Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Voice Recognition and Programming?

Posted by Cliff on from the if-openparen-t-closeparen-open-bracket... dept.

dsaxena asks: "I'm suffering from repetitive-stress injuries to my wrists/foreamrs from typing too much. Luckilly it hasn't progressed into carpal tunnel syndrome yet, but it will if I'm not careful about it. I've been looking at alternative input methods and was wondering how many people have tried using speech recognition for programming? I've seen demos of speech recongition software (Dragon and ViaVoice), but it's awlays been in the context of writing letters or reports. Would it work as an efficient input method when trying to code in C?"

"It's all in the grammar."

Voice recognition still has a ways to mature before it is robust enough for coding since a lot of programming involves the use of symbols, not words. Sure, you can assign "names" to these symbols and start speaking away, but it would be cleaner if voice recognition engines are made aware of the syntax of specific languages and would do this for you (many modern editors have this feature). Is voice recognition moving in this direction, or do coders have a while to wait before they can start using their keyboards as paperweights?

4 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Hybrid speech/stylus interfaces by hatless · · Score: 3

    Man, the signal-to-noise ratio here just keeps getting worse. Dvorak keyboards and "good" keyboards ain't gonna stop RSI. Dictation software alone isn't well suited to coding, what with the massive amounts of critical punctuation and formatting. And handwriting and gesture recognition is just plain slow compared to typing or speech.

    What I'm surprised by is how little imagination the handwriting recognition and speech-recognition developers have. Dictation software is usually used by people who *do* have the use of at least one hand. So why not have hybrid interfaces?

    The tedious process of editing material in a dictation environment could be simplified and sped up greatly if you could simultaneously use a stylus to jump the cursor around and scriblle out or mark errors--or make corrections. You could also be presented with floating popups showing choices for ambiguous words and phrases the dictation engine is having trouble with even as you continue to dictate.

    I think a hybrid interface like this--using handwriting, gestures and speech together would allow for quicker and more precise and efficient dictation, and would make dictating things like source code or scientific data and equations at least as quick and fluid as keyboarding.

    It really is about time the keyboard and that other vile RSI torture device, the mouse, started to go away for most applications. Shaking developers out of the misguided focus on 100% hands-free dictation and all-or-nothing handwriting recognition would help immensely.

  2. Just one question by jaa · · Score: 3
    since I can't really answer yours:

    are you getting this (early ct syndrome) professionally treated? In the words of jwz:

    "Do not fuck around. If you are experiencing any kind of pain, get to a doctor and get it diagnosed."

    Looking for alternative solutions is great, but don't do it to the exclusion of professional help.

    Best of luck.

    --

    Never meant half of the things I said to you. So you know, there's a half that might be true - G. Phillips

  3. alternative Keyboard layouts by Jordan+Block · · Score: 3

    You cold awways try out a different keyboard layout. The Dvorak layout is supposed to minimise repeditive strain injuries.

    I had a mild bout with the same thing not too long ago. I went through some Psyiotherapy and stuff to deflame (is that a word??) the nerves in my elbows that were causing my hands to go numb.

    Now I'm just more careful about how I rest my elbows on my desk, and I'm doing much better.

  4. Been there, done that, gave up by mouseman · · Score: 4
    When I was finishing up grad school, I had to deal with RSI. I tried physical therapy, funky keyboards, dvorak, and, yes, dictation software. I wrote much of my dissertation using dragon dictate, and did some programming with it as well. I had voice macros for common symbols, keywords and emacs commands.

    Did it work? Yeah, sort of. For entering normal text, dictation software has gotten to the point that it is definitely usable -- by someone who absolutely can't get by without it (95% accuracy seems really good until you realize it's getting one in 20 words wrong. and your spellchecker won't be any help). But editing programs is harder -- you spend a lot of time making changes to existing text, which is hard to do by voice. After leaving grad school, I gave NaturallySpeaking(TM) a try. I found it better in some ways, worse in others. I think it is far worse for programming than dragon dictate. at least the version i used was (maybe it's been improved), because you could only dictate into a dedicated window, and there was no support for voice macros (IIRC).

    So where am I now? Pain-free most of the time. I have flare-ups from time to time and fully accept that this is a lifetime condition. I still use dvorak; it *feels* better, but that's about all I can say. Since leaving grad school, I spend less time in front of a keyboard, by virtue of spending more time in meetings. :-( That, plus (somewhat) better habits has made a world of difference. I think of RSI as a physical symptom of a psychological condition: compulsiveness. A normal, healthy person does not keep doing something that causes pain. I think the key to dealing with RSI (note: not recovering from -- it's too late for that) is to listen to your body and stop doing things that cause pain. Dictation software might work as a stopgap, but if you don't make a fundamental change in your habits, you'll just end up with a strained voice in addition to your strained wrists.

    good luck!