Are You Talking to Your PC Yet?

An anonymous reader writes "If you have ever asked "Do those speech-to-text apps like Dragon NaturallySpeaking and IBM ViaVoice really work?" Pocket PC Addict has posted a detailed review of Dragon Naturally Speaking for Pocket PC and Desktop machines. It is written from the perspective of someone who has been burned by speech to text software in the past and had vowed to never try one of these apps again. It is encouraging for slow typists who would like to use their voice to write. Plus it details some valuable tips for using it with Pocket PCs."

Comments

Clippy

[Anonymous Coward]

So if I ask Clippy to STFU, will he?

OpenSource Voice recognition projects?

[farsideofthemoon]

Any recommended ones? http://sourceforge.net/projects/cmusphinx/

Summary of the article

[Ingolfke]

All though Text two speach is a grape gnu technology it is not red E for the main stream yet.

Re:Summary of the article

[the grace of R'hllor]

All though Text two speach is a grape gnu technology it is not red E for the main stream yet.

Now I see the master plan. Rather than improving speech-to-text technologies, the focus is on destroying basic literacy. Apart from the word 'grape', I parsed that sentence without even having to mentally translate it.

Based on current experience, I'd say speech-to-text is going to be a growing market :-(

My problem

[teiresias]

The problem I always found with uuhhhhh voice writing was mmmmm filtering out unwanted noises and shhhhh distractions from my posts period return But I uhh guess they've fixed most of those burp problems by now right question mark

Re:My problem

[silverfuck]

Exactly. Also, when will these programs start filtering for what the computer is putting out of the speakers (is there a sensible way to do this, to compensate for manual volume controls that the PC doesn't know about/control?)? I nearly always have some music on in the background...

Are You Talking to Your PC Yet?

[glsunder]

I've been talking to my PC for years:

You god damned son of a bitch! F'n Piece of shit!

Re:Spoken programming languages

[vidnet]

Like an intern, it should accept phrases like "code that %&#@% interface by tomorrow you @#$%@ piece of *&^$&!!!"

Hey, maybe you could base it on perl!

Why I've never liked speech to text

[Rude Turnip]

1. It's awkward to talk when you're trying to compose something that requires a lot of thought first. I usually like to talk to myself (either out-loud or in my head) and type out what I'm thinking in a more formal fashion.

2. It is very tedious to go back and edit or make corrections. If I make an error while typing, I'm cognizant of the error very soon after it happens. With voice recognition, techincally "someone else" is typing and it takes more time to see where the mistakes were made.

3. I deal with lots of boilerplate text with original content intermingled. A lot of times working on such a text becomes an editing process where using the keyboard & mouse is more efficient.

4. My voice doesn't last for much longer than 30 minutes for non-stop speaking...and that's with short breaks for water.

Conclusion: Just hire a hot secretary that can type.

I tried Dragon Dictate...

[eno2001]

...it worked OK as long as you trained it properly and you had a nice quite room and a good mic. However, there are issues with "voice typing" that can't be overlooked. Primary is security. If you want to type a document or e-mail that contains sensitive data, make damn sure that no one can hear you. My bank recently moved to a voice activated system. I'm surprised they haven't gotten a ton of complaints from people since it REQUIRES you to say your SS# and PIN out loud. This means I can no longer check my account from my cell phone or at work. If you sit down and think about how many things you type that you would never want to say out loud, you can see why voice typing hasn't taken off. Imagine this emanating from your cubicle in a monotone:

"http://www.goat.cx/ Take that you bukkake loving lunixtards."

Your co-workers would think you were a nutjob if they saw half of what you posted as AC to Slashdot. ;P

Re:Spoken programming languages

[s4m7]

"code that %&#@% interface by tomorrow you @#$%@ piece of *&^$&!!!"

Boss, is that you?