
I tested with French Canadian Julie and she pronounced "Docteur". Interesting. I found the primitive "Dr.". It seems to be hardcoded that way, however I should be able to rename "Dr." as something else in the abbreviation table.
Does your 760 use the same pronounciation table as my 360? You mentioned yours pronounces "state" correctly, while mine doesn't. BTW this is the second 360 unit I've had, and neither one used the correct pronounciation.
"Dr." pronounced as "Dorctor" Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:12 pm
You want specifics of where Drive is pronounced as Doctor.
I was in Richmond, VA today and I found one on Interstate 64, exit 183a Glenside Drive South. Jill said, "Glenside Doctor South."
If you want to correct the issue, here's what you can do.
1- Find yourself a hex editor. WinHex or anything else.
2- Open English_American_Jill.vpm in the hex editor
3- Search for "Drive". You will find it at address 00C48210 (hex) or 12878352 (dec).
4- Check the hex line just before that: 00C48200 (hex) or 12878352 (dec). We are going to change it. Let me show the line you see and then the line you must have:
Before:
00C48200: 20 44 72 2E 20 00 00 00 ...
After:
00C48200: 20 44 72 69 76 65 20 00 ...
That is it. We are replacing " Dr. " by " Drive ". Noticed the next word following "Drive"? It is "Dr". Each time your Nuvi will see "Dr" in the maps, it will replace it by "Drive".
If you have no clue what a hex editor does, just PM me and I will arrange something for you.
One of the main routes here in Jacksonville is State Road 9A, and she constantly pronounces it Stage Road 9A. My wife and daughter have also noticed it, so it's not just my ear. The audio version on mine is 1.90 as well.
The original definition for "SR" was "State Road". I changed it to "Staytte Road". It should sound better. You can use an Hex editor as well and search for "State Road". Replace it. It does not matter if you erase a couple 00 at the end.
Very good post and pretty clear on the intent of the instructions. Nice job. Of course I don't recommend that "Hex editor" and "Nuvi" appear in the same sentence without a full backup and a little attention to detail.
You are right about that. Normally, this is what I suggest:
1- Rename the original VPM file in the Garmin/Voice directory on your Nuvi. Just add an extra character in the name. It is faster than to back it up and restore it later.
2- Then copy the file you just modified with the Hex Editor
3- If you do not like it or if you want to restore the original file, just delete the modified VPM file and rename your backup to the original name.
Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 13 Location: Dallas, TX
Sat Jul 26, 2008 7:05 am
Jill obviously does not speak Spanish. One of the Mexican restaurants we frequent is called Ojeda's (pronounced Oh-HAY-dahs). Jill says AH-jeh-does. I once had an older ALK program on a PDA that had trouble with the abbreviation for "Court (Ct)." Instead of "proceed to 329 Lakeside Court, the voice would say "proceed to 329 Lakeside Connecticut."
For Jill, the abbreviation CT is Connecticut and Ct is Court. Very small difference. In the maps, everything is uppercase so you will always hear Connecticut whenever the abbriviation is used. A 'Food Ct' in a POI will be heard as 'Food Court' if typed with a lowercase.
i just joined this website and saw from your post that i'd be able to change some of the TTS.
i live on Varner DR in Atlanta, Ga 30345 and also was ammused to hear one of the voices pronounce Doctor for DR
also IND for industrial [ peachtree industrial ] is pronounced indianapolis
can you recommend a free hex editor program ?
thanks, what a great site
Nuvi 680 & 760
Hi marnoldi,
Questions like yours are better posted in the forum. They may help others as well.
If you are looking for a HEX editor, you can goole it. There are so many of them. Anyone will do for this application. Just pick one. If you want a comparison, look here:
Peachtree... Hey! Hey! Is there any other street in Atlanta? Just kidding... Went there 20 years ago. Nice city! Good Coke!
I looked in the maps and there was no Peachtree Industrial abbreviation. The full name was used. However, the speech engine is able to create abbreviation and converted INDUSTRIAL to IND. I have seen this before.
Can you tell me at which intersection you heard that? I 'went' on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard and all was pronounced correctly.
In the voice file, there is also no table to convert IND back to Industrial. Industrial is not there at all. This means it has to be spelled as TTS. Indianapolis is there but I saw no abbreviation. This one will be harder than the others to correct.
Maybe you can replace another entry in the acronym/abbreviation table and use Industrial & Ind. This is pretty tricky. First, I suspect that all acronyms are alphabetically sorted. You may not be able to put it anywhere. Second, you need to stay within the space allowed for this definition. There is a lookup table for this somewhere but I did not find it yet.
Last, but not the least, you need to start any of the words on a long boundary. This means each word must start on column 0, 4, 8 or C. To achieve that, add hexadecimal 00 between the words. Make sure you add space before and after each word.
Now I am going to confuse you or make you sleep... If not done already
Example: Let's say your free space starts at address 3CF30. Good thing because 0 is one of the allowd column. You want to write
' Industrial '. The last space ends on column B. You need to add at least one 00 on column C. You can't start the next word because column D is not allowed. You need to add additional 00 until you are on a good column. Then, let's add 3 more '00' up to column F. Then you can put ' Ind ' or
' Ind. ' and end with at least one 00 before the next definition.
Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 12 Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Close instead of Clinic Sat Aug 02, 2008 4:12 pm
In the Jacksonville area, Australian voice Karen (my favorite!) always reads "Mayo Cl" as Mayo close instead of Mayo Clinic. Not a problem, I can put up with that and more, she's cute! (except when she gives me Garmin's nasty "recalculating" message, which I hate)
Also about Karen's voice saying "Cl" as "Close". There is effectively an association between the 2. It can be changed if you want. Here's how to do it:
Use an Hex Editor (read previous posts in this thread) and make a search for "Close". Because "Clinic" is slightly too long, we are going to modify the previous association which is "Circus". Change "Circus" for "Clinic" and change the following word "Crc" for "Cl ",00 (C-L-space and add hex value 00). In Hex, this will look like '43 6C 20 00'.
We need also to destroy the original "Close" association with "Cl". You can change "Cl " by "Clo " (C-l-o-space). This should take care of it.
TTS_Speech_Doctor: A solution to speech impediments!
For now, TTS_Speech_Doctor v0.20 will correct the problems below. Reading this thread, I just realized I missed a couple ones...
- Change "St" to "Street" instead of "Saint"
- Change "FM" to "Farm Road" instead of "FM" or "Federated State of Micronesia"
- Change "Dr" to "Drive" instead of "Doctor"
- Change "SR" to "State Road" instead of "Stage Road"
- Change "Br" to "Business Route" instead of "Branch" (Jack & Jill only)
- Change "Cl" to "Clinic" instead of "Close" (Karen & Lee only)
- Change "O" to "West" instead of "Oest" (Julie & Felix only)
- Change "Boul." to "Boulevard" instead of "Boul+pause" (Julie & Felix only)
Last edited by turboccc on Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:31 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 87 Location: DC Metro Area
Mon Sep 22, 2008 6:06 pm
Not sure if someone already addressed this, but St. is pronounced as Saint instead of Street only when there is a word following it. For example, Porter St. would be pronounced correctly, but Porter St. NW, is pronounced Porter Saint Northwest. Same thing with Dr. I usually listen to Daniel, and he does this.
Daniel does have the habit of voicing the hundreds for route numbers -- i.e., Route Four Hundred and Ninety-Five instead of Route Four Ninety, which I don't think the Americans do. He is also the only one I think who pronounces West Edmondston as "Wes Ed Monster" --which is what I now call my Garmin.
By the way, are all the female voices and male voices basically the same male and female, but with slightly different pronunciations?
Very good analysis! Makes some sense. Most abbrevitations I see in the VPM are preceeded and followed by spaces. The current abbreviation for
" Saint " is " St. " When the phrase is terminated, that space is not there and it could explain the difference.
Regarding the voices, I think they were recorded with different people. Someday, I will try to use the phonems from one voice with a different voice and see how it goes.
Fleischier,
Hex Editor? TTS_Voice_Doctor has 2 corrections for French Canadian Julie & Felix. So far, no correction for French European unless someone proposes change to be done.
Last edited by turboccc on Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:48 pm; edited 1 time in total
Change "AUT" to "Highway" instead of "A-U-T" (Daniel & Emily only, French countries)
Change "O" to "West" instead of "O" (Daniel & Emily only, French countries)
Change "Boul." to "Boulevard" instead of "Boul+pause" (Daniel & Emily only, French countries)
1. Is someone passing these fixes on to Garmin?
2. When do these files get updated? I would think they would NOT be included with the annual map upgrade. Are they part of the webupdate process?
Jill obviously does not speak Spanish. One of the Mexican restaurants we frequent is called Ojeda's (pronounced Oh-HAY-dahs). Jill says AH-jeh-does. I once had an older ALK program on a PDA that had trouble with the abbreviation for "Court (Ct)." Instead of "proceed to 329 Lakeside Court, the voice would say "proceed to 329 Lakeside Connecticut."
This might be a bit off topic, but Samantha (from 255w) has the opposite problem. She always says "court" instead of "Connecticut" when I'm driving on CT-xx roads.
Nothing new has been released from Garmin. We are talking here about a program that makes correction to some TTS voice files. You can go on http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/TTS_Speech_Doctor and read more about TTS_Speech_Doctor.
marshmallowy,
I do not have a copy of Smantha, but it should be pretty easy to change. Do you want it to say CT-66 as Connecticut-66?
Help - Garmin not recognizing modified files Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:06 am
I used speech doctor to update all of the idiosyncrasies in the voices, and even though I got an updated successful message, my Garmin (nuvi 770) now won't recognize the edited voices. Luckily I haven't changed Emily, since she's now the only one left who speaks English Is there something I need to do get the Nuvi to recognize the edited files??
First, be careful about modifying blindly your voice files with all the proposed changes. Some may be worst than Garmin's default depending on your location and the voice you use.
Second, you should not have any problem at all. You just need to copy the modified .VPM file back to your Garmin/Voice directory. All changes I make are harmless by themselves and you should not experience any problem other than the changes in abbreviations. Double check what you have done.
To recover, just copy back the original VPM voice back to the Garmin/Voice directory. That should correct your problem. If not, you may have other issues with your 770.
I found an empty spot in all English languages to fit this new request. There is now a patch in the "English" tab to change "RM" to "Ranch Road" instead of "R-M". Ranch-to-market was a bit too long and Wikipedia recommended Ranch Road as an alternative. Check for version 0.45.
For all others that requests changes, I just want to say it becomes very difficult for me to add new abbreviations/associations. This one took me 15 minutes just to find a spot. Each time I add a new one, I have to remove another one that may be useful for somebody else.
For example, this time I removed Admin=Administration and Agr=Agricultural. "Admin" should be ok if you hear it and hopefully "Arg" will never be used.
I stopped the development of a more advanced version that would solve this problem because it will require me a lot of time and I am not sure how many people will really use it. Doing something that will help hundreds or thousands of people is one thing. Doing it for a dozens does not make sense. I hope you will all understand.
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Is there something I need to do get the Nuvi to recognize the edited files??