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Latest Vista build
Submitted by Matt Chambers on Tue, 10/17/2006 - 23:28.
Anyone else tried the latest build of Vista? I was frustrated with earlier builds, but this version seems like a nice improvement. My 12-year-old used it last night to dictate a book report, and didn't complain too much.
There is still a lot not to like (why can't we add a list of custom words, for example?), but the core function seems much improved.
I, too, have had a
I, too, have had a relatively positive experience with the Vista RC2 release. The speech recognition seems stable, and it had a good rate of accuracy. I think when I have used it enough, I will find it acceptable for use in Vista--at least until Nuance decides to relase some sort of update for Dragon. It is going to require me to learn a new set of commands, but I am satisfied that I can shift to the Vista OS without losing any major functionality. I kept the system in Vista all weekend with no crashes and no problems with either peripherials or with any programs other than Outlook 2007, but this was a known conflict.
Frank Abbott
Matt Chambers wrote: Anyone
Anyone else tried the latest build of Vista? I was frustrated with earlier builds, but this version seems like a nice improvement. My 12-year-old used it last night to dictate a book report, and didn't complain too much.
There is still a lot not to like (why can't we add a list of custom words, for example?), but the core function seems much improved.
Windows Vista RC 2 is a reasonably significant improvement over RC 1 and Beta 2. It's not quite there yet, but it will be a good alternative for many new to SR. I find that it is getting to the point of being a very good SR alternative. When I have the time, I test with it and I basically like it's user interface and accuracy, albeit less dynamic and comprehensive than DNS.
Your post brings up an interesting question. When Microsoft first released Microsoft speech in Microsoft Office XP, the lexicon that they were using was derived from the custom vocabulary in Microsoft Word. It might be interesting for those who are testing Vista to see if this is still true. If so, you may be able to add custom words by adding them to the Microsoft Word custom vocabulary. On the other hand, I suspect that Microsoft is now using a stand-alone lexicon. Therefore, this may not be an option. Unfortunately, I don't have time to take a good look at this, but it is something that others might, if they have the time, look into.
Chuck Runquist
Former DNS SDK & Senior Technical Solutions PM for DNS
That's a good question,
That's a good question, Chuck.
In Office XP, as well as now, the speech system actually uses its own lexicon. Actually, there are a couple lexicons. One which is the large model lexicon (with 100k+ words in it on XP), and the other is the user lexicon. This is the lexicon that users could add and remove words to and from.
When Office XP noticed that Speech Recognition was in use, it would also attempt to push the words from its private office lexicon into the Speech Recognition user lexicon. This attempt at synchronization would enable it to appear as if SR was using the same lexicon, but actually, in practice, two lexicons were on the user's machine.
The same architecture is in place today in Vista as it was in XP.
Interestingly, this same user lexicon is also shared by the handwriting recognizer in the Tablet PC edition of Windows XP (as well as the Tablet features of Vista). Thus, when you add a word to Word, Tablet, or Speech, both Tablet and Speech Recognition both benefit.
--
Rob Chambers [MSFT]
http://blogs.msdn.com/robch/default.aspx
Architect - Windows Speech Recognition - We're Listening...
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Sounds like I could benefit
Sounds like I could benefit from replacing my user with your 12 year-old
Bruce
Matt Chambers wrote: Anyone
Anyone else tried the latest build of Vista? I was frustrated with earlier builds, but this version seems like a nice improvement. My 12-year-old used it last night to dictate a book report, and didn't complain too much.
There is still a lot not to like (why can't we add a list of custom words, for example?), but the core function seems much improved.
Hi Matt.
Good to hear your 12-year-old liked it. My 9 year old also has a good time using it on his Vista based machine.
I think you and I have probably talked about this before, but just in case the readers here haven't seen that discussion...
Users can add and remove words, although they have to do it one word at a time. From the Speech Recognition Options menu (Say, "Show Speech Options"), select "Open Speech Dictionary", and then choose to add/edit/remove words.
This user interface is designed and optimized for adding/editing/removing one word at a time. If you have a bunch of words you'd like to add, I believe there is a tool on the Microsoft site that would allow you to add a whole list of words at a time.
Also, if you have words in your documents on your Vista machine, if you enable "Enable Document Review" during the first time setup, we'll automatically find those words (but we don't really add them to the same lexical store). But you will be able to use them when dictating.
If there's sufficient interest, perhaps I could make a custom Word.doc macro to enable users to enter a large number of words to the lexicon in one go. It shouldn't be too hard using the SAPI programming interfaces. (This would be similar to the custom Word.doc macro I made that enables people to training the recognizer with their own customized texts -- this is available over on the Yahoo ms-speech group in the Files section).
If people would like to see that, drop us a line at lis...@microsoft.com or reply here to this thread.
--
Rob Chambers [MSFT]
http://blogs.msdn.com/robch/default.aspx
Architect - Windows Speech Recognition - We're Listening...
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
I think that would be a big
I think that would be a big improvement. I have a large number of custom words in my NaturallySpeaking version 9 vocabulary, about 2420. Having to enter these manually would take days.
One of the really nice things about NaturallySpeaking is that you can assign a "spoken form" to custom words. I have used this in all sorts of ways that save time. For example, in our office tracking system of clients, every client has a seven digit client number, and every matter for a client has a five digit matter number. Assume, for sake of example, that Rob Chambers is my firm's client, and we are providing estate planning advice so that he can be sure that his 10-year-old will be well off. We might have a client/matter set up called Rob Chambers -- Estate Planning, and it might have a client/matter number like "1472510.00120". I would create a custom word in my vocabulary with that written form (1472510.00120), and assign it a spoken form like "Rob Chambers estate planning matter."
Having to enter all of this manually is very time-consuming.
(On another point, I can use macros with this written/spoken form to do all sorts of nifty things in our document management software.)
I just was going to express
I just was going to express my real delight having followed this and a few other threads, where a once seemingly unresponsive giant called Microsoft actually gains (literally;) a human face (and a friendly and open one, that is), "real" e-mail addresses, and more.
Rather recently, who would have believed that "Microsoft" would participate actively in internet user fori, and even more, "Microsoft" would actually post proposals like
If there's sufficient interest, perhaps I could make a custom Word.doc macro to enable users to enter a large number of words to the lexicon in one go.
Got that...? Real people at Microsoft actually DO exist :•) and even more, "Microsoft" actually offers to write custom software for us dwarfs out there to tackle our little everyday software problems!? What has happened? Has world suddenly become impeccable
?
Ja is denn scho' Weihnachten, as we would put it in Germany using Emperor Franz Beckenbauer's words...
Well, I'm exaggerating -- maybe that's because I also just got a real email message from a human person at Nuance, offering (hushhh) a free copy of DNS 9 Professional because they had a major problem with DNS activation that wasn't working whereby I couldn't use my copy of DNS 9 Pref. for nearly one month...
Anyway, sorry about the gibberish,
David.P
Patent Attorney
P.S. and Off Topic: Desktop/Array microphone users might want to have a look at the tool KeyMute.