@MISC\{IMM2007-05478,
    author       = "P. F. M{\o}ller",
    title        = "Washing machine user interface for visually impairred",
    year         = "2007",
    publisher    = "Informatics and Mathematical Modelling, Technical University of Denmark, {DTU}",
    address      = "Richard Petersens Plads, Building 321, {DK-}2800 Kgs. Lyngby",
    note         = "Supervised by Assoc. Prof. Edward Alexandru Todirica, {IMM,} {DTU}.",
    url          = "http://www2.compute.dtu.dk/pubdb/pubs/5478-full.html",
    abstract     = "To make it possible for a blind person to use a washing machine at a laundry the visual user interface is replaced with speech. To use speech as output a text-to-speech software module has been made. It works by concatenating pre-recorded words into sentences that gets played through an {AC}’97 codec. The audio for the words are located in wave files in a file system on a micro {SD} memory card. If the needed file can’t be found the module attempts to contact a server and get the wave file from there. For outputting the audio the hardware has a plug for headphones and there is a speaker.

The text-to-speech software module is made up of four individual software components that are then linked together by a main controller. The first component splits the text up into words. The next fetches the files corresponding to the words. Then there is a component that decodes the wave file to {PCM} data and finally a component that plays the decoded audio. The text-to-speech module provides a simple function that can be used in other applications. It takes a pointer to the text that needs to be given to the user and a pointer to a language code that tells the language of the given text. Finally it also takes an argument that tells whether or not the speaker should be enabled.

To show how the text-to-speech module can be used and how a laundry machine can controlled by a blind user a simulator has been made. It simulates the user interface (buttons) on a laundry machine that can be used by a blind user. The user is guided through a number of selections that needs to be made in order to start the machine."
}