Speech commands taking on a life of their own

[annk]

I think this is a hardware issue, not software, sorry if I'm posting in the wrong place.

(Edit - Sorry, realized too late that it is of course a software issue, but I don't know how to move my post...)

I recently discovered the speech commands possibility on my PB G4, and have enjoyed trying things out. But it takes on a life of its own:

When the PB is on, screen opened on my coffee table and I'm sitting quietly nearby reading a book, I will suddenly hear it say, "BACK!" or, "MAC FORUMS" or another bookmark in the bookmark bar of Safari - and the browser opens to that page.

While surfing (quietly, no background noise) in Safari, the computer will suddenly yell out, "HOME!" or "BACK", and the page I'm looking at (or the bill I'm paying on nettbank ) is gone.

I was half-way through a mail, and the computer said, "SEND!" and the mail whooshed out.

I only turn on speech commands now to show people how it works, but I'd like to use it more often if only it would behave. Does this happen to anyone else, and how do you deal with it??

 

[AmigoMac]

Did it start on sunday?

 

[Cybernanga]

The only thing I can think of at the moment is that possibly, Speech Recognition, and Text-to-Speech are interfering with each other. However I doubt this is what's happening.

Just to be on the safe side, try this:

Open System preferences, and choose the speech pane.

Then click the "Spoken User Interface" tab.

Now, under "Other Spoken Items", make sure that "Text Under the mouse" is NOT selected.

I'll check back here soon to see if there's any further info, or if I think of anything else.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Same kind of thing happened to me, but it was due to iTunes. Some songs had some keywords in them. Surfin Safari was one... everytime they said "Were gonna go on a surfin safari" Safari popped up. Took me a while to figure it out. I enabled the press-to-talk, and set it to ESC (default methinks). No more random launching of applications! Yay!

 

[annk]

Now, under "Other Spoken Items", make sure that "Text Under the mouse" is NOT selected.

Oh....I bet you´re right. I thought the "Text under the mouse" thing was cool, because the American voice (on my US-purchased PB) reads Norwegian with a heavy American accent. It sounded very funny. But I bet that´s what might be messing things up sometimes.

On the other hand, my PB is open and on across the room, while I´m the only one home sitting in my chair reading a book quietly...What would make it suddenly declare random speech commands and open programs? Very weird.

One day, we had a shouting match: I was browsing, it said, "Mac!" (a bookmark in the bookmark bar), I said, "Back!" and this went on for about 4 -5 rounds, until my husband observed that I was actually arguing with my computer and I turned speech prefs off. Maybe it´s Apple making sure I check out the store now and then?

 

[Dalriada]

Annk, sorry to hear your woes but that really just made my day ... that was just SO funny reading your verbal exchange with your PB

 

[SpaceMagic]

Maybe it´s Apple making sure I check out the store now and then?

Maybe it's Apple making sure we remember our sanity sometimes You're alright.. you realised what you were doing after a short while..

Some people... may never stop talking to their computer..

 

[Mechcozmo]

Some people... may never stop talking to their computer..

You mean it isn't a real person?

Have you tried the press-to-speak shmangy yet? Where you press the button and then speak, then let go...

 

[annk]

Yeah, having to push a key to speak does solve the problem, it seems. It´s just so much fun to be able to speak without having to press anything.