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Researchers at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center have been working for years at developing workable speech recognition for Palm handhelds, according to the NY Times. This is based on decades of research by the company into speech technology. Liam D. Comerford, a speech engineer, has a heavily-modified prototype Palm III that has both speech recognition and text-to-speech capabilities.

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He can dictate memos and have the handheld read them back. He can also verbally enter Date Book entries. Instead of beeping for an alarm, Mr. Comerford's Palm can announce that he has an appointment. He can also dictate expense items.

To use voice dictation in an application on your Mac, first select a text field in an application. Next, press the Fn (Function) key twice or click the Edit menu and select Start Dictation. Speak to your Mac and the words you speak will start appearing in the text field.

His modifications included adding a speaker, a microphone, and an additional processor to the Palm.

• SimpleVR speaker-independent Voice Recog. $34.50 $19.99 Save: 42% off. Featured - more. SimpleVR speaker-independent Voice Recognition Module.
• Simplevr Speaker-independent Voice Recognition Module Program For Mac 5,2/10 1540 votes This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Voice and Speech Recognition Technology in US$ Thousand. The Global market is additionally analyzed by the following Segments: Voice Recognition, and Speech Recognition.

Thanks to Ophir Prusak for the tip. -Ed

Related Information:

• PIC: MPCpro Offers Hands-Free Access While Driving

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Ooookaayy....

Even more importantly...

No way, dude!

What it really needs to do is fit in a brand new unit that is 1/8 inch thick, as narrow as the Clie, shorter than the 505, with a larger screen than either that runs at 640x800, with a virtual grafitti area, 32 bit color, litium ion batteries with a minimum 1/2 year between recharges, full multi-media support at 60 frames a second and CD quality audio, Bluetooth, always on wireless, support for CF, SD and MemStick, and has a integrated full-size fold out keyboard for when your voice is hurting (but that adds nothing to the size of the unit). And of course it can't cost more than $250 or it will never sell.

Until they do that, voice recognition is pretty much worthless and really a complete waste of time to continue to research. Besides, it'll never amount to anything useful.

Sheesh, some of the posts on this site.

RE: Ooookaayy....

RE: Ooookaayy....

RE: Ooookaayy....

I saw this device at an IBM conference for User Centered Design, and it worked fairly well in terms having the Palm look up an address, read you your appointments, etc. The form factor was a very narrow sled that fit on the back of a Palm III (which was the top of the line when I saw it).

The only situation in which I could see myself using such a device is in the car when using the stylus is difficult and dangerous. Looking things up on a Palm is already very fast.

Dictation is a possibility, especially for some professions (e.g., in the medical field), but I wouldn't use it myself.

RE: Ooookaayy....

It don't need to be 505 size. A sled or whatever is fine because as the above people have noted you would really only use it in the car.

It would be great for the car even if it don't work great. (It couldn't be any worse than the garbled crap I input driving at 90mph.)

RE: Ooookaayy....

I remember that the first Phillips Nino (remember that one?) had limited voice recognition for accessing contacts or other simple functions. It worked so bad it was funny - like those old Doonsbury cartoons of the first Newton's handwriting recognition capabilities.

I would love usable voice recognition on my PDA - especially for dictation of memos, emails, minutes, etc. But I am so self-concious, I doubt I could ever see myself talking into my PDA, even if it did work.

--Charlie

RE: Ooookaayy....

Hi Folks,

I believe it is possible to have highly accurate speech recognition on a Treo (cell phone integrated w/handspring PDA).

Currently, there is simply not enough computing horsepower and memory on a PDA to get good user independent speech recognition. That horsepower needs to reside at the speech recognition server at the cell phone service provider.

If you are talking to someone on the Treo phone and you want to setup an appointment with them, initiate a 3 way call with the speech recognition service and state the date, start time, end time, and location and record a brief voice memo associated with the event. The speech recognition server interprets the speech and pushes the appointment onto your pilot and stores the memo associated with it on your voice mail.

If you needed driving directions, the server could forward the call to TellMe (800-555-8355) and it will give you driving directions for free. If TellMe would be willing, they could make arrangements to push the text of the driving directions onto your Treo, or you could simply record the directions into voice mail.

Pretty neat huh?

Zac

Great for Medical charting

nt

Battery Life

RE: Battery Life

Where's the beef?

RE: Where's the beef?

RE: Where's the beef?

RE: Where's the beef?

Sounds like a jobs for...A Springboard Module!

I think if IBM looked at throwing this hardware into a Springboard module, this could fly. Toss in a nice, fast DSP and some RAM, and it should not take up much room at all. The Visor already has a built in Microphone that does a darn nice job (At least with the dictation modules I have sold).

