TTS Introduction For Windows Phone 8

Introduction

Windows Phone supports voice input as well as voice output. In this article we will learn how to convert text into speech in Windows Phone 8. This feature is also known as Text-To-Speech (TTS) . You can use it in your application for pronouncing the text. Let's see how to use this feature in our app.

Speech Synthesis Namespace

The Windows.phone.Speech.Synthesis namespace contains the text to speech functionality. It consists of the following classes:

InstalledVoices

Provide access to the synthesized voices that are available for use.
SpeechBookmarkedReachedEventArgs

Provides arguments of the BookmarkedReached event.
SpeechStartedEventArgs

Arguments for the speech started event.
SpeechSynthesizer

Main class that is used for working with a synthesized TTS voice.
VoiceInformation

Defines Information about TTS.

Speak Text Async Method

This is the main method that we need to use in our app for converting text into voice.
Signature

await SpeakTextAsync(String)
Arguement

String: A plain text that we want to convert.

Implementing TTS

The following code snippet implements the text to speech feature:

XAML

<phone:PhoneApplicationPage

x:Class="Demo.MainPage"

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

xmlns:phone="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"

xmlns:shell="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Shell;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"

xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"

xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"

mc:Ignorable="d"

FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}"

FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}"

Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"

SupportedOrientations="Portrait" Orientation="Portrait"

shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="True">

<Grid.RowDefinitions>

</Grid.RowDefinitions>

</StackPanel>

</Grid>

</phone:PhoneApplicationPage>

C# Code Behind

using Microsoft.Phone.Controls;

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Net;

using System.Windows;

using System.Windows.Controls;

using Windows.Phone.Speech.Synthesis;

namespace Demo

{

public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage

{

// Constructor

public MainPage()

{

InitializeComponent();

}

private async void startBtn_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

{

SpeechSynthesizer s = new SpeechSynthesizer(); // New TTS Instance

await s.SpeakTextAsync(txtArea.Text); // Start TTS

}

Summary

TTS is a very useful feature that can be used creatively to create some wonderful apps. As a last note don't forget to set a ID_CAP_SPEECH_RECOGNITION Capablity in your app manifest.