On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 23:49 -0400, Chuck Payne wrote:

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 10:12 PM, Joseph Loo wrote:

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On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 15:37 -0600, Donald D Henson wrote:

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Does anyone know of an Open Source application to accept continuous speech and convert it to text? I've found a couple of proprietary apps but you have to use Voice mail as an input. Any suggestions appreciated.

Don Henson Have you looked at CMU Sphinx http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/html/cmusphinx.php -- Joseph Loo jloo@acm.org

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Here a great site, that help me out with the stuff that I am doing because I am dyslexlic

http://www.hackosis.com/index.php/2007/11/24/transform-linux-into-a-talking-...

http://www.hackosis.com/index.php/2007/12/22/linux-easily-convert-text-to-wa...

Now if I can get a clean voice for Festival. The default one a bit too much like SAM. Under Opensuse does not have all the available voices. You might want to got to the festival site and download the other voices. Alternatively, you can buy some of the voices available to Festival. -- Joseph Loo jloo@acm.org

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Joseph Loo wrote:

On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 15:37 -0600, Donald D Henson wrote:

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Does anyone know of an Open Source application to accept continuous speech and convert it to text? I've found a couple of proprietary apps but you have to use Voice mail as an input. Any suggestions appreciated.

Don Henson Have you looked at CMU Sphinx http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/html/cmusphinx.php

Yes. I saw that one. There is way to many references to researchers and developers. I was hoping for a production-ready system. Is there anything like that for Sphinx? Don Henson -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 3:45 AM, Rikard Johnels wrote:

On Wednesday 30 April 2008 23:37, Donald D Henson wrote:

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Does anyone know of an Open Source application to accept continuous speech and convert it to text? I've found a couple of proprietary apps but you have to use Voice mail as an input. Any suggestions appreciated.

Don Henson

A few years back there was something called ViaVioce from IBM (i think) I never got that to work, and as far as i know its been discontinued for ages... I havent seen any speech-to-text utilities for linux, nor for windows too for that matter. The last time i saw it was on my brothers Amiga way back in the early days. He actually had it responding to voicecommands. And there was also a simple voicerecognition software bundled with a SoundBlaster sound card at one point. But that vas a very long time ago.

I too would love to have speech-to-text, as i am LOUSY at speed typing, and as i sometimes tell short stories to my friends, it would be heaven to be able to get them into printed matter...

I think in Windows "Dragon NaturallySpeaking" is the leading solution. I don't use it so no firsthand feedback here. http://nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/ A little history of products (including some OSS ones) and whats available is at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_speech_recognition_software Greg -- Greg Freemyer Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer First 99 Days Litigation White Paper - http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf The Norcross Group The Intersection of Evidence & Technology http://www.norcrossgroup.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Donald D Henson wrote:

Greg Freemyer wrote:

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On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 3:45 AM, Rikard Johnels wrote:

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On Wednesday 30 April 2008 23:37, Donald D Henson wrote:

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Does anyone know of an Open Source application to accept continuous speech and convert it to text? I've found a couple of proprietary apps but you have to use Voice mail as an input. Any suggestions appreciated.

Don Henson

A few years back there was something called ViaVioce from IBM (i think) I never got that to work, and as far as i know its been discontinued for ages... I havent seen any speech-to-text utilities for linux, nor for windows too for that matter. The last time i saw it was on my brothers Amiga way back in the early days. He actually had it responding to voicecommands. And there was also a simple voicerecognition software bundled with a SoundBlaster sound card at one point. But that vas a very long time ago.

I too would love to have speech-to-text, as i am LOUSY at speed typing, and as i sometimes tell short stories to my friends, it would be heaven to be able to get them into printed matter...

I think in Windows "Dragon NaturallySpeaking" is the leading solution. I don't use it so no firsthand feedback here.

http://nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/

A little history of products (including some OSS ones) and whats available is at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_speech_recognition_software

Greg

Thanks for the links. I'd seen most of the OSS stuff. All that I've seen so far are nowhere near production use. Dragon Naturally Speaking looks promising, though. Their web site convinced me to plunk down a hundred bucks for a copy of their cheapest product. After I've had a chance to use it for a few days, I'll post a review here. It has to be physically shipped so it'll be a couple of weeks.