I wonder if IBM has some kind of marketing agreement with Palm that forbids them from creating Springboard Modules. Being that they make a custom 500 & 505 and all.

The previos poster who mentioned Doctors is correct. Dicatation is a very important part of a Doctors day, and having a nice visor Edge sized device with a voice Recognition module would be fantastic!

Good for IBM!

RE: Sounds like a jobs for...A Springboard Module!

The previos (sic) poster who mentioned, 'Dont (sic) be silly, IBM don't sell rebranded Visors. Supporting the competition is not what I'd want to do.' is correct.

Don't be silly. Voice recognition is barely functional on PCs right now, but will probably be an important interface Very Soon Now. While voice recognition for PDAs is definitely the Holy Grail, the technology won't be here for at least another year.

Right now, PocketPCs appear to be the most likely to incorporate this into their feature set. Microsoft already has the software experience in voice recognition and we'll probably see chips released that offload voice processing from the PDA's CPU by next year.

My ideal device?
- Palm Vx size
- CLIE N760C color screen
- Voice regognition/transcription
- Seamless running of programs from CompactFlash
- Ability to link with cellphone for wireles access (e.g. via Bluetooth)
- PalmOS (or backward-compatible derivative)

I fully expect Sony will have something similar by the end of 2002, except it will use Memory Stick. Hopefully, CompactFlash-to-Memory Stick adapters will be widely available by then.

RE: Sounds like a jobs for...A Springboard Module!

> Right now, PocketPCs appear to be the most likely to incorporate this into their
> feature set. Microsoft already has the software experience in voice recognition
> and we'll probably see chips released that offload voice processing from the PDA's
> CPU by next year.

Microsoft has experience in voice recognition???
chips to offload voice processing???

Since when did Microsoft have 'experience in voice recognition'? Since when did Microsoft start looking toward co-processors to offload functionality from the main CPU? Neither is happening on this planet anyhow.

Guys - this is *research*

RE: Guys - this is *research*

Hi again folks,

Currently, there is simply not enough computing horsepower and memory on a PDA to get good user independent speech recognition. That horsepower needs to reside at the speech recognition server at the cell phone service provider.

If you are talking to someone on the Treo cell-phone/PDA and you want to setup an appointment with them, initiate a 3 way call with the speech recognition service and state the date, start time, end time, and location and record a brief voice memo associated with the event. The speech recognition server interprets the speech and pushes the appointment onto your pilot and stores the memo associated with it on your voice mail.

If you needed driving directions, the server could forward the call to TellMe (800-555-8355) and it will give you driving directions for free. If TellMe would be willing, they could make arrangements to push the text of the driving directions onto your Treo, or you could simply record the directions into voice mail.

I need this service like I need a hole in my head! I'm tired of trying to get my palm pilot to recognize the letter 'R' on the grafitti pad! And I still don't know how it can suddenly jump to a completely different date and time while I'm trying to enter the text for the appointment I'm creating.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Cheers!

Zac

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macOS Catalina introduces Voice Control, a new way to fully control your Mac entirely with your voice. Voice Control uses the Siri speech-recognition engine to improve on the Enhanced Dictation feature available in earlier versions of macOS.¹

How to turn on Voice Control

After upgrading to macOS Catalina, follow these steps to turn on Voice Control:

1. Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Accessibility.
2. Click Voice Control in the sidebar.
3. Select Enable Voice Control. When you turn on Voice Control for the first time, your Mac completes a one-time download from Apple.²
   Voice Control preferences
   

When Voice Control is enabled, you see an onscreen microphone representing the mic selected in Voice Control preferences.

To pause Voice Control and stop it from from listening, say ”Go to sleep” or click Sleep. To resume Voice Control, say or click ”Wake up.”

How to use Voice Control

Get to know Voice Control by reviewing the list of voice commands available to you: Say “Show commands” or ”Show me what I can say.” The list varies based on context, and you may discover variations not listed. To make it easier to know whether Voice Control heard your phrase as a command, you can select ”Play sound when command is recognized” in Voice Control preferences.

Basic navigation

Voice Control recognizes the names of many apps, labels, controls, and other onscreen items, so you can navigate by combining those names with certain commands. Here are some examples:

• Open Pages: ”Open Pages.” Then create a new document: ”Click New Document.” Then choose one of the letter templates: 'Click Letter. Click Classic Letter.” Then save your document: ”Save document.”
• Start a new message in Mail: ”Click New Message.” Then address it: ”John Appleseed.”
• Turn on Dark Mode: ”Open System Preferences. Click General. Click Dark.” Then quit System Preferences: ”Quit System Preferences” or ”Close window.”
• Restart your Mac: ”Click Apple menu. Click Restart” (or use the number overlay and say ”Click 8”).

