Dictation on iPad, now does it process the input?

[PracticalMac]

I noticed dictation only works if you have internet connection, and with only a select few languages (English, Japanese, but not Spanish when I tried).

My guess is a recorded speech is digitized, compressed, sent to some servers (iCloud? or Wolfram Alpha?) for transcribing, then sent back and pasted to document (very impressive).

It also seems to analyze the sentence to help find the correct word, instead of simply analyzing the audio.

It is when trying to speak in a combination of numbers and letters, however, it fails.
For example (take from another discussion topic):

Any data entry into the iPad that switches between letters and numbers is somewhat cumbersome.

Entering "A11 DEF V111 GHI V222 JKLMN Q9A" could possible be easier to speak than type.

In non-rigorous testing, though, I get a weird assortment of results, even though I'm speaking one letter or number at a time. For example, sometimes my home airport, I19, shows up as "I19", "I 19", "EYE19", etc. I think the iPad doesn't know what to do with it since it's not a word.

Would like to know more about how is works, and suggestions on how to input speech in no grammar entry, that is pure Alpha-Numeric strings.

 

[Comeagain?]

Go watch videos and read how Siri works. It's the same thing, just only for dictation.

 

[PracticalMac]

Go watch videos and read how Siri works. It's the same thing, just only for dictation.

Lots of general videos, some good, math too, nothing about alpha-numeric, although the All Caps On is just about there (still the I and EYE issue).

You know some other great videos? Thanks!

 

[PracticalMac]

Go watch videos and read how Siri works. It's the same thing, just only for dictation.

I tried using several Siri commands on iPad to input letter and number stings, result is:

FAIL!!

The CAP rules are applied to sentence structure it seems.
If tell it a proper sentence all the letters are CAPS.
If I rattle off a string of letters and numbers, it spews a worthless string of junk, and I mean junk, in caps and small!

It will confuse "eight" for A, "two" for 2, "eye" for I, "hey" for A, "and" for N, and occasionally spell out the number instead of enter a number.
What is more it consistently outputs the same string, so I am not speaking is badly.

On top of that, sometimes when I say "All caps on", the ON is also added.


Why is this important?
Abbreviated words are still used for items like weather, travel, military, others, so it is an important function.
Example of a weather breif:
KHOU 080323Z 0803/0824 15009KT P6SM FEW025 SCT060 SCT250
FM080630 32015G30KT 4SM TSRA BKN020CB OVC050
FM080700 32012G20KT P6SM -SHRA BKN030
TEMPO 0810/0814 BKN015
FM081400 02006KT P6SM VCSH BKN015
FM081800 05007KT P6SM VCTS BKN025CB BKN100=

Expanded out somewhat:
ID: KHOU Houston/Will Ho, TX
REPORT TIME: 7 23:46
VALID TIME: 8 May AT 00:00Z to 8 May AT 24:00Z.
INITIAL WX
WINDS: 150 AT 9
VISIBILITY: >6.0 MILES
CLOUDS: 25 FEW
CLOUDS: 60 SCT
CLOUDS: 250 SCT
TEMPORARY WX FROM 10Z TO 14Z
CLOUDS: 15 BKN
NEW WX STARTING: 14:00Z
WINDS: 20 AT 6
VISIBILITY: >6.0 MILES
WEATHER: VCSH
CLOUDS: 15 BKN
NEW WX STARTING: 18:00Z
WINDS: 50 AT 7
VISIBILITY: >6.0 MILES
WEATHER: VCTS
CLOUDS: 25 BKN WITH CB
CLOUDS: 100 BKN
COMMENTS: =

 

[juanm]

You really dictate very strange things to your iPad...

I'm quite happy with mine. I commonly use French, Spanish and English. In French, it's pretty much spot on. In English, despite my accent, it gets about 90% right, except for some specific words. And according to Apple, Spanish is coming... Hopefully, it'll come along the new iPhone this summer.

 

[anthonymoody]

The issue I have is with punctuation marks. It's not good at assuming what I want, and I am terrible at remembering to say things like open parenthesis.

 

[noteple]

Gibberish to text, how novel.

That said, the Ipads Accessibility functions and now Dictation are a Godsend to the disabled.

It has brought computing power and communications to a largely neglected segment of the market.

Its far from perfect, but I applaud Apple for their effort.

 

[ZipZap]

I HATE the fact that SIRI and Dictation require the internet.