Copilot Voice Guidance SUCKS

cproaudio · 12-24-2002, 10:55 PM

I just checked out the Kenwood GPS nav at work and its great. The closest thing for computer GPS nav is the Copilot which I think is almost as good but it lacks one thing. The Kenwood nav's voice guidance uses a sexy woman's voice that speaks understandable English. The Copilot's voice guidance uses a robot voice which half of the time I couldnt even understand. Is there any way that I can upgrade the voice on the Copilot?

ddt · 12-26-2002, 12:04 AM

Do a search on Watson speech software. Apparently they do the speech synthesis program for copilot and travroute has nothing to do with them.

cproaudio · 12-27-2002, 03:24 AM

I found nothing on Watson speech on google. I did find AT&T natural voices which sound semi close to the kenwood Nav voice. problem is I dont know if it will work with Copilot. I emailed customer service at Travroute today. I'm still waiting for their reply. click http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/index.html for a demo

qjones · 12-27-2002, 12:37 PM

Let us know what they say. I am very interested.

cproaudio · 12-27-2002, 10:25 PM

Thank you for contacting TravRoute. Unfortunately there is no way to change
your voice preference or how the speaker sounds. I apologize for any
inconvenience.

If you have further questions or would like to place an order, please feel
free to contact me.

Regards,

Maria Scarpulla
Sales Representative
Email: mscarpulla@alk.com
PH: 888-872-8768 x153
FX: 609-252-8166
TravRoute Division
ALK Technologies

looks like theres no way to change the crappy robot voice on CoPilot.

az1324 · 12-28-2002, 02:48 PM

If there's some way you could get your hands on watson 2.0, it has support for multiple voices. I'm pretty sure it would still respond to all of copilot's calls to it. That way you could change the voices to whatever watson 2.0 supported.

cproaudio · 12-29-2002, 02:44 AM

Well I figured out how to change Copilot's voice from male to female but it still sound like a robot. Goto the control panel and select the "flex talk 2.1 configuration" then set Kerry Watson as default speaker. If that still doesnt work, remove the male speaker. Maybe someone can figure this out for all of us who are sick of listening to the robot voice from 1997 on how to change the Watson's speech engine to the more updated AT&T Natural Voices Text-to-Speech Engine. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

CA 3000GT · 01-23-2003, 11:18 PM

What version of copilot do you have? There was one released in 2002 right? is that the one you have?

As a tech guy in california a place known for tech and intranet... I would be shocked if you were not able to dig up a copy of watson 2.0 or whatever. ..

BTW, copilot has not updated their voice engine since 1997? if this is the 2002 version, thats not good.

cproaudio · 01-28-2003, 01:27 PM

It's Copilot 2003. I asked the Travroute rep at CES about the schitty voice. They said that sadly that voice can't be changed and that I should check their website for updates. You would think that for 400 bucks a pop that it would at least come with a setting to change the voice.