Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with voicerecognition

How can I use technology better to bypass this disability?

Augenblick — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:36:10 -0800

My condition has slowly stopped me using the keyboard and mouse, and now the pen. I need some help thinking of ways to finish my PhD and to live somewhat of a normal life. Hive mind, what can shiny technology do for me? Over the last six months I have gradually lost the use of my hands for computer and pen related purposes. I'm in the second year of my PhD and being very well supported by the disability services at my institution. the hope is in the next six months I will get a laptop with voice recognition. I'm using Dragon 9 software, at the moment I only have a PC, so am home bound for working. I should hopefully be able to borrow a high spec digital recorder from next week.

But I need ideas and help to work out how technology might help me on a daily basis. Things I'd particularly need help with include diary planning, ways to use audio recordings of meetings without having to listen to them again in full, and any ideas about how I can make things happen without writing or typing them down. (At the moment, I can use a pen for writing a time and a name down, but anything more is too painful). I can also still use the iPod touch as long as it's not clicking motions (though that may be a case from my cold dead hands...)

I don't particularly need medical advice at the moment as I am being seen by good doctors, really this is a life hacker meets disability question.

How do I improve my computer's voice recognition?

eisenkr — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:01:59 -0800

How can I improve the accuracy of Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 or some other voice recognition software? I'm attempting (and having some luck) overcoming writer's block with Dragon Naturally Speaking 10, but I'm not getting anywhere near the accuracy levels people rave about. Since I can rarely get a full sentence to be read in accurately, I'm guessing that I am doing or using something that makes dictation a lot harder than it needs to be. There's got be a way to get better than the pretty dismal 80% accuracy I'm working with now.

I'm running Dragon on a couple year old Thinkpad T60 with XP and 2 gigs of RAM. I've used a Koss SB45 microphone that plugs into the laptop's sound card and a Plantronics MX500i that uses a 2.5mm port and USB adapter. I have also done a few of the training sessions, though they haven't seemed to help.

Does anybody have any equipment recommendations or training tips that could help me use voice recognition software?

Computer, lights - low.

ArbiterOne — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:14:31 -0800

Whole-room voice control of lights using open-source software. Can it be done? Has it been done? Currently, I'm controlling multiple room lights via a relay board hooked up to a Linux server. I've got a LIRC remote setup to use a script to control the status of individual lights, as well as a microphone that responds to a clap by running the same script to toggle the status of a specific subset of lights.

What I'm looking to do next is implement something like this product, but in software. In other words, I want to be able to say, "Computer, switch desk lamp on" and have it Do The Right Thing - that is, run a script under Linux with the appropriate command line.

I am specifically looking for a solution that:

can run under Linux, not Windows

is compatible with my existing solution

doesn't require a microphone directly in front of the face

isn't too expensive - preferably free

is preferably open-source

Can it be done? Has it been done? Or should I go back to watching Babylon 5 and forget about it?

Auf Deutsch, bitte!

Soliloquy — Sun, 20 May 2007 09:37:48 -0800

Can anyone help me get a copy of DragonDictate in German or French, or point me towards a discrete speech voice recognition program in either language that's currently on the market? I would like to brush up on my German and learn French, primarily by taking courses in each and corresponding with relatives, etc. I use DragonDictate voice recognition software (yes, the obselete old version) to do all my typing due to disabilities, and am balking at the thought of training/spelling out each foreign word complete with accents.

Since the nature of my disabilities makes it difficult to impossible to use continuous speech voice recognition programs, I can't use the German and French versions of NaturallySpeaking. (Please don't tell me anyone can use continuous speech voice recognition, I have tried it several times.) I'm willing to try other brands, but I need a program that uses discrete speech like DragonDictate. Would be nice if it ran completely hands-free as well, but since it won't be my primary interface I can deal with the hassle of a non-hands free system for a while. Must run on Windows XP Pro.

I've tried Google, eBay's Want to Buy, and had an eBay alert set for over a year now with no results. Any leads would be appreciated.

Batch Speech Transcription programs?

empath — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:39:03 -0800

Batch Speech Transcription? Are there any programs that, given a directory of wav or mp3 files, can do voice recognition and transcription on them? I don't need perfect accuracy.

Portable speech recognizer for note taking

springload — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:37:02 -0800

Digital dictaphone with speech recognition and voice control: Is this something I can buy? I work in a lab and would like to try taking notes by talking into a headset. What I say should be translated into text, preferrably with some smart formatting based on commands/keywords (I say "Sample: 10" and the remaining paragraph goes under a "Sample 10" tag in an XML output file, or something such). It should give me some verbal feedback, and it would be nice to have it set timers for me and maybe do some other simple tasks. The lab requires special clothing, and this device would have to be worn underneath, so everything must be handled verbally. Does this thing exist? Is there any software to make a PDA do this? I don't mind writing some top-level code myself if the major pieces are there and have accessible interfaces.

testing, testing, is this thing on?

gnz2001 — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 11:51:46 -0800

I had ViaVoice 98, but with a new computer, I'm wondering what the latest, greatest voice recognition program is. It'll mainly be for dictation. What are you using?

Recommendations for voice recognition software?

Kat Allison — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:25:57 -0800

I need to buy voice recognition software for someone I supervise. I want to provide him with a range of options to choose from, but also informed opinions on the pros/cons of each. What have been people's experiences with the various brands out there?