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Ask Slashdot: Is There a Useful Voice-Activated PC? (dailycaring.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
My elderly monther-in-law misses her computer. Her mind is okay, but she cannot use a computer because of her Parkinson's disease.
I am not all that impressed with Amazon Echo. Seems you can ask the Echo for the time of day, or the weather outside, but it will not do anything useful -- like send an email. A voice controlled PC would be great, even if it only did a few simple tasks.
The original submission ends with a question: "Is there such a thing?" So leave your best thoughts and suggestions in the comments. Is there a useful voice-activated PC?
I am not all that impressed with Amazon Echo. Seems you can ask the Echo for the time of day, or the weather outside, but it will not do anything useful -- like send an email. A voice controlled PC would be great, even if it only did a few simple tasks.
The original submission ends with a question: "Is there such a thing?" So leave your best thoughts and suggestions in the comments. Is there a useful voice-activated PC?
Having spent a certain amount of time with disability offices I suggest that you go and find a local Blind Association and see if they can allow her to test out some of the software written for blind people. Jaws is a software that allows you too hear in one ear what's on the screen and what you're typing in the other ear might be more difficult than your mother-in-law can manage. The other thing is that this will probably help her get access two other entertainments such as audio books and people in a similar condition to commiserate. What you're looking for is probably not an out-of-the-box solution sold at the General Market but something you're going to find it's a little more expensive but there's probably a grant for it.
Life is like untied shoe laces; it always tripping you up and getting in your way.
I used to sit next to someone who had RSI so used to Dragon Dictate (as it was then) to do a lot of his keyboard work, which included writing code. On bad dates he could use it to control the mouse too. This is not easy, so it depends on how determined your mother-in-law is. If she has computer skills but has just lost the manual control, then a Dragon product may do the job. If she hasn't handled a computer in some time, so she will be getting used to a new computer, a new OS, and everything else being in the wrong place as well as this new tool, all at once; then it is a big ask.
Unfortunately, This would not be the case. Too much physical interaction is still required for it to be "Truly" useful... Being in IT for 28+ years now, I have several customers who are paraplegic for one reason or another. Some have use of their hands, some only minimally. (Cerebral Palsy) My customers who have minimal use of their hands typically type with a special mouse using the on-screen keyboard. As Dragon makes too many mistakes, has too many bugs, and just can't fit the bill consistently enough to meet their needs. Dragon does do some neat things, but as far as every disabled person I have spoken to, they would say it doesn't work well enough to say it "Does what you are looking for" (No trolling or offense intended, just my2. Peace)
The problem is people in general are lazy and do not want to spend the time needed to train the system for each person so we need the raw power of powerful servers to do general voice processing.
We actually don't, you know.
Anyone using Siri can tell you that the local phone screen already displays the text of your query while it's going off to ask Apple's servers what to do, and still displays it when it comes back with "Oops, we seem to be having communication problems. Please try again later."
In other words the speech-to-text conversion has already happened on the phone. Apple's servers are just applying Natural Language Processing techniques on the text to figure out what the request means. This is also something that could happen on the phone, Apple just wants a view into everyone's lives.
My dad is in aged care with fairly advanced Parkinson's disease and finds Siri to be entirely unusable due to the tremor in his voice (a common symptom). He uses an iPad to check emails and facebook, send messages, and call people on Skype. I've tried turning Siri off, as he tends to hold the home button long enough to activate it frequently, but pressing the home button just asks you to turn Siri on again (which is not helpful at all). I recently activated the accessibility settings which require him to press longer to "tap" and ignore secondary taps (from shaking hands), which appears to have helped.
She may be able to use her computer with some modifications to the peripherals. There are large keyboards, like this one, which have a perspex shield above them to rest your hands on. To press a key you have to put your finger through the holes in the thick plastic cover, which prevents a shaking arm from accidentally pressing the wrong keys. A trackball mouse is another improvement, as it doesn't require the arm to move precisely and, at least in my dad's case, the fingers are a bit more stable. I was planning to get both for dad, but he doesn't currently have space for them.
Either way, I'd recommend trying to see if Siri or similar can actually understand her consistently before investing in voice technology. You can get a fair way with disability-accessible computer peripherals instead.