Clinical applications of and experiences with a portable, unlimited text-to-speech synthesizer.

An unlimited, portable, text-to-speech synthesizer, Synte 2, is introduced. Since 1977, it has been applied and tested to the rehabilitation of the deaf and others unable to speak as well as to the rehabilitation of the blind. It has been shown to be beneficial to those people. With this system, it seems possible to markedly increase the concept capacity of the deaf. In audiology, it provides a new way to produce objective, everlasting, and ever-repeatable ordinary and sensitized speech tests. Further, the apparatus has innumerable applications in audiological and speech pathological research. This kind of speech synthesizer has come to stay in clinical use. General principles of the use of the synthesizer and experiences over 3 years in rehabilitation and medical research are discussed.