6 ms·

He is wrong about the accuracy of speech recognition. I know he is wrong because I have actually used Speech Recognition to get real work done. AND to make it w

He is wrong about the accuracy of speech recognition. I know he is wrong because I have actually used Speech Recognition to get real work done. AND to make it worse I have a crap Norwegian accent. MAYBE it is as bad as he describes when you do not train the system and just start speaking. But that is like complaining about Emacs after using it for only 10 minutes. Retarded. I wouldn't be able to code with it though, but for producing prose in English. It. Actually. Works. (I recognize that the problems described in the post is about recognition "in the wild" and not with one person in one quiet room with one microphone like I use it)

WalterGR 16y ago
He is wrong about the accuracy of speech recognition. I know he is wrong because I have actually used Speech Recognition to get real work done. As have I. The dictation capability built in to Vista / Windows 7 is really quite amazing. (They both also have voice control.) I'm an extremely fast typer, but dictating - even with time spent correcting mistakes - is quite a bit faster.
- ableal 16y ago
  > dictation capability built in to Vista / Windows 7 I'll be ... yep, tucked well away under Accessories/Ease of Access. Who knew? (Six month old laptop w/ Win7, successor to an XP machine.) Needs setup and the, so-far unused, built-in mic is not cooperating. It does say it allows text dictation, besides OS voice control.
  - WalterGR 16y ago
    I'll be ... yep, tucked well away under Accessories/Ease of Access. Who knew? And try this one on for size: Microsoft Office 2003 came with built-in voice control and dictation, which could also be used in other applications!
    - ableal 16y ago
      Thanks. I was just thinking "why don't they demo this" and then remembered - they did, back in 2006, and it went embarrassingly wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Speech_Recognition#cite_ref-5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Speech_Recognition#cite...
      - WalterGR 16y ago
        Yes, it did. But be careful: "In 2007, reports surfaced that Windows Speech Recognition could be used to remotely access and/or control a user's computer. Theoretically, playing a pre-recorded message containing Windows Speech Recognition commands could allow one to execute tasks on another computer remotely." Why, that reads like a Wikipedia article about a Microsoft product!
        ableal 16y ago
        I think that anyone who ever gave a non-rigged demo will feel a painful twinge of sympathy for the engineer in that one - "There, but for the grace of God, go I" ... (And, yes, the "security" issue is pretty far-fetched but is factual, I remember it being raised.)
adammichaelc 16y ago
For getting a wordy essay or report done, voice transcription is far and away the best option. You can talk 150-170 wpm, but can only type 60-80 wpm. I have a friend who swears by Dragon, and has used it to crank out more papers in a shorter time. I think the reason people haven't adopted voice transcription is because (1) they don't realize that some of the programs out there have reached the 99% accuracy level, (2) we all have developed the habit of working with a computer with our fingers - breaking habits is hard and (3) -related to 2- our brains have been trained to think as we type in ways that allow us to get certain work done, and if we moved over to getting our work done via voice, there are neural connections we'd have to re-create through training.
- CWuestefeld 16y ago
  For this to work you'd have to have the whole essay mapped out in your mind at the outset. For me, writing with a word processor is not just about setting down my words, but even before that, setting down the structure of the essay, then going back into it non-sequentially to flesh it out. I can't imagine how that would be workable, even if the speech recognition were perfect. Things like "go back to the first paragraph of the section, now after the first sentence insert X" is unwieldy, and bound to take far longer than traditional cursor control with keys or mouse.
  - scott_s 16y ago
    I had a similar thought: how much of the writing process for me is keyed up by actually writing it? That is, I think that the act of typing is now, in my brain, tied to the creative process of writing. I could adapt, of course, but it would take time and effort.

WalterGR 16y ago

He is wrong about the accuracy of speech recognition. I know he is wrong because I have actually used Speech Recognition to get real work done. As have I. The dictation capability built in to Vista / Windows 7 is really quite amazing. (They both also have voice control.) I'm an extremely fast typer, but dictating - even with time spent correcting mistakes - is quite a bit faster.

ableal 16y ago
> dictation capability built in to Vista / Windows 7 I'll be ... yep, tucked well away under Accessories/Ease of Access. Who knew? (Six month old laptop w/ Win7, successor to an XP machine.) Needs setup and the, so-far unused, built-in mic is not cooperating. It does say it allows text dictation, besides OS voice control.
- WalterGR 16y ago
  I'll be ... yep, tucked well away under Accessories/Ease of Access. Who knew? And try this one on for size: Microsoft Office 2003 came with built-in voice control and dictation, which could also be used in other applications!
  - ableal 16y ago
    Thanks. I was just thinking "why don't they demo this" and then remembered - they did, back in 2006, and it went embarrassingly wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Speech_Recognition#cite_ref-5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Speech_Recognition#cite...
    - WalterGR 16y ago
      Yes, it did. But be careful: "In 2007, reports surfaced that Windows Speech Recognition could be used to remotely access and/or control a user's computer. Theoretically, playing a pre-recorded message containing Windows Speech Recognition commands could allow one to execute tasks on another computer remotely." Why, that reads like a Wikipedia article about a Microsoft product!
      - ableal 16y ago
        I think that anyone who ever gave a non-rigged demo will feel a painful twinge of sympathy for the engineer in that one - "There, but for the grace of God, go I" ... (And, yes, the "security" issue is pretty far-fetched but is factual, I remember it being raised.)

adammichaelc 16y ago

For getting a wordy essay or report done, voice transcription is far and away the best option. You can talk 150-170 wpm, but can only type 60-80 wpm. I have a friend who swears by Dragon, and has used it to crank out more papers in a shorter time. I think the reason people haven't adopted voice transcription is because (1) they don't realize that some of the programs out there have reached the 99% accuracy level, (2) we all have developed the habit of working with a computer with our fingers - breaking habits is hard and (3) -related to 2- our brains have been trained to think as we type in ways that allow us to get certain work done, and if we moved over to getting our work done via voice, there are neural connections we'd have to re-create through training.

CWuestefeld 16y ago
For this to work you'd have to have the whole essay mapped out in your mind at the outset. For me, writing with a word processor is not just about setting down my words, but even before that, setting down the structure of the essay, then going back into it non-sequentially to flesh it out. I can't imagine how that would be workable, even if the speech recognition were perfect. Things like "go back to the first paragraph of the section, now after the first sentence insert X" is unwieldy, and bound to take far longer than traditional cursor control with keys or mouse.
- scott_s 16y ago
  I had a similar thought: how much of the writing process for me is keyed up by actually writing it? That is, I think that the act of typing is now, in my brain, tied to the creative process of writing. I could adapt, of course, but it would take time and effort.