I came across this useful Opera web browser feature today. The Opera Voice feature allows the user to control the interface by talking and to have documents read aloud.
You can enable Opera Voice from “Tools” > “Preferences” > “Advanced” > “Voice” and install the voice libraries. Voice is currently offered in English and works on Windows 2000 and XP. A headset with a microphone is required to use Voice.
Highlighting any text, hold the Voice button, and saying “Opera speak” and Opera will read any selected text to you. For a list of voice commands, click on the voice button and say “Opera voice commands”. Now you can use voice commands to have an e-mail or other document read to you easily. You can custmomize Opera with Voice and change the way the browser handles voice input, and you can add your own voice commands in the same way that you can add keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures. You can now make your own voice interactive pages a few additions to XHTML to allow Opera to speak and listen.
Now that is a cool Opera feature. I can now replace my other text to speech softwares which I use often when I want the talking computer to convert the text to speech and read typed text. It is also useful for the visually disabled internet users and provides web accessibility to them. Get Opera.