Speak Sammy

What is Bliss?

Bliss© is an acronym for Brown Lab Interactive Speech System. It is a basic speech analysis and online subject testing system for speech research. As such it it highly optimized for making precise scientific measurements and is not intended as a all purpose speech system. It is used in a number of research labortories around the world.

Who can use Bliss?

Bliss is copyright 1985, 1997 and 2002 by John Mertus; however, Bliss may be freely used and distributed subject to the following restrictions.

1. The authors name and copyright may not be deleted or altered in any manner.
   
2. No charge, except for a nominal media charge, may be made for the copying.
   
3. Bliss© cannot be distributed with other software, freeware, shareware, using any electronic media including CD ROM or Web pages without the expressed written consent of John Mertus.
   

You may link the Bliss Home Page or Download page freely.

Bliss Bug Report

The new Bugzilla system for Bug reports is now operational. Just click on the above link to report a bug. Bugzilla is a well known public domain bug tracking system. Information about how to enter bugs is available on the page and in many other locations on the web.

Download Bliss

History

Bliss was first developed in 1977 for Dr. Philip Lieberman and Dr. Sheila Blumstein by John Mertus on a PDP-11. The system was later transferred to VAX VMS systems. The original name BLISS stood for Barus Lab Interactive Speech System; however in 1986, the lab moved from Barus Lab to Metcalf Research. Although the acronym for Metcalf Interactive Speech System is perhaps a moniker than Bliss, it was decided to change the name to Brown Lab Interactive Speech System in honor of Sheila Blumstein's chocolate brown Labrador retriever, Sammie.