Don Henson

It will take more than a few days before you can make an objective comparison. With all speech recognition software you have to "train" it which is a fairly time consuming process. Though from other I know who have actually done it, after the training is done, you can use it very reliably. The "training" will create a "voice" file based upon your voice inflection, pause, annunciation, etc. The process involves beginning with a default male/female voice file and going though a correction process where the difference in your specific manner of speaking is captured in your voice file and that is used to augment the recognition of words, etc.. Since your voice file will take some time to create, tweak, get just right, etc., make sure your know what that file is and BACK IT UP regularly. Otherwise, after several weeks of use, if something bad should happen, then you are right back to step one. I hope that helps. -- David C. Rankin, J.D., P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Saturday 03 May 2008 23:59:00 John Andersen wrote:

Admittedly these things are using a vastly reduced vocabulary. But never the less, training is on the way out.

Doesn't that require that dialects disappear as well? I can easily find three English/American dialects which *you* couldn't understand. What chance would your phone have? In Sweden, some dialects might as well be different languages - the words really are the same, but they're pronounced so differently from how I would pronounce them, that in practice there is virtually no similarity. Here in Germany, the difference between Fränkisch and Hochdeutch makes my life difficult on a daily basis, I can't even begin to imagine what an algorithm would look like that could incorporate them both. And I'm told the situation in countries like India is even more extreme So sure, training might be on the way out, as long as you adhere to some sort of "standard" way of speaking. But for most of us, I think it will always be needed Anders -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Saturday 03 May 2008 18:13, Anders Johansson wrote:

On Saturday 03 May 2008 23:59:00 John Andersen wrote:

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Admittedly these things are using a vastly reduced vocabulary. But never the less, training is on the way out.

Doesn't that require that dialects disappear as well?

I can easily find three English/American dialects which *you* couldn't understand. What chance would your phone have? In Sweden, some dialects might as well be different languages - the words really are the same, but they're pronounced so differently from how I would pronounce them, that in practice there is virtually no similarity. Here in Germany, the difference between Fränkisch and Hochdeutch makes my life difficult on a daily basis, I can't even begin to imagine what an algorithm would look like that could incorporate them both.

Where is Fränkisch spoken? When I was in Germany in the mid 70's, most Germans of 40 years or younger could speak a "general German" such as was heard on the radio or TV. This did not seem to be true in Switzerland, altho the Swiss could understand my "general German." Even some of the older folks--I met a fellow from the Rheinland whose accent betrayed him, but he told me that if he spoke the language that he used at home, no-one in Stuttgart could understand him. But he also told me that his kids were learning a general German in school, and starting to use it at home. At any rate, if almost everyone can speak a "general German," then speech to text should be possible in that language. Without being as fluent in Italian, it seemed to me when I was there in the 80's, that the same sort of thing was happening.

And I'm told the situation in countries like India is even more extreme

India is a different story: they are actually speaking different languages, not dialects. I don't remember how many different languages, but the number 100 would not surprise me.

So sure, training might be on the way out, as long as you adhere to some sort of "standard" way of speaking. But for most of us, I think it will always be needed

Anders

doug Blessed are the peacemakers ... for they shall be shot at from both sides. -A.M. Greeley -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

martin glazer pecked at the keyboard and wrote:

Microsoft software inside of a Ford vehicle, scares the hell out of me.

If you think that is scary... Microsoft software used by the military in there ships... now THAT is scary. -- Ken Schneider SuSe since Version 5.2, June 1998 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sat, 2008-05-03 at 19:13 -0400, Ken Schneider wrote:

martin glazer pecked at the keyboard and wrote:

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Microsoft software inside of a Ford vehicle, scares the hell out of me.

If you think that is scary...

Microsoft software used by the military in there ships...

now THAT is scary.

-- My understanding, there is now an initiative to remove the midrosoft window software in critical area and replace it with linux. Ken Schneider SuSe since Version 5.2, June 1998 -- Joseph Loo jloo@acm.org

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On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 9:15 PM, Mike McMullin wrote:

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Microsoft software used by the military in there ships...

And apparently in your spell checker, that there word ought to have been their. ;)

Find me a spell checker that catches that one. I could use it. What I hate is the case where the spell checker prompts something close but oh so wrong. -- ----------JSA--------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sunday 04 May 2008 06:15:46 Mike McMullin wrote:

On Sat, 2008-05-03 at 19:13 -0400, Ken Schneider wrote:

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martin glazer pecked at the keyboard and wrote:

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Microsoft software inside of a Ford vehicle, scares the hell out of me.

If you think that is scary...

Microsoft software used by the military in there ships...

