ACORNS Version 8 Overview

We are pleased to announce release ACORNS version 8.0 available for free downloads. This software’s intent is to support tribal efforts to revitalize language and culture. The name ACORNS (ACquisition Of Restored Native Speech) is in honor of the tribes of Northern California where the acorn is sacred. Those tribes were instrumental in spawning this long term project.

VERSION 8.00 ENHANCEMENTS

General Enhancements

  1. ACORNS implements language independent speech recognition. This feature is integrated with Hear and respond, and Question Answer lesson types. We intend to refine this implementation and provide updates as they are ready for distribution.
  2. The Hear and Respond lesson’s replay option, outputs the audio corresponding to the missing word.
  3. We now provide an Android-based mobile player application. This application maintains a gallery of ACORNS lessons distributed through email, cloud-based storage facilities (like Drop Box), and through Web-site download links.
  4. ACORNS Web lessons are now compatible with the latest Internet Explorer browser.

Enhancements/Corrections to the Sound Editor

  1. Three sound editor panels instead of two in the stand alone program
  2. Corrected the option so users can change the default audio device
  3. Enable encoding of audio files to MP3

System Level Changes

  1. Changed the default picture format to .png instead of .jpg. This eliminates pixelization problems when repeatedly copying pictures.
  2. Eliminated the Web player option because of security issues with execution of Java Applets. ACORNS generated Web Pages now execute seamlessly on both desktop/laptop and mobile devices without using Java.

Version 8.1 Enhancements

  1. An Apple-based Mobile Gallery application is now available. This required a few minor changes to the ACORNS application.
  2. The accuracy and performance of the speech recognition features have been enhanced
  3. Illegal file names (those with parentheses, spaces, percent, or asterisks) are handled in version 8.10 by replacing those characters with hyphens.

The ACORNS application is designed to work with any language and is easy to learn and use. It is freeware, and you can freely install the software on as many computers as you wish as long as it is not sold for profit. The author, Dan Harvey retains full copyright privileges, so please feel free to send your questions or comments to harveyd@sou.edu

Dan Harvey
Professor of Computer Science
Southern Oregon University
harveyd@sou.edu