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Raton, Florida, a $633,615 contract for the voice improvement software product, known as Speechify. Siemens has teamed with SpeechWorks International of Boston, Mass., to provide software that combines phonetic sounds with natural language modeling. This software combines concatenated, pre-recorded phonetic sounds with the emphasis and intonation of a human voice.
The contract award, which includes a male and a female voice, was announced in a NOAA press release issued on August 9, 2001. Speechify voices received the most favorable comments in the web page public opinion survey carried out over the past several months. Of the comments
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we received on the male Speechify voice, named Craig in the NWS public opinion survey, 95% rated his voice number 1 or number 2. For Speechify's female voice, Donna, the percentage was 80%.
National implementation of the new voices on NOAA Weather Radio will begin in late 2001. The Caribou office is targeted to be fully online with the new software by March of 2002.
For further information, or to listen to the new voices, please visit the NOAA Weather Radio home page at:
http:www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr
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As you well know, Maine has some of the most beautiful, and diverse landscape of all the states, and we would love to be able to post some examples of the state on our home page.
If you would like to participate, simply take an incredible picture which shows an element of weather, and send it to us, either in the regular mail, or digitally as an e-mail attachment. Since we are a government agency, these pictures cannot have a copyright, or if copyrighted, you would have to grant us a waiver to the copyright in order to display the pictures.
Mail your photographs (any size) to us with your name, address, and phone number clearly printed on the back. We will then scan the picture into a computer format for posting on the web. We will make every effort to return your original picture.
Remember, we hope to keep this an ongoing event, so every time you have a roll of film developed, keep in mind the "weather element" and send a copy to us. This is also a great opportunity to introduce photography to your kids too.
Contact Hendricus Lulofs for further information at: 207-496-0138 or email to:
hendricus.lulofs@noaa.gov
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The NWS Office in Caribou is thrilled and excited to sponsor a Photography Corner that we want to have as a permanent part of our web page. We hope that readers of Maine-ly Weather will enjoy participating in this program, and we will have enough interest to keep this an on-going event.
Some pictures are recognized as being a "weather picture" because they capture lightning, tornado funnels, or the aftermath of a storm. But any picture can be a weather picture, if it is shot outdoors, or at least, looking out a window. While photographing something else, you might also capture an unusual cloud pattern. Rainbows, leaves changing against a blue sky, flowers in bloom on a sunny hillside, children playing in the snow, all of these are "Weather Pictures" and we would love to see them.
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