[PictoBloxExtension]

Text to Speech

Extension Description

Text to Speech Extension allows projects which use it to output synthesized speech. The service is provided by Amazon Web Services.

Available in: Block Coding
Mode: Stage Mode
WiFi Required: No
Compatible Hardware in Block Coding: evive, Quarky, Arduino Uno, Arduino Mega, Arduino Nano, ESP32, T-Watch, Boffin, micro:bit, TECbits, LEGO EV3, LEGO Boost, LEGO WeDo 2.0, Go DFA, None
Compatible Hardware in Python: Not Applicable
Object Declaration in Python: Not Applicable
Extension Catergory: Artificial Intelligence

Introduction

The Text to Speech Extension is an extension that allows projects which use it to output synthesized speech. The service is provided by Amazon Web Services.

Voices

There are five types of voices that can be selected with the set voice to () block:

Name	Description
alto	standard female voice
tenor	standard male voice
squeak	high-pitched female voice
giant	deep male voice
kitten	repeatedly says “meow” but sometimes at a different length

Supported Languages

This extension allows the language of the voice to be changed, but there are not as many languages as the Translate extension.

Arabic
Chinese (Mandarin)
Danish
Dutch
English
French
German
Hindi
Icelandic
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese (Brazilian)
Portuguese (European)
Romanian
Russian
Spanish (European)
Spanish (Latin American)
Swedish
Turkish
Welsh

PictoBlox Blocks

The block is used to change the color of the entire TFT screen of evive. You can select the color from the color picker.

The block allows the user to control the brightness of LED connected to digital pins of the device using Dabble app. You can enter the pin number to which your device is connected and vary the brightness in the app.

The block reports the distance of the nearest object from an ultrasonic sensor. It returns distance in cm. The trigger pin and echo pin are connected to a digital pin of evive which can be selected from the drop-down menu.

This block initializes motor and assigns the motor its direction 1, direction 2 and PWM control pins.

To work in the stage mode, we have to upload firmware in evive which can communicate with PictoBlox in real-time. With the help of this block, we will use the upload stage mode firmware to the robot.

The block moves its sprite forward the specified amount of steps in the direction it is facing. A step is equal to one-pixel length. The block actually uses Trigonometry to move in the proper direction, as that is how a computer handles it.

The block displays a speech bubble with the specified text for the sprite that runs it, which appears on the screen for the specified amount of seconds.

The block will play the specified sound, pausing its script until the sound has finished playing.

The block pauses its script for the specified amount of seconds — the wait can also be a decimal number.

Scripts that wear this block will activate once the Green Flag has been clicked — these scripts can activate other scripts and enable the entire program. Without this block, the only way a project could run would be that it would sense the pressing of a key or clicking a sprite; the project would only last until all scripts depending on the starting scripts have ended.

The block checks if its sprite is touching the mouse-pointer, edge, or another sprite. If the sprite is touching the selected object, the block returns true; if it is not, it returns false.

turn () video on stage with () % transparency block controls the control the camera feed on the stage.

The block checks if the first value is less than the second value. If it is less, the block returns true; if not, it returns false. This block works with letters too, as well as numbers. In Scratch, letters at the top of the alphabet (e.g. a, b, c) are worth less than letters at the end (e.g. x, y, z).

The block will set the specified variable to the given value: a string or number.

turn () video on stage with () % transparency block controls the control the camera feed on the stage.

The block sets a loudness filter threshold to remove the background noise from the audio file which is being analyzed.

The turn () video on stage with () % transparency block controls the control the camera feed on the stage.

The block adds the specified text data to the specified class for the training.

The turn () video on stage with () % transparency block controls the control the camera feed on the stage.

The speak () block uses the text-to-speech tool to speak the given text. It will speak the selected voice with the chosen language in the set language to () block. Usage of the block is limited to 128 characters. If a string longer than 128 characters is given, then only the first 128 characters will be spoken.

The block translates a string from the automatically detected language to the chosen language using Google Translate.

The turn () video on stage with () % transparency block controls the control the camera feed on the stage.

The block runs an API call to get the weather data of the location specified with the Longitude and Latitude. The API call can be done only 2 times per minute. If the user wants to have the data more frequently, they have to add the custom API using set Weather API to () block.

The block will play the specified instrument for the specified amount of seconds using a sampled percussion instrument. Even though the block uses the word “drum”, the choices in the drop-down menu are many different percussion instruments including drums, triangles, bongos, cowbell, vibraslap, and various idiophones.

The when video motion > () block activates when the current video motion on the stage is greater than the number entered.

When used in a script, the sprite will produce a bitmap image of itself which is stamped onto the stage. (Because it is merely a picture of the sprite and not a sprite itself, it cannot be programmed.) Like other Pen blocks, the Stamp block will not draw over sprites. The erase all block removes all stamped images.

when Quarky starts up block is a Hat block. Scripts that wear this block get converted into Python code when you are in Upload Mode. This block is used when one has to upload a code into Quarky.

The block displays the specified emotions on the Quarky RGB LED. These emotions are static and predefined in the code.

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Text to Speech

Introduction

Voices

Supported Languages

PictoBlox Blocks

Block Coding Examples

Python Coding Examples

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