Google Chrome TTS Engine

This is a somewhat roundabout way to get the excellent Google TTS engine to be available to me for general use. Since Chrome makes this available, willing to read lots of text for free, this project aims to make it possible to use Chrome externally to generate high-quality text-to-speech.

I use this on a computer connected to an amplifier which drives overhead speakers to make household announcements in response to Home Automation events.

Setup

In order to use this you need python3 and aiohttp. On most systems:

 $ pip3 install aiohttp

Now you need to run the server side app. The simplest way is:

 $ python3 webspeak.py

Next, point a Chrome browser at http://localhost:5010, if you are on the same machine as webspeak.py. If not, use the IP address or hostname of that box in the URL instead.

In chrome, you should see:

Status: Waiting for first request

Now, you're ready to ask for something to be spoken. The simplest way to do this is with curl like this:

 $ curl -d "Say this for me" http://localhost:5010/say

If it works, you should see a response in your chrome browser and hear it speak what you asked for.

Integrating this to run all the time

For my setup, I run this in a headless VNC session on a dedicated computer which has an audio output connected to an amplifier that drives my speakers. Once it's running you can leave chrome in the background and never have to look at it, but continue to feed it things to say.