A topic was raised recently regarding using a program for a 'voice animated' hot box detector. I believe you could put this program to use on a model train layout. - type in what you want your 'detector' to say, - pick a language - pick a voice and play. I have not personally tried this for that application but I think it could work. For all the computer guru's- perhaps this program could be used and downloadable to be workable. It's interesting to experiment with. I'm sure we would all be interested in seeing any results posted here. http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php
Cool! Rio Grande detector, milepost two two point six. No defects, repeat, no defects. Train speed one seven miles per hour. Temperature four five degrees. Detector out." Or "Rio Grande detector, milepost two two point six. First hotbox: axle six-eight, from front of train, south rail. Train speed two five miles per hour. Temperature minus thirteen degrees. Detector out." heh heh.. My operating crews are gonna love this once the layout is running...
It takes a lttle practice. Play around with the spacings between numbers or words and it turns out great.
This is amazing, when you play around with spacing for pauses you can have engineers calling despatchers etc. Gonna have a lot of fun with this! paul
Do these detectors include the axles of the Engines when giving their count? I would think it would be hard to _not_ include them, but I'm curious.. Tim (brainstorming ways to actually cound axles in N Scale )
sounds like that would be a cool thing to do but what program would you use to do this and how would you make it work on the layout?
well, most likely I'd write the software. The hard part is counting the axles.. how to make it work? dunno yet, I just starting thinking about it lately