Vista speech recognition video, It actually works

Contrary to what MSNBC criticize as a ‘wreck’, the speech recognition technology is well developed and highly usable. I got my hands on the July CTP build (5427) of Windows Vista and gave it a try, and I recorded what I found. I used the internal microphone array in my laptop, so the sound quality is not optimal but Vista handled it well.

Watch the video/screencast

Enjoy

I love speech technology.
What I'm not crazy about is the new SAPI.dll is not managed code.

My own experiment with SAPI.dll 5.1 was very similar to the infamous recent demo.

Well done. Thanks.

Larry Osterman explains what went wrong at the FAM here.

If anyone's interested. Up to 460 diggs. http://digg.com/software/Vista_speech_recognition_actually_works_video_screencast

As a test I managed to play a complete round of the Purble Place pattern matching game using speech recognition.

It took a lot longer than using the mouse, but it worked pretty well.

Basically lots of, "Press left", "Press up", "Press enter", "Press down three times", "Press enter"

I like the way the speech recognition training was combined with the tutorial. Saves a lot of time over just reading a section from a book and then having to learn what features are available in the software.

Can anyone manage the Purble Place cake making game on hard level with mulitple cakes in flight? I can get the first couple of cakes made, but when it stops you shuffling them back to the start it gets difficult really quickly.

THIS ROCKS!

Didn't see this live yet, this is way better than the speech in XP.

Does this works for every program or does the program needs to be speech supported to get the same effect as on solitaire (the 'show numbers' command)?

"I'm speechless."

erik_ wrote:



Does this works for every program or does the program needs to be speech supported to get the same effect as on solitaire (the 'show numbers' command)?

Works for every application coded correctly.

HumanCompiler wrote:

Nice video!  It's looking really good.  Seems kind of pointless to have to say "OK" after that dialog of possible matches comes up,

I suppose it's so you get a chance to correct it if it picks the wrong number.

HumanCompiler wrote:

I love the "stop listening" or whatever it was at the end.  It feels so Star Trek.

"Computer, locate Lutenent Warf."

I think you meant Worf. </nitpicky>

Coincidentally, the first speech recognition system I ever played with came with a Star Trek product. The Star Trek Omnipedia could be voice controlled using software developed by Dragon. It was absolutely terrible. If there's anything the Vista speech recognition is unbelievably good at, it's recognizing single letters (and in the rare occasion it gets it wrong you can use stuff such as "c as in cat" to make it clear). The Omnipedia always got it wrong. Whichever index entry you wanted to jump to by saying its letter, it was simply always wrong. It would also recognize half of what you say as "previous entry". You could sneeze in the microphone and it'd think you said "previous entry".

It also didn't work under Windows 95, only Windows 3.1. This could be worked around by copying dragon.dll from a slightly newer Simon & Schuster product (Star Trek Klingon, which used speech recognition to grade how well you pronounced Klingon words; useless but fun) which did work. It didn't get any more accurate for it.

HumanCompiler wrote:

Can I make it take single commands when it hears me say the word "computer"?  I'm geekin' out here! 

On a serious note, it would be useful if there'd be some way to indicate that your next spoken words are commands and not dictation of vice versa. It's very frustating to say "bold" in Word and see it write "bold" in the document. I wonder how it determines whether you're commanding or dictating anyway. Prefixing commands with "Computer" would be good enough for me as a distinction in most cases.

as a last resort you can use show numbers in all apps

btw, windows media player 11 isn't 100% speech ready, the playlist is almost impossible to control with "say what you see".

Sven Groot wrote:


On a serious note, it would be useful if there'd be some way to indicate that your next spoken words are commands and not dictation of vice versa. It's very frustating to say "bold" in Word and see it write "bold" in the document. I wonder how it determines whether you're commanding or dictating anyway. Prefixing commands with "Computer" would be good enough for me as a distinction in most cases.

And if you wanted to dictate the word "computer"?
For VB folk, saying "computer computer" would probably work. If you're more of a C-language fan, say "backslash computer".

Maybe just emit some sort of high-pitched whine to specify the next word is a command.
"I must speak with the dolphins now. Wheee! Wheee! Wheee!"

Vista Speech recognition sucks:  http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060811/vista-speech-recognition-sucks/

longzheng wrote:

Vista Speech recognition sucks:  http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060811/vista-speech-recognition-sucks/

That's funny. But really, what else is it going to do?

jmacdonagh wrote:



That's funny. But really, what else is it going to do?

I suppose it should name tabular cells A1, C2, etc... but then there's often no obvious hint that those buttons are "in table".

So I think it has done it's best job.