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Hands Free Computer Operation for Quadriplegics?
Anonymous Coward asks: "Dragon Natural Speaking dropped hands free computer operation support back in version 3. My quadriplegic friend recently upgraded his computer and it came with Windows XP. His old Dragon Natural Speaking will not work on Windows XP. Does anyone know of any complete voice activated computer control for Windows XP or Linux?"
I believe however that Mac OS X comes with this out of the box. Maybe ViaVoice still does handsfree on the PC.
IIRC, the Microsoft Speech SDK has just such an example application which is fairly full featured. It should not be difficult to add more features to it if it is inadequate.
Since it's free, you'll lose nothing except some hard drive space and download time (68MB) to try it out. It's been a year since I've last played with it, so YMMV.
It probably doesn't plug into the accessability utility included in XP (press windows + U), but I imagine that there are some out there which do.
Good luck!
-Adam
I'm sorry, I don't have an answer to your question, but I have one of my own. How is your parapelgic friend using the computer? I don't mean from an input kind of view, but rather, how is he using it to entertain himself? Is he doing it to pass time, or is he using it to learn, combination of the two?
I'm asking simply from a curoisity point of view, not from a cynical "why bother?" PoV. Hope I don't come across that way. It seems to me that a person in that kind of situation could create a new life for themselves on the net. Just curious if this person has managed this. If so, I'd really like to know more about it. (note: these questions are open to anybody who has a paralyzed friend getting using a computer...)
Sorry for being off-topic. I just get really curious when it comes to using technology to help people.
"Derp de derp."
TBI Resources seems a like a good list of resources and information in the field, and it suggests IBM's Via Voice is an alternative. It's web site does not mention Linux and seems to be dictation-oriented, not general control.
Perhaps some of the mailing lists (such as ViaVoice User's ML) would provide more definite answers.
No souch tools are available in mainstream Linux distros, to may knowledge.
-Kvorg
Does the man still have a penis? And, if so, how the fuck does he massage it to Internet porn?
Is there any reason he cannot install his old OS on the new machine? I'm still running Win98 SE on my Windows box, and regardless of M$'s support status, it works just fine...for windows.
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
My quadriplegic friend recently upgraded his computer and it came with Windows XP.
How the fuck do you upgrade your computer if you don't have any hands or feet? That's gotta be one cool act!
Says it works with 95, 98, NT and 2000. I have ver. 5, Standard. It came out before XP. I've got 2000, so I can't test for you. I tried the web site listed on the box (www.lhsl.com) but it redirected to Scansoft's page. They have Dragon and ViaVoice listed on the page but sell only Dragon from what I can see. Maybe check for used software places that might have it.
I got Dragon, but refuse to use it because it tells you it requires Internet Explorer to work (it doesn't; it just requires a DLL). If IE isn't your primary browser, it installs IE from its own installation CD, even if you have a later version.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
I think you need to look at ScanSoft's product again. Contrary to your statement, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 DOES allow hands-free use of the computer. In fact within the past 4 months I have trained 2 people to use it in a hands-free situation. From all of the built in shortcuts for the most popular software (including IE and Office) to the command "mouse grid", which allows you to move the mouse around the screen by only your voice, Dragon NaturallySpeaking will work great. You can even use a command (which I forget off the top of my head) to press specific keys on your keyboard. If he has the patients to sit down and learn all of the commands (which can be done over time...learn mouse grid, then slowly pick up the shortcuts over time), Dragon can be faster than a keyboard/mouse combo. If he has a clear voice, training will take 15 minutes. And it works with XP.
Might I make the suggestion of getting Preferred over Standard. While it's double the cost, it really does seem to do a better job than Standard. Not sure what the difference is (smaller vocab maybe?), but it's there.
Every time a guy gets a threesome, somewhere in heaven an angel gets his wings. --Cary Tennis
The history of Dragon Naturally Speaking and ViaVoice is pretty interesting. Dragon Naturally Speaking was started by a company called Dragon, several years ago. Originally, they marketed a program called Dragon Dictate, which was designed for command and control, more so than for document dictation. They stumbled on a new technology using phonemes, and were able to create Naturally Speaking, which, like the name, allows someone to speak at normal conversational speeds and the software will still recognize it (Dragon Dictate pretty much made you speak like William Shatner on a bad day).
Fast forward a little...Naturally Speaking got sold to a company called Scansoft when Dragon went under (I forget why). Scansoft, within the last year bought ViaVoice from IBM, which had dropped sales and further development of their Linux version of the software, which is now nowhere to be found.
Ultimately, Scansoft pretty much controls the market in terms of Voice Dictation.
However, there are some interesting things still going on. For instance, Intel has been working on the Audio/Visual Speech Control/Recognition engine, which is part of Intel's OpenCV (face recognition stuff).
Ultimately, try out this link. There's quite a bit of information there.
Have a look at the Dasher Project. Its not voice input, but they have several input methods which can be used by para- and quadra-plegics (eye tracker, head mouse, breath mouse, toungue mouse, etc) - you pretty much can use any movement you can make. It can be faster and more accurate than most voice recognition systems, and they have it working for controlling the UI as well as textual input now.
MattHands Free Computing is a lagging industry. Unless the pr0n industry comes up with something using that, the innovation just will not be there.
As you know, they have the $$$ and the resources to drive that industry. We just need to get them involved. And we'll need some, um, beta testers too.
I for one welcome our new hands-free Quadriplegic Overlords!
http://www.informit.com/content/index.asp?product_ id={6029804C-55B7-4E1B-AAA4-ED211D6C5B89}
This was mentioned earlier, but I didn't see much information on the Dasher website about actual input devices (though Dasher is a neat way to handle typing).
As a recent UVA grad I heard a lot about the ERICA project while I was there. It's an eye tracking system that's pretty neat, though I think it's basically just being used for research at this time and I don't know of a way to actually purchase it.
I believe there are some commercial eye tracking systems out there, but head tracking is simpler, and therefore cheaper. One I've seen is from here. For $300 you can get the package your friend would need which allows for hands-free clicking through either clicking after the mouse pauses for a second, or through use of a big external button.
I believe Windows XP includes an on-screen keyboard already, but I'm sure typing using only that would get tedious. This is where something like Dasher that was mentioned previously is helpful, as it uses a dictionary to guess which letters you're most likely to type next and make it easier to type those letters. Of course he could still use speech recognition for typing, and rely on something like the head mouse for pointer control.
I was researching speech engines and actively followed speechworks and Dragon. Once Speechworks announced a partnership with M$, I knew they were doomed. (BTW) M$ speech products are coming along nicely now - wonder why. Anyhow, Dragon was founded, built and developed by the life's work of James and Janet Baker. They sold Dragon for $600Million (in stock) to L&H who, in Parmalat / dot-com style, declared bankruptcy in Oct 2001. The Bakers tried to get back their product to no avail and it was sold to cover L&H's debts for $40Million in Nov 2001. There was also a topic about this regarding the loss of amassed works dying with dot com companies and people who may or may not have extra copies and how to resurrect the products. - Geccie
I am a member of OSSRI (Open Source Speech Recognition Initiative). We are working to develop an open-source speech product to help those with disablities operate a computer. You can join our mailing list to track progress if you are interested. Any help or input would be appreciated.
http://harvee.org/mailman/listinfo/ossri
Dustin Wish