[linux-audio-user] Animatronic parrot solution?

[Daniel James]

Hello all,

I've been asked by an animatronics technician for suggestions as how 
they might go about solving a particular problem with a robot parrot 
at a local theme park.

The robot's voice feature was designed around a PC/Windows platform 
using Cool Edit Pro and scripted in Visual Basic. The idea is that 
you say something to the parrot, it pitch shifts your voice then 
repeats what you said two seconds later. If no-one talks to the 
parrot for a while, it says "hello, my name is Sancho, talk to me". 
Needless to say, they are having severe reliability problems with 
Windows as it is being used day in, day out.

Can anyone suggest a suitable Linux solution for this parrot? I was 
thinking about ecasound combined with a pitch shift plugin, if one 
exists. If the solution could run entirely in RAM (CD booting, 
perhaps?) then that would solve the problem of hard disk reliability.
 
Thanks

Daniel