Before we can use Mimic speech with MyRobotLab on the Raspberry Pi, we first need to install it.
The compiled executable is installed with MRL for windows, but not for the ARM based linux install used on the Raspberry Pi.
The following link is video showing the below steps :-)
 
For this I'm using the instruction from the MycroftAI github site:
 
There are a few packages required to allow us to setup Mimic speech, so lets get those installed first.
From the terminal window, you will need to execute the following command.
 
sudo apt-get install gcc make pkg-config automake libtool libasound2-dev
 
For the NOOBs out there.
sudo is the command Super User Do
apt-get is the Aptidtude Package manager that we use to install pre-compiled programs within the Debian environment.
install is the command for the apt-get, the rest of the line are a list of packages to install.
 
The good news is, if any or all of the packages are already installed, then this command will check and make sure they are current and up to date, if they aren't installed, then it will download and install them for you.
 
Now thats done, we need to download thesource files for Mimic Speech.
This is easywith the following command
 
 
This will create a new sub directory which we will need to change into
 
cd mimic1
 
Now it's just about garunteed that some of the dependencies won't be installed, so lets deal with that now
In the mimic1 directory, there is are shell scripts that will do all the hard work for you :-)
 
./dependencies.sh --prefix="/usr/local"
./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix="/usr/local"
 
Now we get to build the Mimic program tailored to the Raspberry Pi ARM based processor
to do that we execute the command
 
make
 
this is gonna take a while, Time for a cupper :-)
 
When it does finnaly finish, we need to check it all went acording to plan.
So run the following
 
make check
 
That should com back all green with everything having been built ok.
 
Time for a test :-)
ececute to following line
 
./mimic -t "Hello. Doctor. Name. Continue. Yesterday. Tomorrow."
 
Note, the . at the start tells the terminal window, theprogram your trying to run is in this directory, if you don't have that there, it won't find our brand new program.
Unlike windows, programs in linux don't need to have file extentions in the name :-)
 
There are a few voices bundelled with Mimic Speech, to get a list of them, run the command
 
./mimic -lv
 
To use a different voice when starting a speech from theterminal try:
 
./mimic -t "Hello" -voice slt
 
Next we need to change into the MRL directory and start MRL
if you have followed my video build series of Fred's Head, then in Part 4, you will see how MRL is installed.
 
So lets change directory with 
 
cd ~/MRL
 
the ~ symbol thels the terminal, from the start of my home directory (where ever that may be :-)
then we run MRL with
 
java -jar myrobotlab.jar
 
Once started, change to the Python tab and enter in the following:
 
#########################################
# MimicSpeechForRaspi.py
# description: Speech synthesis based on Mimic from the MyCroft AI project.
# categories: speech, sound
#########################################
# start the service
mimicspeech = Runtime.start('mimicspeech','MimicSpeech')
# next we need to tell the service where to find our executable
mimicspeech.setMimicExecutable("/home/pi/mimic1/mimic")
# the next command wil get a list of voices we can use
# note, thesetVoice command does not work until after you have list of voices.
print mimicspeech.getVoices()
# The next line will allow you to select which voice we use. The default appears to be "slt"
mimicspeech.setVoice("rms")
# the set the volume that your robot will speak at use the setVolume command, the value is a float, so remember the .0
mimicspeech.setVolume(100.0)
# now we can use it :-)
mimicspeech.speakBlocking("hello, this is mimic speech from the Mycroft Project")
 
Next execute the script.
 
On my build I found thefollowing voices to play with
ap, slt, kal, awb, kal16, rms
 
That covers the basics.
and don't forget to have fun building your robot :-)