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pianoman

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 31, 2006
1,963
0
Does anyone use the Speech Recognition features built into OS X?

I gave it a go today and found it very cumbersome. I couldn't get it to do the simplest of tasks: opening a new Finder window, quitting programs. The only thing it did well was switch between programs.

Maybe I have too little patience, but I think I'll stick with my keyboard (with Quicksilver and cmd+tab) and mouse.
 

GimmeSlack12

macrumors 603
Apr 29, 2005
5,403
12
San Francisco
Speech Recognition for Mac OS hasn't changed much in about 15 years so don't expect it to be too useful.

If you have arms then you should not rely on Speech Rec. If you don't have any arms, I am sorry to hear that, but you can still use your Mac.
 

macguysoft

macrumors member
Jan 9, 2007
66
0
As far as I'm concerned, Leopard is supposed to improve on this greatly. In fact, I've tried it and the speech recognition was over 2x better than tiger. There so far hasn't been a single mistake in the recognition.

Personally, the speech recognition tools are useful but I see areas where they could take advantage of this. But really? Most of the time, i was able to do all those simply tasks...
 

GimmeSlack12

macrumors 603
Apr 29, 2005
5,403
12
San Francisco
To be honest I will not use speech recognition until it is like the computer on Star Trek. I don't find memorizing commands more efficient, and having to repeat myself ever is slower than using Quicksilver or even Spotlight. Also trying to use it when music is playing makes it even more impossible.

Even if Leopard Speech Recogn. is 2x faster (which is a very subjective comment) I will still not use it. Nor recommend it.
 

BigPrince

macrumors 68020
Dec 27, 2006
2,053
111
I do. Not extensivly, just for fun. I walk into my room and I will say "Hello Computer. iTunes please. Play." And off it goes.

I use it in conjunction with Proxi. Thats pretty much as far as it goes, sometimes I tell it to put the screen saver on. But when I wanna impress people I pull that out :).Followed by "Mice are so 20th century and so PC like."
 

macguysoft

macrumors member
Jan 9, 2007
66
0
Even if Leopard Speech Recogn. is 2x faster (which is a very subjective comment) I will still not use it. Nor recommend it.

This in itself is a very subjective comment. At least my comment can be tested! it is faster but I meant that the responsiveness and recognition is 2x better than Tiger. This is not to say that you guys need speech recognition. As I said, Apple does need to improve on it to be more useful because it's quite limited in functionality.
 

bousozoku

Moderator emeritus
Jun 25, 2002
15,603
1,761
Lard
This in itself is a very subjective comment. At least my comment can be tested! it is faster but I meant that the responsiveness and recognition is 2x better than Tiger. This is not to say that you guys need speech recognition. As I said, Apple does need to improve on it to be more useful because it's quite limited in functionality.

I'm not sure they speed is such a big deal, but I think most people don't speak clearly enough for Speech Recognition to understand. Even with my odd accent, it responds pretty well but then, I don't blend my words a lot, the way most people do.

I'm sure if the people on Star Trek spoke the way most people do, they wouldn't get good responses either.
 

Apemanblues

macrumors regular
Jan 30, 2007
162
0
Zombieland
I tried it for about a day but I felt like a right pillock. Plus, It's not very reliable either.

"Computer. Copy, Paste. No. Computer. Copy. C O P Y. Yes. Computer? Copy. F***. Oi!"
 

Analog Kid

macrumors G3
Mar 4, 2003
8,810
11,265
I really want to use it, but it's too maddening to even play with. Crash prone, as well. Apple demonstrated new voices for Leopard, I'm hoping that new speech recognition is also, in fact, true.

Thought it was the mic for a long time and went through a string of them, no luck. Speaking carefully just seemed to make it worse. Anytime a car went by outside it just threw up its hands.

I used it for Chess for a while, which is a really cool demo of it, but chess is frustrating enough for me without having to ask a dozen time to put my queen where it will be taken...
 

macguysoft

macrumors member
Jan 9, 2007
66
0
I'm not sure they speed is such a big deal, but I think most people don't speak clearly enough for Speech Recognition to understand.

