Good Cross-Platform Speech-Recognition Programs? 175
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?"
Use PocketSphinx (Score:5, Interesting)
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:Alternatives (Score:3, Interesting)
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!
Re:You're asking the wrong question! (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, place in new pouch and repeat.
foot mouse (Score:2, Interesting)
You can get a mouse that you can operate with your feet. Would that work?
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]
Re:Paper (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).
One day there will be (Score:1, Interesting)
http://voxforge.org/ [voxforge.org]
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.
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.
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.
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.
Re:Nope, there isn't. (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Nope, there isn't. (Score:1, Interesting)
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.
I don't agree with this. For me the problem that gave me RSI was using the mouse. Vista's reliance on the mouse would just make that worse.
Personally I completely solved my problem by switching from using an external mouse to using my laptop's touchpad, and by doing more from the command-line, and less through the GUI. Linux made this possible.
Re:Use PocketSphinx (Score:4, Interesting)