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This seems like a good opportunity for locally processed speech to text (and therefore commands, etc) to push itself. I used Dragon Naturally speaking for quite

This seems like a good opportunity for locally processed speech to text (and therefore commands, etc) to push itself. I used Dragon Naturally speaking for quite some time for writing papers, and loved it, but I am constantly on the lookout to replace anything proprietary I use with a GPL/MIT licensed alternative. Any suggestions?

aidenn0 12y ago
Nuance (the company that now owns Dragon) has a huge patent portfolio for speech recognition. No commercial products will be able to ship with F/LOSS speech recognition because of this. It also makes using the GPL not possible It is possible that someone will make an MIT licensed version (and could do so legally in some countries that aren't the US), but it would be technically illegal to distribute in the US.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  Oh, so that's why we don't have local speech recognition and everything is going to the cloud? Damn it, patents.
  - aidenn0 12y ago
    If you want to be even more pissed off, read the Nuance wikipedia page and see how they essentially bought-out every single potential competitor.
    - PhantomGremlin 12y ago
      Late stage capitalism at its finest. Cut-throat competition becomes oligopoly becomes monopoly. John D. Rockefeller figured this out about 150 years ago. You can always buy NUAN stock. I'm serious, this isn't hyperbole or sarcasm. I won't buy a "merchant of death" like Philip Morris, but I'm going to check out Nuance. If they really have become a monopoly, perhaps there's some money to be made by investing in them. Yes I know it sucks, and in an ideal world you have every right to be "pissed off". But in the real world, you'll do better to remember the slogan: "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". I personally am much "more pissed off" at how companies like Comcast, who are "natural monopolies", have been extracting ever larger "monopoly rent" from everyone. They should be much more tightly regulated than they are.
nivla 12y ago
PocketSphinx/CmuSphinx [1] is your best bet. I have combined it with raspberry pi to voice control my TV, Xbox360 and the lights. Its not very accurate, but if you limit it to a small set of keywords, you are going to be fine. [1] http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/ http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/

aidenn0 12y ago

Nuance (the company that now owns Dragon) has a huge patent portfolio for speech recognition. No commercial products will be able to ship with F/LOSS speech recognition because of this. It also makes using the GPL not possible It is possible that someone will make an MIT licensed version (and could do so legally in some countries that aren't the US), but it would be technically illegal to distribute in the US.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
Oh, so that's why we don't have local speech recognition and everything is going to the cloud? Damn it, patents.
- aidenn0 12y ago
  If you want to be even more pissed off, read the Nuance wikipedia page and see how they essentially bought-out every single potential competitor.
  - PhantomGremlin 12y ago
    Late stage capitalism at its finest. Cut-throat competition becomes oligopoly becomes monopoly. John D. Rockefeller figured this out about 150 years ago. You can always buy NUAN stock. I'm serious, this isn't hyperbole or sarcasm. I won't buy a "merchant of death" like Philip Morris, but I'm going to check out Nuance. If they really have become a monopoly, perhaps there's some money to be made by investing in them. Yes I know it sucks, and in an ideal world you have every right to be "pissed off". But in the real world, you'll do better to remember the slogan: "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". I personally am much "more pissed off" at how companies like Comcast, who are "natural monopolies", have been extracting ever larger "monopoly rent" from everyone. They should be much more tightly regulated than they are.

nivla 12y ago

PocketSphinx/CmuSphinx [1] is your best bet. I have combined it with raspberry pi to voice control my TV, Xbox360 and the lights. Its not very accurate, but if you limit it to a small set of keywords, you are going to be fine. [1] http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/ http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/