Voice recognition

[bloodline]

I've been having fun with the voice commands feature of MacOS X... sadly I tend to have to repeat myself a few time before it gets me... does anyone have any tips on this excelent labour saving feature?

[guest3217]

I'm not too familiar with MacOS, but with windows, sometimes it has to differentiate between a voice comand and standard dictation.  I've also noticed a huge difference between using a "tie microphone" and a head set mic.  The ability to correctly understand my commands increased 100 fold with a headset mic.

W.

[X-ray]

@ Bloodline

Is the recognition absolute (like an automated helpline where you have to say the word so that the computer recognises it) or is it programmable? If it's the former, I don't know what you can do, but you must be in a better position than me with my South African accent. If it's the latter then...
A good mate of mine had problems with a Winblows-based programmable voice recognition package and got around it by recording the simplest words he could, even if the words were not related to the function they were supposed to initiate. He found that two-syllabel words with dramatic pitch-changes between the syllabels worked best. Eg. 'ping-pong' will be easier to recognise than 'wordpad'.

[bloodline]

X-ray wrote:
@ Bloodline

Is the recognition absolute (like an automated helpline where you have to say the word so that the computer recognises it) or is it programmable? If it's the former, I don't know what you can do, but you must be in a better position than me with my South African accent. If it's the latter then...
A good mate of mine had problems with a Winblows-based programmable voice recognition package and got around it by recording the simplest words he could, even if the words were not related to the function they were supposed to initiate. He found that two-syllabel words with dramatic pitch-changes between the syllabels worked best. Eg. 'ping-pong' will be easier to recognise than 'wordpad'.

It is programmable in the sense you can perform predefined actions and attach scripts to the command phrases, the command phrases are fully programmable. You can even set it to not be picky about how you prase your command: "What is the Time?" and "What Time is it?" are both recognised as requireing the same action, even though only one phrase is programmed in.

I love surfing the web, hands free... for more important functions :-D

It also allows to to give it a name, which you must say before (or after depending on your preferance) issuing the command. Mine is called Lilith :-P

[blobrana]

Hum,
I have  a program called Ultra Hal that I use with via voice pro (I have changed the brain in Hal to use the ALICE artificial intelligence brain).
So it can learn, as well as run programs from preset voice commands.
The more you speak to it the better it gets…
Though, I managed to teach it how to launch itunes straight off - “play itunes..”

Cool when im relaxing in the bath and decide i want to listen to music...
 :-)

[PMC]

"Open the Pod Bay doors Hal... And while you're at it some Royksopp and a glass of red wine wouldn't go amiss either".

[AmiGR]

Actually, the voice recognition system is tied to the voice synth system. You have to say everything the way the voice synth would say it. Note that there are some very verbose functions to it that are quite useful, you can control **everything**, menus, windows, etc etc. in all programs.

[amigadave]

I have not had a chance to play with OS X's voice recognition, but think that voice entry of commands will replace the keyboard and mouse for most programs in the not too distant future (can't wait).  This is the one feature that would bring the Amiga back to the top of the computer world if it had a voice recognition ability that blew away all other PC's and the Mac.  This one feature, if implemented and marketed correctly, would generate great interest for the mass public that are still not sure what a computer can do besides email and cruise the Internet.  Of course, all the other programs that are available on PC's and Mac's must be available for the new Amiga's as well.

[amigadave]

@ blobrana,

I was interested in "Ultra Hal" after reading your post, but now I'm confused.  I thought itunes was a mac only program and Ultra Hal is Windows only from what I could find?  Is there an Ultra Hal for Mac?

[bloodline]

amigadave wrote:
@ blobrana,

I was interested in "Ultra Hal" after reading your post, but now I'm confused.  I thought itunes was a mac only program and Ultra Hal is Windows only from what I could find?  Is there an Ultra Hal for Mac?

iTunes is available for Windows

[blobrana]

Hum,
i`m sorry it cant do that, amigadave.

Yeah, the program requires Windows (no Mac/Amiga version)...

MS users can download a demo from here. (Not voice enabled - but can be made to work with other Speech recognition software)
http://www.zabaware.com/assistant/ (download site)

Third party brains can be installed, such as the Alice brain that will act as a chat bot.
But be warned some brains will access the internet to answer a question or problem, and by its nature record and remember personal details (be careful what you tell it)…

E.g. "is it raining outside?"  - (Hal will access weather sites).

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