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Good Cross-Platform Speech-Recognition Programs?
Posted by
timothy
on Sat Nov 08, 2008 03:30 PM
from the get-back-in-your-hood-worm dept.
from the get-back-in-your-hood-worm dept.
CryoStasis writes "I am a graduate student getting my degree in biomedical sciences. Because my work often requires me to maintain a local sterile environment (under a biological hood) I find that I am unable to physically touch my computer, which sits beside me, in order to open my notes, protocols, etc. while I'm working. As a result, I have begun to search for a voice-recognition program that will allow me to tell the computer what files/programs to launch. I know that the general field of voice recognition has come a long way, but I find that the built-in speech recognition systems in both OS X and Vista are clunky and difficult to use. Are there any good, cross-platform speech-recognition programs available that might fit the bill?"
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Use PocketSphinx (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Use PocketSphinx (Score:4, Informative)
I used Sphinx4 in my final year project at uni. It's free and Java based, with open source code so is fully customisable to those who want to spend a little effort doing so. As it is written in Java, it works on any operating system with a Java Runtime Environment.
In the process of finding Sphinx4 I spent a lot of time trying other multi-platform software, but due to its open source nature found this to be the best (that actually worked).
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Uh, isn't that VOIP software? Maybe you could spend at least, say, 4-5 milliseconds explaining exactly how VOIP software is supposed to solve the problem?
Re:Use PocketSphinx (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Nope, there isn't. (Score:5, Informative)
Dragon Naturally Speaking is as close as it gets. And it's only really good for basically writing down your voice, it's not really that good for controlling your computer. I believe it works in both Vista and OS X.
There used to be ViaVoice that also worked in Linux IIRC - but it basically stopped working on it circa 2001/2002.
Perhaps another input device is called for, because voice recognition right now will only frustrate you more than anything for what you want to use it for.
BTW, I believe OS X has voice recognition built in you may want to check out for controlling your computer - but it's been ages since I used it. It's actually geared toward controlling your computer, and not to replace typing.
Re:Nope, there isn't. (Score:4, Insightful)
BTW, I believe OS X has voice recognition built in you may want to check out for controlling your computer
I know reading articles is verbotten for slashdotters but the summary???
I find that the build in speech recognition systems in both OS X and Vista, clunky and difficult to use
Parent
Re:Nope, there isn't. (Score:5, Interesting)
I, for one, read the summary, but would like to contradict it.
I got RSI and finished a 100-page document using Vista voice recognition only. Just train it properly with a good mike and it's perfectly ok. Apart from dictation, you can say a word in any link or button in properly coded apps, and spell stuff out using the radio alphabet. Alternatively, you can use the commands "mousegrid" and "show numbers" to move the mouse directly or label every control with numbers, respectively.
Oh, and if you get RSI, don't even think about trying to configure anything in Linux until you recover. Ditch it for Vista on day 1. Your hands and sanity will thank you.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
The OS X stuff is fun, but you can't tell it to do enough yet to make it useful. For example, "Look up Bobcats on Wikipedia" is not a possible command unless you explicitly code in Bobcats... Which ruins the point.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Wouldn't it be something like "Browser, Address, Spell, w, space, b, o, b, c, a, t, s, Enter". I wouldn't expect completely natural language parsing for quite a few years yet.
Incidentally. I tried the Vista speech recognition (got a computer in Jan 08 with it preinstalled) by running the tutorial. I was amazed, it was awesome, recognised every word I said. Then I said the wrong word ... and it typed the right one. Hmmm. It was actually just detecting a sound and printing the expected word - fooled me for qu
Re:Nope, there isn't. (Score:4, Interesting)
That sounds more like training than a tutorial. If it was training on your voice and you said the wrong words I'm not surprised it got confused and produced gobbledegook.
Parent
Dragon Speak (Score:2, Interesting)
He has a laptop, and needs someone to turn his computer off and on. But, seems to do pretty well from there, at least for searching the internet. He also buys and trades stocks with it
He had to hire an expert to customize his laptop. So, while it's currently possible to do, it's probably not something that you can do easily.
Is it cross platform? Know idea. He uses windows xp.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Paper (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Paper (Score:5, Funny)
I can't say I've ever been in a biolab, but the idea of someone working in one, with their hands in a sealed box manipulating god-only-knows-what... and then trying to talk/use a computer at the same time give me the hebejebees. I can think of at least four hollywood horror movies that started with similar premises. Sometimes a simple low-tech solution really is the best... and it saves on zombie attacks.
Parent
Re:Paper (Score:4, Insightful)
The tags on the summary say it best 'useanundergrad'
There are somethings that really just work best when you have an assistant or partner working with you. It's like sports, well most of them, you need a team to get the job done right.
Parent
Re:Paper (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, but like most geeks... he wants to do everything himself. God forbid a man ask for help...
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Zombies (Score:4, Funny)
You: "Wow. This virus interferes with T-Cells, even reanimating dead tissue. That's really wild!"
Computer: "Command accepted. Releasing virus into the wild."