You can also create your own voice commands.

Number overlays

Use number overlays to quickly interact with parts of the screen that Voice Control recognizes as clickable, such as menus, checkboxes, and buttons. To turn on number overlays, say ”Show numbers.” Then just say a number to click it.

Number overlays make it easy to interact with complex interfaces, such as web pages. For example, in your web browser you could say ”Search for Apple stores near me.” Then use the number overlay to choose one of the results: ”Show numbers. Click 64.” (If the name of the link is unique, you might also be able to click it without overlays by saying ”Click” and the name of the link.)

Voice Control automatically shows numbers in menus and wherever you need to distinguish between items that have the same name.

Grid overlays

Use grid overlays to interact with parts of the screen that don't have a control, or that Voice Control doesn't recognize as clickable.

Say “Show grid” to show a numbered grid on your screen, or ”Show window grid” to limit the grid to the active window. Say a grid number to subdivide that area of the grid, and repeat as needed to continue refining your selection.

See All Results For This Question

To click the item behind a grid number, say ”Click” and the number. Or say ”Zoom” and the number to zoom in on that area of the grid, then automatically hide the grid. You can also use grid numbers to drag a selected item from one area of the grid to another: ”Drag 3 to 14.”

To hide grid numbers, say ”Hide numbers.” To hide both numbers and grid, say ”Hide grid.”

Dictation

When the cursor is in a document, email message, text message, or other text field, you can dictate continuously. Dictation converts your spoken words into text.

• To enter a punctuation mark, symbol, or emoji, just speak its name, such as ”question mark” or ”percent sign” or ”happy emoji.” These may vary by language or dialect.
• To move around and select text, you can use commands like ”Move up two sentences” or ”Move forward one paragraph” or ”Select previous word” or ”Select next paragraph.”
• To format text, try ”Bold that” or ”Capitalize that,” for example. Say ”numeral” to format your next phrase as a number.
• To delete text, you can choose from many delete commands. For example, say “delete that” and Voice Control knows to delete what you just typed. Or say ”Delete all” to delete everything and start over.

Voice Recognition Software For Mac - Free Downloads And ...

Voice Control understands contextual cues, so you can seamlessly transition between text dictation and commands. For example, to dictate and then send a birthday greeting in Messages, you could say ”Happy Birthday. Click Send.” Or to replace a phrase, say ”Replace I’m almost there with I just arrived.”

You can also create your own vocabulary for use with dictation.

SimpleVR Speaker-independent Voice Recognition Module ...

Create your own voice commands and vocabulary

Create your own voice commands

1. Open Voice Control preferences, such as by saying ”Open Voice Control preferences.”
2. Click Commands or say ”Click Commands.” The complete list of all commands opens.
3. To add a new command, click the add button (+) or say ”Click add.” Then configure these options to define the command:
   • When I say: Enter the word or phrase that you want to be able to speak to perform the action.
   • While using: Choose whether your Mac performs the action only when you're using a particular app.
   • Perform: Choose the action to perform. You can open a Finder item, open a URL, paste text, paste data from the clipboard, press a keyboard shortcut, select a menu item, or run an Automator workflow.
4. Use the checkboxes to turn commands on or off. You can also select a command to find out whether other phrases work with that command. For example, “Undo that” works with several phrases, including “Undo this” and “Scratch that.”

To quickly add a new command, you can say ”Make this speakable.” Voice Control will help you configure the new command based on the context. For example, if you speak this command while a menu item is selected, Voice Control helps you make a command for choosing that menu item.

Create your own dictation vocabulary

1. Open Voice Control preferences, such as by saying ”Open Voice Control preferences.”
2. Click Vocabulary, or say ”Click Vocabulary.”
3. Click the add button (+) or say ”Click add.”
4. Type a new word or phrase as you want it to be entered when spoken.

Learn more

• For the best performance when using Voice Control with a Mac notebook computer and an external display, keep your notebook lid open or use an external microphone.
• All audio processing for Voice Control happens on your device, so your personal data is always kept private.
• Use Voice Control on your iPhone or iPod touch.
• Learn more about accessibility features in Apple products.

1. Voice Control uses the Siri speech-recognition engine for U.S. English only. Other languages and dialects use the speech-recognition engine previously available with Enhanced Dictation.

2. If you're on a business or school network that uses a proxy server, Voice Control might not be able to download. Have your network administrator refer to the network ports used by Apple software products.