Make Python Talk: Build Apps with Voice Control and Speech Recognition

A project-based book that teaches beginning Python programmers how to build working, useful, and fun voice-controlled applications.

This fun, hands-on book will take your basic Python skills to the next level as you build voice-controlled apps to use in your daily life. Starting with a Python refresher and an introduction to speech-recognition/text-to-speech functionalities, you'll soon ease into more advanced topics, like making your own modules and building working voice-controlled apps.

Each chapter scaffolds multiple projects that allow you to see real results from your code at a manageable pace, while end-of-chapter exercises strengthen your understanding of new concepts. You'll design interactive games, like Connect Four and Tic-Tac-Toe, and create intelligent computer opponents that talk and take commands; you'll make a real-time language translator, and create voice-activated financial-market apps that track the stocks or cryptocurrencies you are interested in. Finally, you'll load all of these features into the ultimate virtual personal assistant - a conversational VPA that tells jokes, reads the news, and gives you hands-free control of your email, browser, music player, desktop files, and more.

Along the way, you'll learn how to:
● Build Python modules, implement animations, and integrate live data into an app
● Use web-scraping skills for voice-controlling podcasts, videos, and web searches
● Fine-tune the speech recognition to accept a variety of input
● Associate regular tasks like opening files and accessing the web with speech commands
● Integrate functionality from other programs into a single VPA with computational knowledge engines to answer almost any question

Packed with cross-platform code examples to download, practice activities and exercises, and explainer images, you'll quickly become proficient in Python coding in general and speech recognition/text to speech in particular.

這是一本以專案為基礎的書籍，教導初學者如何建立實用且有趣的語音控制應用程式。這本有趣且實作導向的書籍將幫助你將基礎的Python技能提升到更高的水平，並建立能在日常生活中使用的語音控制應用程式。從Python複習和語音辨識/文字轉語音功能的介紹開始，你很快就能進入更高階的主題，例如製作自己的模組和建立可運作的語音控制應用程式。每個章節都提供多個專案，讓你以可控的步伐看到你的程式碼的實際成果，同時章末的練習也會加強你對新概念的理解。你將設計互動遊戲，如連連看和井字遊戲，並創建能說話並接受指令的智能電腦對手；你將製作即時語言翻譯器，並創建能追蹤你感興趣的股票或加密貨幣的語音激活金融市場應用程式。最後，你將把所有這些功能載入終極虛擬個人助理 - 一個能講笑話、讀新聞並讓你無需手動操作即可控制電子郵件、瀏覽器、音樂播放器、桌面檔案等的對話式VPA。在這個過程中，你將學習如何：建立Python模組、實現動畫效果，並將即時數據整合到應用程式中；使用網頁爬蟲技術來語音控制播客、影片和網路搜尋；微調語音辨識以接受各種輸入；將常規任務（如開啟檔案和存取網路）與語音指令相關聯；將其他程式的功能整合到單一VPA中，並使用計算知識引擎回答幾乎任何問題。書中附有可下載的跨平台程式碼範例、練習活動和練習題，以及解說圖片，讓你能快速掌握Python編程和語音辨識/文字轉語音技術。

Dr. Mark H. Liu is an Associate Professor and director of the Master of Science in Finance Program at the University of Kentucky, where he teaches Python Predictive Analytics and runs Python workshops. He has more than 20 years of coding experience in C++, SAS, Stata, and Python, and his research has been published in many top finance journals.

劉馬克博士是肯塔基大學金融學碩士課程的副教授和主任，他教授Python預測分析並主持Python工作坊。他在C++、SAS、Stata和Python等領域擁有超過20年的編程經驗，並且他的研究成果已發表在許多頂尖金融期刊上。