And apparently in your spell checker, that there word ought to have been their. ;)

That spell is according to Merlin What's needed there is a grammar checker. I'm not aware of one for linux Anders -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 6:37 PM, David C. Rankin wrote:

John Andersen wrote:

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On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 1:23 PM, David C. Rankin wrote:

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With all speech recognition software you have to "train" it which is a fairly time consuming process.

I can't speak to Dragon products, but the need to train is the key thing that newer technology is trying to eliminate in speech recognition. My phone requires no training, I can just say "call David Rankin" and it would find you in the address book. Same with Ford Active Sync. Same with some modern telephone answering systems. (Call HP tech support to hear a demo.)

Admittedly these things are using a vastly reduced vocabulary. But never the less, training is on the way out.

I definitely need a new phone. The Motorola v3xx is pretty good, but I end up in shouting matches with it just trying to get it to dial "Don". You know the scenario.

me: "name dial" "Don" phone: "did you say home?" me: "no" phone: "say a command" me: "name dial" phone: "say the name" me: "Don" phone: "did you say home?" me: "NO you %$#@#^%#$ phone, I said DON" phone: "say a command" AAARRRGGHHHH!

LOL. Exactly the same problem here with a friend named Dan. I had to put him in the phonebook as Daniel. (Moto Krazr k1). This will probably be my last Motorola phone unless stunning new designs are released, because its getting to be a fairly old design. -- ----------JSA--------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Donald D Henson wrote:

John Andersen wrote:

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On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 1:23 PM, David C. Rankin wrote:

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With all speech recognition software you have to "train" it which is a fairly time consuming process.

I can't speak to Dragon products, but the need to train is the key thing that newer technology is trying to eliminate in speech recognition. My phone requires no training, I can just say "call David Rankin" and it would find you in the address book. Same with Ford Active Sync. Same with some modern telephone answering systems. (Call HP tech support to hear a demo.)

Admittedly these things are using a vastly reduced vocabulary. But never the less, training is on the way out.

The Dragon Naturally Speaking web site says "No training required." We'll see.

Don Henson

Umm... In a world where human beings get confused about what other human beings are asking for what hope has a computer :-) see below... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/11/cab_innit/ I have spent some time playing round with VIA Voice in the past I found the main problem I had was trying to stop myself dissolving into a hysterical heap at some of training session interpretations of what had been said, unfortunately giggles do tend to mess up the training set somewhat.. First came across voice activated mobile phone support on a Sony Ericsson about a decade or so ago, it worked but it did not really distinguish between when I intended to make a call and normal conversation so had to be disabled most of the time.. by the time one enabled speech recognition on phone made call and disabled speech recognition one would have have been better of dialling normally anyway... A particular issue is getting the machine to distinguish between when you are issuing a command to it or responding to something else. Consider following conversation... To colleague: Put it the trash.. Computer: Do you really wish to delete Colleague: Do you want drink? ......... Fill in the blanks :-) - -- ============================================================================== I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone. Bjarne Stroustrup ============================================================================== -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFIHZ/yasN0sSnLmgIRAtdpAJ0WPbfMLMGVBuBXHt970shq9cnY6ACdEHAP LefR2Uv9V8S2CE778Rs4O3A= =+jJH -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Ed McCanless wrote:

Donald D Henson wrote:

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Thanks for the links. I'd seen most of the OSS stuff. All that I've seen so far are nowhere near production use. Dragon Naturally Speaking looks promising, though. Their web site convinced me to plunk down a hundred bucks for a copy of their cheapest product. After I've had a chance to use it for a few days, I'll post a review here. It has to be physically shipped so it'll be a couple of weeks.

Don Henson

Dragon Naturally Speaking works quite well, but the licensing is very restrictive.

-ED-

In what way? Don Henson -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Donald D Henson wrote:

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Ed McCanless wrote:

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Dragon Naturally Speaking works quite well, but the licensing is very restrictive.

-ED-

In what way?

Don Henson

The license dictates that you use the app on one machine only. You must go on line to receive a code to activate the app, and the code is good only for that machine.

I have heard that, if necessary, can obtain permission to move it to a new machine, but that involves contacting the company and convincing them that the new machine is the only one it will be used on.