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
With e-Ink readers like the DR1000S (and the DR1000SW coming soon and Plastic Logics coming next year) - this may be the way to go without having dozens of printouts. Iliads products has a wacom screen you can write and annotate upon, which makes it almost as good as paper.
Personally, I will wait a few iterations until they perfect these products, but not carrying a bundle of papers and just pressing a button to get to the next page is precisely the advantage, amongs others (like search).
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, seriously, do what the rest of us do when we need to do tissue culture - use a lab book, and prepare your experimental plan carefully ahead of time. Write out the quantities of stuff you need (remembering this was always hardest for me). Unless it's something like splitting cells you should be writing the experiment down for legal reasons anyway.
You'll probably need to bring things in/out of the hood occasionally in almost any experiment, so just make use of that opportunity to look over your notes aga
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Vista (Score:2, Funny)
Here's a Video [youtube.com].
Re: (Score:2)
Fail recovery FAIL.
Fail recovery WIN [youtube.com].
depends... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, software exists. But most likely unless the program only performs simple operations with dialog boxes and can function with only limited keyboard input, you will probably find it inadequate or klunky, even if the speech recognition is perfect (it never is). Instead of asking whether speech synthesis software is right for you, the better question would be is your software a good fit for speech synthesis?
Kaiser Uses Dragon (Score:2, Informative)
Kaiser MDs use Dragon.
Why must it be cross platform? (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm thinking you're only using one computer for most of your work anyway.
How important is cross platform - or is that just what the cool kids say these days?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
We use mainly OSX macs in the lab, but if possible I would also like to install the program on some of our other Vista machines for hands free use.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Alternatives (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Why not sterilize the keyboard? (Score:2)
This isn't directly an answer to your question, but why not put a keyboard/mouse in the hood and use that? A wireless keyboard, perhaps, or it shouldn't be too difficult to put an interface through one of the existing ports. They even make some smaller keyboards that take up less space.
Re: (Score:2)
So add a USB keyboard on; sterilize that. I'm sure someone has sterilized a keyboard before; even if it's as simple as putting it in a sterililizable bag or something.
Three words (Score:5, Funny)
Cute summer student.
Lets Recognize Speech (Score:2)
or..
Let's Wreck a Nice Beach.
Yeah, there's no such thing as "good" speech recognition yet.
You might want to consider alternate peripherals.. (Score:3, Insightful)
For some years now, there have been pointing devices for the disabled that essentially involve an IR webcam and a reflector or LED stuck to whatever part of the body the user can still move. http://www.naturalpoint.com/ [naturalpoint.com] make some such, I suspect that they also have competitors. On the cheap side, there has been a fair bit of buzz lately about using video processing software with ordinary webcams. A bit of googleing should turn up stuff for Win, Mac, and Linux.
On the keyboard side, silicone rubber flexible keyboards have proliferated alarmingly of late. The keyfeel is bloody awful; but they are cheap, fully sealed against moisture, and can survive cleaning with various moderately horrible solvents.
With a simple USB hub, you should be able to leave the keyboard and webcam in the hood, never having to touch the webcam, and dousing the keyboard in whatever horrible substances are necessary to keep it sterile, and just plug in the one USB cable to your laptop before you begin work. Not wildly elegant; but it should provide you with a standard keyboard and pointing device that fulfill your requirements.
Wii hack it (Score:2)
For some years now, there have been pointing devices for the disabled that essentially involve an IR webcam and a reflector or LED stuck to whatever part of the body the user can still move.
Sounds like one of Johnny Lee's projects [youtube.com], you could probably accomplish this with a Wii-remote and his free software. [cmu.edu]
teamwork (Score:4, Insightful)
There is no substitute for teamwork. I don't work in a biologically clean environment, but I do sometimes work in a vacuum clean environment which requires that I avoid touching anything that isn't cleaned to go into a UHV chamber. Having a teammate to work in the "dirty" environment in the rest of the lab makes things much, much easier.
The progress of research is never perfectly predicable, and you're always going to find some surprise which needs immediate attention. Having another person there means you don't have to prepare in advance every possible command you may need a computer to run, plus a person can do things like answer the phone and sign for deliveries. It's also good practice for later in your scientific career when you'll have to train and trust your own students/interns/employees.
Keypad + Nose (Score:3, Interesting)
Get a numeric keypad, and pop off every other button cap. Map the remaining keys to whatever actions you want to control on the computer. Tape the keypad to the window on your hood, perhaps with blue masking tape (removes cleanly). Hit the buttons with your nose.
On Windows, I would get all the files opened, and have a key for Alt-Tab, and then keys for left, right, up and down.
Good Luck!
foot mouse (Score:2, Interesting)
You can get a mouse that you can operate with your feet. Would that work?
footsie mouse (Score:3, Interesting)
Shame you're sitting unseen. There are foot controls for the simple stuff he's asking for. Now if he wants to do something more complex then the voice option is the viable one.
Try a Laser Keyboard (Score:5, Interesting)
they are awkward but pretty cool. It's a virtual keyboard projected onto a flat surface which could be sterile. There's zero tactile feedback but you can use it for simple stuff.
