Federal Support for the Development of Speech Synthesis Technologies: A Case Study of the Kurzweil Reading Machine

IF 0.6 4区 管理学 Q1 HISTORY
S. Bell
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

abstract:This case study situates an early text-to-speech computer developed for blind persons, the Kurzweil Reading Machine (KRM), within a broader history of speech synthesis technologies. Though typically no more than a footnote in the technical history of speech synthesis, the KRM was still a powerful symbol of innovation that reveals how disability can be used as a pretext for funding technology development. I argue that various boosters held the KRM up as a symbol of technological solutionism that promised to fully enroll blind people into the US political economy. However, the success of the KRM as a symbol belies its technical flaws, the federal subsidies needed to bring it to fruition, and the structural barriers to its use that were elided by its utopian promise.
联邦政府对语音合成技术发展的支持:以库兹韦尔阅读机为例
本案例研究将早期为盲人开发的文本转语音计算机库兹韦尔阅读机(Kurzweil Reading Machine, KRM)置于更广泛的语音合成技术历史中。虽然KRM在语音合成技术史上通常不过是一个注脚,但它仍然是一个强有力的创新象征,它揭示了残疾如何被用作资助技术开发的借口。我认为,各种支持者将KRM视为技术解决方案主义的象征,承诺将盲人完全纳入美国政治经济。然而,KRM作为一个象征的成功掩盖了它的技术缺陷,实现它所需的联邦补贴,以及使用它的结构性障碍,而这些障碍被它的乌托邦承诺所忽略。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.80
自引率
16.70%
发文量
18
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