The ViaVoice vocabularies (sometimes called "dictionaries") and Language Models are basically large databases of word pronunciations and word positions relative to other words, respectively.
Once this picture of my voice exists, ViaVoice can predict with some level of accuracy how I might say a specific word. For example, suppose when I talk I make my Ts sound like Ds much of the time: "butter" sounds more like "budder" when I say it, but someone else my very crisply say "butter". By comparing these sounds to actual sounds, a difference can be calculated down to the individual sounds that make up a word. The user reads a prepared story is read to the system to train it - the system knows what the words are, and what they ought to sound like. Recognition accuracy is also improved by training, which allows ViaVoice to construct a mathematical picture of your voice, which it can then use with its models. In any case, there are other technologies that will need some work before you can say, "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot" and get what you would like. In consumer products, we're not quite to the stage where you can have conversations with your computer, or even record or transcribe a speech or a meeting, but for one person, sitting at a computer, speaking clearly and providing cues such as punctuation and formatting, recognition is really quite good.
words, ViaVoice works with "continuous" speech, with no unnatural breaks between words. Unlike earlier "discrete" speech recognition systems, which. Or speak about talk, and how the ViaVoice engine decides what words it thinks you uttered. This is essential for maintaining the awe and admiration from your employer, and I know that you really do want to anyway.īut, before we write code, let's talk about speech. Probably, though, you should write a line or two of code.
#Ibm viavoice for mac os x software#
However, the ViaVoice software doesn't prevent dictation into any application and, in many cases, the Mac OS and ViaVoice extensions that ship with our software are all you need - your application may already support dictation and correction without you writing a single line of code! "Aha!" you say - "Direct dictation into selected applications, but what if I'm not among the 'selected' few?" Fair enough - IBM can only test and support a few high-profile programs (although the development team is always interested in testing new software for compatibility, particularly games). ViaVoice Enhanced builds on this capability, adding new features such as direct dictation into selected applications and allowing customization of "built-in" functions through AppleScript.
Good for basic dictation, with a large, extensible vocabulary, dictation macros, and AppleScript support. ViaVoice Millennium, the first release, was a low-end product, providing dictation into a single application, SpeakPad, and non-customizable transfer scripts. Nonetheless, the combination of computational power and algorithm design has finally produced speech recognition software for the Mac that permit routine and productive use, especially as fast, new copper IBM PowerPC chips find their way into more and more Macs. The promise has been so long in coming that the release of ViaVoice Millennium for Mac last year seemed to take some people by surprise - many a passerby at MacWorld San Francisco was astonished by the speed and accuracy of the system, even in noisy showfloor conditions. It's here! Talking to machines and having them respond and react has been the stuff of science fiction for decades.