Speed wasn't my point which is why I tried to correct him. My point is that the Speech recognition is 2x better but not faster. Apple has improved Universal Access quite a bit but I would be surprised if Leopard has some more things in store for us. I doubt it will reach the Star Trek level but wouldn't it be cool if you spoke and the computer typed it for you? I wish that this would be one of the features in Leopard. Of course it won't be needed all the time but it's nice to have.
 

GimmeSlack12

macrumors 603
Apr 29, 2005
5,403
12
San Francisco
This in itself is a very subjective comment. At least my comment can be tested! it is faster but I meant that the responsiveness and recognition is 2x better than Tiger. This is not to say that you guys need speech recognition. As I said, Apple does need to improve on it to be more useful because it's quite limited in functionality.

Alright, I've never tried it (the Leopard version) so I'll take your word for it. I just hope you have arms ;)
 

bousozoku

Moderator emeritus
Jun 25, 2002
15,603
1,761
Lard
Speed wasn't my point which is why I tried to correct him. My point is that the Speech recognition is 2x better but not faster. Apple has improved Universal Access quite a bit but I would be surprised if Leopard has some more things in store for us. I doubt it will reach the Star Trek level but wouldn't it be cool if you spoke and the computer typed it for you? I wish that this would be one of the features in Leopard. Of course it won't be needed all the time but it's nice to have.

Yes, the dictation thingee. I tried IBM's ViaVoice before Mac OS X was available because it was supposedly so good. I tried to train the software but never could. It took several minutes just to get through the first paragraph, so I gave up on it. Eventually, I moved to Mac OS X and IBM wanted to charge for the upgrade and I didn't download it. At some point, they decided to make it free and I still didn't bother with it because the software was too much of a pain.

It would be nice if it worked. As much as they all worked on Unicode, Apple, IBM, and Fuji Xerox all have also done a lot of work on speech recognition but it still has a long way to go for any group of people.

Apple still haven't given a solution for anything but English. You'd think with their global reach, they would actually do more.
 

le sacre

macrumors regular
Apr 20, 2004
123
0
sf, ca, usa
it does seem better in leopard

i think leopard has actually improved the speech recognition. it seems to do a better job hearing me from a distance (which for me is key to when it would actually be useful), and when there's music playing (from external, not internal speakers). what i would mostly use it for is controlling itunes. plus asking what the current song is. that's kind of fun.
 

thesdx

macrumors 6502a
Jul 12, 2007
673
2
Speech recognition so far hasn't been able to recognize a single word I've said. It just doesn't work. Probably because my voice is somewhat high.
 

paola105

macrumors 6502
Jun 21, 2007
328
0
I just played with it. To my surprise it was able to recognize 99% of what I said
 

Veri

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2007
611
0
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 is good

I have RSI, so I sometimes revert to using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for dictating text, and, when I'm feeling masochistic, dictating LaTeX source - it's slow, but the majority of the effort is in the thinking, and that's already done with pen+paper.

Version 9 is to my mind really good providing you learn to speak clearly, buy a decent microphone (Sennheiser ME3 here), and don't work in a noisy environment; after a couple of weeks you should see yourself speaking a paragraph at a natural pace with maybe 0-2 errors. You will probably find yourself changing your thought proceses such that you're able to form coherent, eloquent sentences before you start making noise, which can help in communicating well offline too! Dragon can also be used to control your system: "Open Notepad", "File/Save as" etc. The :( is that it's Windows-only, but it still works reasonably under VMware Fusion (1.83GHz C2D, 750MB allocated to XP)...

...which brings me to the question: has anyone tried iListen? At command+control, should I expect it to beat pants off OS X's own offering? At dictation, does it compare favourably with Dragon, or ViaVoice perhaps? Any comments welcome.

