10.1 What You Need

While we could develop this project on Windows using Microsoft’s Speech API or on Linux using the open source Festival project, I chose the Mac platform because I personally find the Text-to-Speech (TTS) renditions in OS X 10.7 (aka Lion) to be the best of the voices that ship between the three operating systems. Most Mac users don’t know these voices exist, let alone that downloading additional OS X voices can expand your choices.

Here are the items you will need to put this project into action:

• An Apple Mac computer running OS X 10.7 (Lion) or higher

• A home stereo with standard 3.5mm or RCA audio input jacks

• One of the following:

  • A male-to-male stereo miniplug cable to connect the Mac to your home stereo, or

  • A 3.5mm stereo headphone-to-RCA adapter cable if your stereo only uses standard RCA input jacks, or

  • A wireless Bluetooth speaker, such as the Supertooth DISCO[105]

• A wireless microphone and receiving station, such as the Radio Shack Wireless Lapel Microphone System[106]

• A 3.5mm headphone-to-USB adapter to send the wireless mic station’s audio into the Mac, such as Griffin Technology’s iMic[107]

Before we listen to the computer voices, we first need to be able to reproduce the Mac’s spoken audio on a set of speakers, whether they be attached to the Mac, connected via a stereo, or transmitted to a wireless Bluetooth speaker.