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COMPUTALKER CONSULTANTS


P.O. Box 1951
Santa Monica, CA 90406


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HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION

See: "A Short History of Computalker", a narrative by D. Lloyd 
Rice on the origins of Computalker Consultants and the Computalker 
CT-1 Synthesizer.


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PROJECT: SYNTHESIS BY RULE FROM PHONETIC SPELLING (1976 - 1988)


Commercial formant synthesizer card CT-1 for 8080-bus micro-
computers.  Nine-channel formant synthesizer.  Control data
at 100-bytes/sec per channel.  Software module for conversion
from phonetic input to synthesizer control signals, based on the
work of Dennis Klatt at MIT (see SSSHP USA MIT page), with
Klatt's assistance. Klatt requested his involvement be kept
confidential. [Editor: Personal communication from D. Lloyd 
Rice. This was about the time that Telesensory Systems, Inc. 
was talking to MIT about using Klatt's work in a reading machine
for the blind (see SSSHP USA Telesensory Systems page.)]


1976 COMPUTALKER CT-1 SPEECH SYNTHESIZER, sales brochure and
     prices for first synthesizer card for Altair, IMSAI, and
     Polymorphic microcomputers, 1 page. (SSSHP 76 reprints)


1976 COMPUTALKER CT-1 Speech Synthesizer Hardware Specifications,
     physical dimensions, electrical requirements, 1 page. (SSSHP
     76 reprints)


1976 "How to get natural sounding speech output from the 
     Computalker Model CT-1", 1 page. How to extract synthesizer
     control parameters from human speech. (SSSHP 76 reprints)


1976 "Synthesizing speech by rule with the Computalker Model
     CT-1", 1 page. Description of synthesis-by-rule software
     to be available in 1977. Input to be a string of ASCII-
     coded phonetic symbols with stress marks. (SSSHP 76 reprints)


1976 Rice, L., "Hardware & software for speech synthesis", Dr.
     Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia, Box 
     310, Menlo Park CA 94025, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp.6-8, April 1976. 
     Detail of constructing a phonetic spelling with stress marks 
     for input to the synthesizer. (SSSHP 76 reprints)


1976 Rice, L. D., "Friends, humans, and contryrobots: lend me
     your ears," BYTE, No. 12, August 1976, 8 pages. Principles
     of formant synthesis and details of the hardware synthesizer.
     (SSSHP 76 reprints)

     SSSHP 142 Tape: "The Sounds of Computalker", Computalker
          Consultants.
          (4 sen, hand-tailored control data from human speech:
          "Hello, I'm Computalker, ...  past to Negros", 5 sen,
          phonetic syn-by-rule:  "Four score and seven years
          ago,...  ")
          Cassette, some noise and distortion (Maxey Tape T76.1)
                 **** need copy of master tape ****


1977 Formation of Computalker Consultants by D. Lloyd Rice and Jim
     Cooper. 


1977 Rice, D.L., "Speech synthesis by a set of rules,"
     Proceedings First West Coast Computer Faire, San Francisco,
     16 pages. (1977) Details of CSR1 software for synthesis-by-
     rule from phonetic spelling. (SSSHP 76 reprints)


1978 COMPUTALKER CT-1 SPEECH SYNTHESIZER, updated sales brochure
     and prices for synthesizer card, software package, and
     user's manual. CT-1 synthesizer for S-100 bus. Plans for a
     CT-50 model for Heathkit H8 computer. Adapters for Apple II,
     TRS-80, PET, and other computers. (SSSHP 76 reprints)


1978 The Word from Computalker, No. 1, Sept 25, 1978, pp 15.
     Newsletter with history and software problems with CSR1,
     and phonetic symbol table.  Several hundred synthesizers
     shipped.  Announcement of software package 2 for October
     1978. Description of multiplexed DAC.  (SSSHP 76 reprints)


1980 Analysis and synthesis of George Papcun's voice as a 
     demonstration tape for Course 430: Voice Input/Output
     for Computers, developed by D. Lloyd Rice and George
     Papcun for Integrated Computer Systems, Santa Monica, CA.
     (Copyright 1980 Integrated Computer Systems, Inc.)

     SSSHP 118.1 "Voice Output From Computers, Course 430, 
          Integrated Computers Systems, 1980."
          ("Hello, I'm Computalker, a speech synthesizer.")
           118.8 Voice I/O From Computers
          (samples: "/paat/, /daog/, ... /eyjh/")
          Cassette, good quality


1988 D. Lloyd Rice bought out Computalker Consultants and is now
     sole owner of all Computalker tapes, records and copyrights.
     He has granted permission for use by the public.


2001 Integrated Computer Systems, Inc., is now Learning Tree 
     International, 2300-160 Elgin Street, Ottawa, Ontario,
     K2P 2N8. 1-800-843-8733 (1-800-The-Tree). Permission to use 
     tape recording by the public has been granted.
     

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BIOGRAPHIES


D. LLOYD RICE

1969 B.A. in Linguistics, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
1977 Formed Computalker Consultants partnership
     Consultant, speech products, Hughes Corp. and National
     Semiconductor
1988 Speech Systems, Inc., Tarzana, CA
1999 Retired


JIM COOPER

1966-69 Electronics instructor, U.S. Army, Ft. Manmouth, NJ
1971 B.S. in physics, Univ. of California, Riverside
1971-76 Technical support, Electronic Music Studio, UCLA
1977 Formed Computalker Consultants partnership
1974 M.S. in Elect. Engr., Univ. of California, Los Angeles
1976 Chief Engineer, Oberheim Electronics
1981 Entrepreneur, JLCooper Electronics


GEORGE PAPCUN

     B.A. in mathematics, Univ. of Arizona
     M.A. in mathematical linguistics, Univ. of California
1970-73 Research Associate, Phonetics Laboratory, Univ. of 
     California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
     Ph.D. in acoustic phonetics, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
1973-76 Technical Staff, Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
1980 Computalker Consultants
1980-83 Author/Sr. Instructor, The Learning Tree series, Integrated
     Computer Systems, Inc.
1982 Technical Staff, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
1986-88 Executive Committee, Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos
1987-88 Assoc. and Deputy Director, Center for Nonlinear Studies, 
          Los Alamos

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INFORMATION AND MATERIAL OBTAINED FROM:
 
D. Lloyd Rice                 Dr. George Papcun
Computalker Consultants       Los Alamos National Laboratory
Santa Monica, CA              Los Alamos, NM
 
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