Cheers.
 

neonblue2

macrumors 6502a
Aug 25, 2006
523
0
Port Pirie, South Australia
Tell me a joke...
Tell me a joke...
Tell me a joke...
*Continues for several minutes*
Knock knock
Who's there?...
Who's there?...
Who is there?...
*Continues for several minutes*
Quit
****

That's my experience
 

APPLENEWBIE

macrumors 6502a
May 8, 2006
707
14
The high desert, USA
I have RSI, so I sometimes revert to using Dragon NaturallySpeaking for dictating text

I have just bought Dragon NS 9 preferred to run under Fusion. I also got a logitech USB microphone (stereo headset). I cannot get DNS to "hear" the microphone. When I try to run the "general training" routine, speaking into the mike, DNS is not getting anything. ALso, I get a pull down message from Fusion stating "sound will not be available" Any ideas??
 

Nydator

macrumors member
Jun 6, 2007
36
0
I have had exactly the same experience as neonblue2 - I suspect the problem we have in common is the Australian accent. I love the idea of my computer telling me a joke on command but can't ever get past 'knock knock'. Other commands it just ignores altogether. I have even tried imitating an American accent but this hasn't worked - just makes me feel foolish.
 

Veri

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2007
611
0
I have just bought Dragon NS 9 preferred to run under Fusion. I also got a logitech USB microphone (stereo headset).
Enable USB support for the guest, and Virtual Machine/USB/Connect the microphone. Greater CPU usage, but way better than trying to pass through the Mac's audio system.
 

Shadow

macrumors 68000
Feb 17, 2006
1,577
1
IMO, speech recognition is a bit of a gimmick. No-one really uses it, but its good to show off :D
 

SurfSpirit

macrumors member
Mar 11, 2006
65
0
Mac Speech Recognition

Yes, it's great and I use it, normally I don't use any apps that I don't actually need, but heck, Voice Recognition in Leopard uses about 5% of the cpu in a core duo 2GHz all voice activated, no key needed, in my computer a white Macbook Core Duo it works really well, but I only use it like "Mac - Desktop" so it show me the Desktop, "Mac - Windows". "Mac - Spaces", it really is great, I am portuguese, so my accent is not the best one, so if it works well for me I don't know why wouldn't work for native english people, one thing is for sure, if you have music running on, of course it won't work (actually it should be deactivated automatically in when iTunes is "singing"), at least hardly, but it's a great way to work with, since I don't have to take my hand of the mouse when I want to paste something to the Desktop and so on. You should give it a try, but use it only in this kind of stuff! ;)
 

Cerebrus' Maw

macrumors 6502
Mar 9, 2008
409
1
Brisbane, Australia
I'm not sure they speed is such a big deal, but I think most people don't speak clearly enough for Speech Recognition to understand. Even with my odd accent, it responds pretty well but then, I don't blend my words a lot, the way most people do.

I'm sure if the people on Star Trek spoke the way most people do, they wouldn't get good responses either.

This post delivers:

Picard: Computer, shields up!!

Computer: Knock, knock..

Picard: Whut?? No, I said shields up!!

Worf : Sir, there's Klingons off the starboard bow.

Picard: I know! Thats why I'm trying to get....

Computer: Self destruct sequence initiated.

Picard: What!!

Riker: Why the hell did you do that?

Picard: I didn't! Honest.

Geordie: Sir, I think we might be able to roll back to 10.5.5, and then reapply the patch. It looks to have broken our wireless network, and is interfering in the Voice Recognition Protocol.

Picard: Geez, it's like 10.5.2 all over again.

Worf: Sir, the klingons...

Riker: Stuff the klingons. I can't play WoW

Computer: 1 minute to self destruct.

Riker: Oh yeah, forgot about that.

Picard: Geordie, do something!

Geordie: Look, I cant hold the shift key any harder and it wont boot any quicker....

Worf: The Klingons sent us a message, Sir. Open Terminal and type, without the quotes, "default write /Library/Preferences/voice.plist -encode 0 -w -a"

Riker: Crazy jugheads...

Picard: Do it!

Computer: Sequence interrupted.

Picard: Whew, that was close...

Riker: Awesome, full signal strength. Just got to level 70. Got me some ganking to do.

Geordie: Computer, run system diagnos

Computer: Knock, knock....

Picard: Oh for the love of God....

</nerd>
 
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