Talking and Dialing Telephone As an Aid for Blind People.

Talking and dialing telephone as an aid for blind people. A self-build version with an arduino pro mini, and MP3 file that you compose yourself in the language of your choice.

Two years ago I made a talking clock for a blind person. I used this as a basis to make this talking telephone, so a kind of extension. With three push buttons you can make a telephone conversation with it. A division has been made of 5 groups with each the possibility of 20 names. The sentences are built up from parts. Each part is an MP3 file. You can make up what is spoken yourself, and in principle any language can be spoken. You can record the MP3 files yourself, to make it even more personal, or make them from text to speech via a website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs6fTRtpK5E

Phone

Arduino pro mini

MP3 player

Power supply 5 volt

The control is done with an Arduino pro mini. Software-wise it is not that difficult, but controlling the phone is another story. I have looked at various older phones and searched for diagrams of how everything works. The principle is clear to me, but what is or is not allowed for adapting equipment on a telephone line, law and regulations, is not yet. That is why I have made a preliminary prototype, to see if everything is workable. Conclusion is, it works very well, but it can be much simpler.

First make a list of the phone numbers and everything you want to hear and how you want to hear it and then start making the MP3 files.

The MP3 files should have a name like 000 to 999. I made the layout as follows,

000 to 005 for the 5 group texts,

021 to 040 for group 1

041 to 060 for group 2

061 to 080 for group 3

081 to 100 for group 4

101 to 120 for group 5

201 to 255 for the rest of the texts

You can fill in the text as you see fit in any language.

There are several websites where you can make text to speech, if you don't speak it yourself. I used the website https://ttsmaker.com/nl with the setting high quality and volume 120%. For pronunciation you choose a voice that you prefer. You can use almost any voice, and you are not bound to a specific country. So a Dutch voice can also pronounce English, it is whatever you want.

The operation had to be simple with large, easy-to-find buttons and that is what it has become.

First button is group selection. There are 5 groups.

Short press is forward and longer press is back.

Second button is for name selection within a group.

There are 20 possible names per group.

The third button is for calling.

First press briefly to confirm and you will hear who is calling.

Then press longer and the call will be made.

Wrong calls are prevented because you have to confirm first.

Short pressing the fourth button gives you the time.

Pressing the fourth button longer gives you the time and date.