Windows® 8.1 Apps with HTML5 and JavaScript Unleashed

Using Text to Speech

I keep waiting for the day when computers get as smart and easy to use as the computers in Star Trek. In particular, I can’t wait until the day when all of my computer apps talk to me out loud.

Fortunately, that day has arrived. Windows 8.1 includes a new Text-To-Speech API that makes it easy to add speech to a Windows Store app. The Text-To-Speech API even supports different voices with different genders.

The MyTasks app includes a button, labeled Read Tasks, that reads all of the tasks on the current page out loud. Here’s what the click handler for the button looks like:

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// Read tasks out loudbtnRead.addEventListener("click", function (e) {    e.preventDefault();    // Build soliloquy     ...