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?"

Comments

Sorta off-topic, but I'd reaally like to know

[NanoGator]

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.

Re:Sorta off-topic, but I'd reaally like to know

[an_mo]

A friend of mine (35 years old) had a vein near the cerebellum blown off a couple of years ago (sorry I forgot the exact diagnosis). He is now semi-paralized. Speech is severely impaired (very hard for us to understand him), so voice recognition is not an option. Communication is slow and difficult (sometimes you have to go throug yes/no questions) but you can easily figure out that his brain is pretty much as sharp as before (he was a CPA). He can't walk, he can sort of move his arms but doesnt' have much control of his fingers, plus his arms sometime tremble a lot, so keyboard is also not an option. The best solution for him is an on-sreen mouse-activated keyboard.

Bottom line, he was trying to use his pc but had difficulties typing with the trembling and all. With other friends we donated him a big monitor and I installed a monitor keyboard so that he can type with using the mouse). He can communicate with friends via the net, expressing arguments and sentences that would take hours for us to understand given the state of his speech. I know he also plays chess. I don't think he is going to create "a new life" on the net, as you put it, for the simple reason that he is not fast enough for IRC and i am not even sure that he is fast enough to post regularly in message forums/email (I think he gets tired after a while). However, it's better than nothing.

Some ideas

[Kvorg]

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.

How about...Dragon NaturallySpeaking

[TMLink]

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.

A long time ago...

[WildFire42]

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.

Not voice but...

[An Audience of One]

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.

Matt