elmimmo said:
Nice of you being selfish!
But other languages would be nice too... At least the "big ones" like Spanish, French, German and maybe russian.
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Apple Spoken Interface
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Nice of you being selfish!
But other languages would be nice too... At least the "big ones" like Spanish, French, German and maybe russian.
AirUncleP said:
Please let me rephrase:
It's nice to see a company develop products to help ALL of us US citizens!
Sorry, but I couldn't resist! It gets on my nerves that so many features or services are "US only"...
Of all the things your Mac can do
No need for it? Say the phrase: "Make Me World Leader!"
MacVault said:Any idea if Apple will include voice recognition so that one can control the Mac by speaking to it?
edit: stupd me. looks like this functionality is already built in.
No need for it? Say the phrase: "Make Me World Leader!"
ginoledesma said:By far the best sounding voices I've heard are those from AT&T's Natural Voices. The speakers sound very decent, and it beats anything Apple has to offer as of the moment. Check out their interactive demo and compare the bundled voices with what it can churn out. The demo allows you to save the short clips -- I use them all the time with Mail actions.
So do I, best idea I ever had!
andyduncan said:
I think they should try and emulate famous actors like Sean Connery etc, to give their readers more personality and appeal
This is the next logical step in OS interaction. MS has been working on hand gestures but that will only take you so far.
Who cares about the voices?
Honestly, if Apple is going to put effort into this, I would much rather they got all of the functionality working (and working well) than to have nicer sounding the voices. Sure, they sound old, but you can easily understand what they are saying, and that's the most important part.
Don't get me wrong, new voices would be good, but I would rather they do that later. And for all we know, they are working on new voices; 10.4 is still months away.
Honestly, if Apple is going to put effort into this, I would much rather they got all of the functionality working (and working well) than to have nicer sounding the voices. Sure, they sound old, but you can easily understand what they are saying, and that's the most important part.
Don't get me wrong, new voices would be good, but I would rather they do that later. And for all we know, they are working on new voices; 10.4 is still months away.
ginoledesma said:By far the best sounding voices I've heard are those from AT&T's Natural Voices. The speakers sound very decent, and it beats anything Apple has to offer as of the moment. Check out their interactive demo and compare the bundled voices with what it can churn out. The demo allows you to save the short clips -- I use them all the time with Mail actions.
Well, I'm actually not that impressed with them. I just gave them a trial run, and the voice quality didn't seem much different than Vicki. In at least one instance, I'd even say that they were a far cry worse than Vicki. (Neither of the US voices properly pronounced my name 'Geoff'. The UK voices did, though.)
If I had to pick one of the english voices from AT&T's Natural Voices to port over to Mac OS X's voices, I'd choose Audrey from the UK english.
Speaking of being selfish...
I'm not visually impaired, but I'd like to know if the new software will give me additional ways to control the GUI from the keyboard without using the mouse.
In other words, does this add new options even when you aren't having text read to you?
I'm not visually impaired, but I'd like to know if the new software will give me additional ways to control the GUI from the keyboard without using the mouse.
In other words, does this add new options even when you aren't having text read to you?
The best news in a long time
I work at the Royal National College for the Blind, the leading VI college in the UK. I've been crying out for this for many a year, due to the college being PC Based. This will certainly ruffle some feathers. Just today, my Tech Support Manager said he would budget for a Mac, for evaluation work. The tide is turning, lets ride the wave (cue Beach Boys, cue S Jobs in surfin' turtle neck gear!)
I work at the Royal National College for the Blind, the leading VI college in the UK. I've been crying out for this for many a year, due to the college being PC Based. This will certainly ruffle some feathers. Just today, my Tech Support Manager said he would budget for a Mac, for evaluation work. The tide is turning, lets ride the wave (cue Beach Boys, cue S Jobs in surfin' turtle neck gear!)
hayesk said:
It's not that they sound old to me, I just find them hard to understand, and hard to speed up without mangling the transitions between words. I find the electronic sound fatiguing. I can't imagine listening to that all day.
Just like I find the Aqua GUI less fatiguing because it's attractive and smooth, I'd expect better voices to make a spoken interface easier to use.
Granted, I don't use this feature for what it's meant to be used for, so my priorities may be off...
Analog Kid said:
I couldn't agree more, about speeding them up. I find Vicki's voice quite pleasant and easy to listen to, so long as her voice speed is set to 'Normal'. But, as soon as you speed her voice up at all, there's some terrible clipping, and even some words get dropped. It makes it very difficult to listen to...
simX said:
Yes, well, if you're paying attention you'll note that the movie is set in 2011. So, let's keep pushing the boundaries, and we may get there in the next seven years.
Analog Kid said:
Actually (to be a teeny, tiny bit nit-picky
), it'sWoman: "Ah ha, is this one of your typical last minute panics for lecture material?"
Man: "No, no no no no, that's not until, um..." (Pause)
Computer: "4:15"
But the real point is that the computer is trying to fill in information that it sees is its human owner is trying to remember. While the leap to announcing when the lecture is does take a judgement, I don't see that the video is showing the man trying to cue his computer, so much as the computer trying to do its job. In this case, however, the computer manages to help the man stick his foot in his mouth by revealing that the lecture in question is that same afternoon, and therefore it is a last minute panic for lecture material. So, assuming that the computer is able to recognize natural language, and is therefore able to follow the conversation, I don't see this as too terribly extraordinary.
Well, I do not know if you think that way either because, as an English user, you have had for ages many more alternatives than what we Spanish have, and thus, you have a different quality threshold than what we can expect to find, or because you are far more demanding than I am.frozenstar said:
Either way, I have been most impressed by Speechisimo's quality. Having into account that it is the FIRST Spaniard Spanish voice I have stumbled upon, I could very well mistake the samples with a somewhat pretty dumb, albeit real life, human. That does not apply when you demand more expressive or punctated texts in the interactive demo, but it is definitely a thing a did not know was even close to technically possible, and at such a low price.
I was being sarcastic, just in case someone did not get it. Speech commands have been on the Mac OS for ages, and still nowadays you could pretty much wipe out the Speech prefpane or whatever other trace of its function in the OS, and rarely any non-English user would miss it, since whatever that falls into that field is currently rather useless in a non-English environment.elmimmo said:
Wave of the future
Of course screen reader functionality will win friends and government contracts, but the broader benefit is that it helps lay the foundation for expanded voice interaction on the Mac.
Mix Speakable Items, Screen Reader, iSync, Mail and iCal - now we're talking!
User: "Computer, open a new email to Mom."
Mac: "Opened. It's been two weeks since you visited. Do you want to suggest a visit this Sunday?"
Of course screen reader functionality will win friends and government contracts, but the broader benefit is that it helps lay the foundation for expanded voice interaction on the Mac.
Mix Speakable Items, Screen Reader, iSync, Mail and iCal - now we're talking!
User: "Computer, open a new email to Mom."
Mac: "Opened. It's been two weeks since you visited. Do you want to suggest a visit this Sunday?"
