Voice Recognition For The Visually Handicapped? 32
MrIcee asks: "I was recently contacted by an individual who is extremely visually impaired. He wishes to be able to user voice recognition in his PC to dictate letters and to control his web browser and other software. In examining the available software (such as Naturally Speaking, etc) all of them require a fairly involved training session. The problem with training is that they tend to display paragraphs for him to read - but he is unable to see the words clearly enough and fast enough for proper training (even though he can use JAWS for reading screen text). I have seen references to Kurzweil VOICE software, but it seems dated and there is no good indication that it will work as promised. Does anyone out there have experience in voice recognition software that requires minimal or no training?"
Re:I never thought I'd see the day (Score:1, Funny)
I never thought I'd see the day that Slashdot went Politically Correct on us. "Visually handicapped"? Why not just use the existing word for it? These people are deaf.
I feel tempted to expand on Slashdot's "political correctness," but since I'm a nice guy I will politely correct you.
Deaf is the term describing those with hearing loss.
Re:I never thought I'd see the day (Score:1)
ITYM blind (Score:2)
I think you mean the term is blind, not deaf.
Otherwise I agree. Visually Handicapped means nothing until I think about it, and then I'm not sure. Blind means something to everyone. Almost blind means something. Colour Blind means something. Blind in one eye (but other eye is fine) means something. There are many other things that can make something visually handicapped. All of the above qualify for Visually handicapped, but only a few of them will make it impossible to read a comptuer screen, though many more make it difficult.
Words mean things, when you use the wrong word you confuse everyone. Politicaly correct terms often (but not always) just make it difficult to figgure out what you are taking about, and in the end nothing is added.
As the C ten commandments [lysator.liu.se] points out: for they [Those who shout political correct language] believe that great efforts and loud shouting devoted to the ritual purification of the language will somehow redound to the benefit of the downtrodden (whose real and grievous woes tendeth to get lost amidst all that thunder and fury.
The blind have pleny of problems. Being refered to as blind isn't one.
Re:ITYM blind (Score:1)
Re:ITYM blind (Score:1)
Re:ITYM blind (Score:1)
Re:ITYM blind (Score:1)
Re:ITYM blind (Score:2)
In fact most (98% if I remember right) of blind people have some vision, at least enough to point at the sun. However they do not have enough vision to get by with normal day to day activities. In other words most peoples impression of blindness is seeing nothing at all, but that is wrong. However for the most part it is better to have that impression and be pleasently surprized when someone who is blind can do something that requires sight.
Vision Impairment is vague. I wear glasses, because I'm vision impaired, but with correction I see 20/20, so I'm not blind. I'm also vision imparied because I'm color blind, but it doesn't prevent me from doing any normal activities. (In fact I can do most jobs that require normal color vision even though I fail a color blindness test)
Re:ITYM blind (Score:2)
On the contrary, in the UK at least. "Visual Impairment" means any level of impairment to the eyes which results in impaired ability to perform normal operations even with appropriate glasses or lenses. "Blind" is a an undefined word which m,eans different things to different people. To some it means totally blind, while to others it might mean only enough impairment to prevent driving.
To some extent, "Visuual impairment" is context sensitive. In the context of driving, it means with insufficient vision to drive (even with glasses). In the context of computer screens, it means uneable easily to read the screen - which is probably a greater level of impairment than for driving. What the term does is that the empairment cannot be fixed by glasses.
Surprisingly few "blind" people have no sensitivity at all to light - I think it is l;ess than 5%.
Re:ITYM blind (Score:1)
Perhaps this is another case where useage differs on either side of the pond.
Dragon.. (Score:4, Informative)
Stick with Naturally Speaking (Score:1, Troll)
And just go over their house for an afternoon and help them get it trained. If they are too far from you, have them find someone closer. Reading paragraphs isn't rocket science - people are by and large happy to help out. All they need do is ask.
Re:Stick with Naturally Speaking (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Stick with Naturally Speaking (Score:2)
Another idea, if he's goign to stick with Naturally Speaking, is to use a text-to-braille converter (assuming he can read braille) for the training sessions.
Here [epix.net] is a link to a page that discusses some of those braille output technologies.
Hope this helpsVoice recognition for text requires training (Score:3, Informative)
Why do all of that? He's vision impaired, he should have a friend teach him to touch-type.
Browser / Program control is easy. Get a Mac. They have had built-in voice-based program control with speakable items for about ten years now, and there are products that extend the existing control base.
The google directory [google.com] has links to a lot of speech recognition companies, but I still think your client would be most happy with OSX's recognition options [apple.com]. It doesn't have to be trained for a voice, though its full power does require some Apple Scripting. And there are many products [apple.com] that build on apple's relatively solid base, if you choose not to script "go back" to "apple-B" in the browser yourself. Having used it myself in the past I can confidently say it exists, and used to work at least most of the time.
That's more than can be said for most voice-recognition products. Bring him to an Apple store, and have him try it out. If you go to CompUSA or another superstore, bring your own apple guru to show you.
Re:Voice recognition for text requires training (Score:2)
Another friend suggested him getting a 50 inch plasma screen so the text is REALLY BIG... also probably not a bad idea.
PS, being palestinian myself, I also enjoyed your analogy.
Aloha
This is a problem? (Score:1)
It worked without training. It worked for all menus for all programs, even ones not designed to be voice-recognizable. It worked in one try.
This is a problem?
Re:This is a problem? (Score:1)
How informative.
Re:This is a problem? (Score:1)
Here's something informative: You're an asshole.
Please add me to your foes list. I hate being loved by everyone.
Re:This is a problem? (Score:1)
Hmmm... (Score:1)
But, I might suggest somehow having the training sessions read onto tape so that all that need be done is to repeat aloud the recorded audio that dictates the training passages. That of course would still require some help or slow process to make useful, but they wouldn't have to read anything.
I also know that most of these programs come with a 'read aloud' function that enables you to hear everything you type. You could copy the training passages into them and have them read back to you while you are conducting a training session. That could make it easier.
Speech and other capabilities built into OS X (Score:1)
I just whipped up a script to read a selected bit of this article in Safari, save it to an AIFF file then use iTunes to convert that AIFF file to an mp3. Listen to the result here [geocities.com].
Dragon training. (Score:1)
Once he is done with that he can use the vocabulary builder (I think that is its name). This feature allows him to load documents he has typed in the past and read it back to Dragon. He could then have a brail printout of it to follow and speak.
The natural language processing problem is going to be a tricky one for some time. I know that I want a nice golden protocal droid
macos? (Score:1)
IBM's ViaVoice (Score:1)
IIRC, the training was very short, but it would require help from a sighted person (reading text and adjusting microphone sensitivity). It's all Java and it runs on Linux. If he just wants to enter text, it's okay. It comes with its own editor that can do simple markup and save to RTF format. It required a fairly beefy computer for the times (I think 256MB of RAM and a 500MHz processor) but that type of hardware is more affordable now. I remember it being smart enough to use context in its recognition (e.g. "the nose knows").
PS: I was struck by one of the earlier comments that stated that your friend should learn to touch-type. I'd be suprised if your friend doesn't already know how to touch type. It would seem to be the more efficient and accurate way of communicating with a computer. Forget mice... I hate mice! I myself use the keyboard whenever I can and I'm sighted. However, if you were using your hands to *read* and you wanted to dictate while scanning some braille, the need for voice recognition becomes manifest.