-ED- That's pretty restrictive, all right. However, my requirement is important enough to me that I will put up with stupid Eulas of the

Ed McCanless wrote: proprietary world. I have Parkinson's disease, and my typing skills are steadily degrading. I find that dragon makes it easier to prepare responses and write articles. I would prefer to use open-source, but I was not able to find anything that works. If you know of any, I'd sure like to hear about them. Don. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sat, May 17, 2008 at 11:59 AM, David C. Rankin wrote:

Donald D Henson wrote:

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A couple of weeks ago it was suggested that I try a product from Nuance call dragon Naturally Speaking. As this was a non-open source product, I had to pay for it. Bummer. However, my problem was serious enough that I decided to go with a product that I had to pay for. I also promised the list that I would post a review after using the product for a couple of weeks. Here's the review.

Don,

Thanks for the follow-up. It appears the initial training time has been dramatically reduced and accuracy has increased.

Boy that is an understatement. Quoting Don: "I The initial setup included reading a couple of paragraphs for about 30 seconds to initially train the product" I suspect it trains itself with additional input as you go along, but 30 seconds and a couple of paragraphs is mighty impressive. -- ----------JSA--------- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Donald D Henson wrote:

Donald D Henson wrote:

...

Does anyone know of an Open Source application to accept continuous speech and convert it to text? I've found a couple of proprietary apps but you have to use Voice mail as an input. Any suggestions appreciated.

Don Henson

A couple of weeks ago it was suggested that I try a product from Nuance call dragon Naturally Speaking. As this was a non-open source product, I had to pay for it. Bummer. However, my problem was serious enough that I decided to go with a product that I had to pay for. I also promised the list that I would post a review after using the product for a couple of weeks. Here's the review.

How is it on resources? I.e. memory and cpu? Last I used drag-in-dict, it was ages ago -- before it allowed continuous speech recognition -- but even then, after training, it still was pretty slow. I eventually migrated to IBM's ViaVoice Pro-USB 10.0. unfortunately, IBM stopped offering the product and sold or gave a resale license to Nuance, but as far as I know, the source didn't migrate with the resale license and no new work has been done on it since it first came out ~ 5 years ago. It was the first to offer continuous dictation -- Dragon was in financial woes at the time and it took nearly 2-3 years before they recovered and had a continuous speech product. Thing with VVPro, is that it is resource intensive. I'd say starting with 1GB under XP is a minimum, and a 1GHz P-III Pentium was too slow to be usable. 3GB and a 2GHz Core-Duo, was "ok", but it grabs onto the system input mechanism and slows down all input/output -- even when it is "asleep" or its in the microphone 'off' state. Am on a 3GB 3.2GHz machine now and if I'm dictating into word, it's pretty good for recognition and speed. For application integration, though, IBM only added full integration for MS Office and IE. It can blindly type text into a non-integrated application, but that can be painful. A nice feature, which I consider 'essential', is that when you dictate into word or its speakpad, it stores the voice sessions with the document. This allows later re-editing in the case of word (clicking on a word, you hear your voice) -- and when you correct words, it 're-learns' what the word should have been based on what you said. So with the fully integrated applications allow the speech recognizer to be trained at the same time you are dictating -- so it will learn new vocabulary and learn your nuances of changing pronunciation. IBM released a development pack for linux, but nothing ever happened with it, and it was too primitive to make use of in the general case -- would have required specific apps to include and call their API -- a benefit of the MS platform where most programs go through common API's (though not Firefox nor T-bird). About 2-3 years ago, IBM announced their latest voice technology -- requiring no training -- but did not announce any products with it. The "product" they were demoing for their announcement was a foreign speech translation program -- and specifically, the plans were to sell the product to the US armed forces for use in the field in Iraq, where it had already been field tested with some success to allow soldiers to communicate and understand basic phrases in the local language. I tried to find out more info -- and when something might be released for consumers (at the time was projected that something might be available for consumers that summer (2006). I never heard anything after that -- but have heard occasional stories that the tech is still being used. Purely a guess, but maybe the military thought it worked "too well", and bought up the entire product for military/government use only. Maybe they didn't want such easy-to-use translation technology in the hands of possible enemies...or maybe they just wanted to keep civilians from being able to easily access such translation technologies. Obviously IBM continued their voice recognition and synthesis development, but it seems they dropped consumer level offerings off their map -- probably selling expensive custom business and government systems was far more profitable than trying to sell and support end users. Anyway -- as computers have gotten faster, their original tech is still pretty good. Required minimal training ~10-30 minutes. Occasionally I still see the product for sale, but the price has not gone down -- was best in class and retail was $200. They sold medical and legal specific vocabularies for an additional ~$200 each. No competition or 3rd party sellers ever came into the market to reduce the prices. Trés sad. Linda -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org