Example
http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/ [virtual-la...yboard.com]
More on Dragon Systems (Score:5, Insightful)
Dragon Systems is by far the best speech to text resource. I use 9.0, but 10.0 is out. And by all accounts it is better. Like all good tools that have power and flexibility Dragon takes some time to master. But it is intelligent and repays hard work by improving. Suggest you get Dragon Preferred or, at a minimum, Pro. With these you can also make audio notes on a stand-alone recorder which may be fed in to the program later for transcription. If the audio is good (use a headset) the results are very good. Of course it needs an editing treatment, but what draft does not? So, you could make notes in addition to controlling the computer.
I suggest you practice at some time when your hands are not busy playing with the Andromeda Strain. And if you get skilled with Dragon you can swap modes; that is, speech to text or control mode.
The hard truth is this: Speech to text is something you have to learn how to do. Even if the program is perfect there is a learning curve for verbally inserting punctuation. And for writing with your voice. Nine has a feature to do punctuation automatically, but it works as poorly as most stenographers. In another life I used to dictate to a secretary who took shorthand. Even with her I interposed punctuation. And I can tell you...It really took me some time to learn her curves. Drum Roll Please
Extra keyboard and mouse? (Score:2)
Build a terminal (Score:2)
Try thinking in terms of a voice activated keyboard instead of a voice activated computer without a keyboard.
Wrong question (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't want voice recognition. You want basic planning and lab book management skills.
You should be asking "Why didn't I get all of my protocols, reagents, samples, and equipment set up before I started my experiments for the day?"
I did quite a bit of biochemical benchwork to get my PhD, involving flu. Touching almost anything was either a bad idea for your health, or a worse idea for your experiment.
Instead, you laid out a plan for what experiments you were going to do for the day. You wrote it up in your notebook before you started. If you were doing a standard experiment, you probably had an easy excel template where you typed in the number of replicate experiments you wanted to run, and it did all of your calculations for you. Print it out, tape it in your notebook, grab all your samples and reagents from the freezer, and then (and *only* then) did you put on your gloves and go into the sterile hood.
My old lab book is *full* of these little protocols, usually with a typed note at the bottom about which samples I wanted to run, and a few hand written notes from after I took my gloves off.
For long, complex protocols, lay out a protocol book with step by step instructions. For really sensitive experiments, don't be afraid to change gloves after you flip the page. Gloves are cheap, compared to the reagents needed to run even a single PCR reaction.
A good craftsman has laid out all of his tools, plans and materials before he starts work. Good chefs have all their ingredients measured and utensils easily accessible before they start cooking. Either one *could* use a computer to track their project. But they don't, because it just makes everything more complicated.
Use a computer for planning, data storage, analysis, etc. Once you put the gloves on, good notebook skills put the computer to shame every time.
Good speech recognition doesn't exist anywhere (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a grad student in computer science, specializing in AI. Although it is not my forte, I have studied speech recognition a fair amount, and I am friends with professors and grad students who are on the cutting edge of ASR.
Unfortunately, the real answer is that, at least by my standards, there is no good speech recognition anywhere.
One of the most challenging things about human speech is what we call "lack of invariance". The same word can be said by the same person two times in a row, within exactly the same context, and the signals will differ to an amazing degree.
At this point, if you have a hand-segmented accoustic signal, where the phone boundaries (such that there are any) are already marked, we have recognition rates exceeding 90%. But if the signal is not already marked, where the ASR machine has to segment automatically, the rate goes down dramatically. Then you have to recognize words, where the realization of any given word in any give context is not necessarily consistent with how you would typically describe the word phonemically. We see it all the time where what's in the accoustic signal is actually quite different from what the listener hears. It's really quite frustrating.
In my opinion, the accuracy of even cutting edge speech recognition software is pretty miserable.
Dragon Naturally Speaking is it... (Score:3, Informative)
Period, end of report. In the PC world there essentially is no other general purpose voice interface tech that is even worth bothering with.
That being said, there are much better ones for very specific vertical markets, but not for general use.
Note that this means you ARE restricted to Windows. The stuff built into OSX and Vista are not even worth messing around with. They might in theory meet some very casual or narrow specific need of particular users but they are literally an order of magnitude slower and less reliable than Naturally Speaking.
If you MUST use a Mac or Linux etc then basically the answer is, you're SOL, there's nothing. Yeah, there are a few OSS bits out there, but frankly they aren't even at the level of being really functional software, let alone meeting speed or accuracy required from this type of software. It would be AWESOME if there was something open, but the fact is this area is just so technically demanding it appears to be beyond the reach of non-commercial effort.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Autoclave - will leave just a pile of melted plastic in place of kb+mouse.
Gamma rays - not sure of dose, but may play havoc with the electronics inside.
Ethylene oxide - yes, but how common is that? I used to work in a lab in a big university/major city and we didn't have ethylene oxide facilities. Only autoclaves.
I would suggest: seal kb and/or mouse in a plastic pouch, and use a chemical method to sterilize the outside of the pouch (bleach, etc). To change batteries, cut pouch open, put new batteries in, p
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
So you're a grad student in the sciences and write "build in" instead of "built-in".
Don't rag on him, it was his software. He originally said "included."