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Google launches voice typing in Google Docs

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Re: Google launches voice typing in Google Docs

#121

Post by ACow_Adonis »

ascorbic wrote: post #76
ACow_Adonis wrote: post #24

Its pretty impressive. I haven't touched much upon trying such things for quite a few years when I last had a quick play with Dragon Naturally Speaking. It's getting PRETTY close, with a basic cheap laptop microphone, my Australian accent, and no training. But I did say pretty close. Not exactly right. And I'm only speaking a few sentences. I read out a passage aloud, and apart from not quite getting everything right…

Do the voice commands work for you? I just read it a letter from my insurance company and it was not far off word perfect, including URLs and email addresses. I can't get most of the voice commands to work though, which is pretty annoying. Punctuation and new paragraphs work, but none of the new commands such as deletion and formatting. It says English-only, but does that mean US English? I'm UK English. "delete dele…

Not accurately enough (given I haven't read much of the documentation).

I actually verified it was kinda picking them up, but it did this weird thing where I managed to insert a period if i remember correctly, but then it took it out after I kept talking?

Re: Google launches voice typing in Google Docs

#122

Post by ACow_Adonis »

Splanky222 wrote: post #84
ACow_Adonis wrote: post #24

Its pretty impressive. I haven't touched much upon trying such things for quite a few years when I last had a quick play with Dragon Naturally Speaking. It's getting PRETTY close, with a basic cheap laptop microphone, my Australian accent, and no training. But I did say pretty close. Not exactly right. And I'm only speaking a few sentences. I read out a passage aloud, and apart from not quite getting everything right…

Curious, are you using the English (Australia) setting?

Yep, I used the english(Australia) setting. Though I wonder whether it might be an issue with the types of Australian accents as well.

We don't have the accent diversity of the brits/north-americans, but we do still have 2 or 3 kinds with some local variation.

Plus I know some Australians have asked where my accent is from (err...Australia?), so I accept the possibility that my own little idiosyncrasies might be throwing it off a bit, even though when I travel overseas and talk, I think I sound like Steve bloody Irwin...

Re: Google launches voice typing in Google Docs

#123

Post by cableshaft »

Looks like it's still not great for writing fiction. I didn't see anything for "Quotation Marks" for dialogue in their Voice Commands, and even if it did, I sure hope I wouldn't have to say "Quotation Mark What was that Question Mark Quotation Mark asked Billy Period. Quotation Mark I said Poop Nuts Exclamation Point Quotation Mark said Daniel Period."

This is much much slower than I can type. I know it'd be hard to infer punctuation, but even just a one syllable shorthand command for each common bit of punctuation would be nice (you can disable it by default).

I really want to use this stuff too, because it means I could write stories while exercising at home, which is apparently how Randy Pausch wrote his last novel (he dictated it and had someone else transcribe it... I'd like Google to do that last bit for me).

Re: Google launches voice typing in Google Docs

#124

Post by melling »

cableshaft wrote: post #123

Looks like it's still not great for writing fiction. I didn't see anything for "Quotation Marks" for dialogue in their Voice Commands, and even if it did, I sure hope I wouldn't have to say "Quotation Mark What was that Question Mark Quotation Mark asked Billy Period. Quotation Mark I said Poop Nuts Exclamation Point Quotation Mark said Daniel Period." This is much much slower than I can type. I know it'd be hard to…

If you're willing to pay, Dragon Naturally Speaking has more features:

http://whatsnext.nuance.com/connected-living/thursday-tip-ho...

If you simply want a better free product, you'll have to wait a few more years. In the meantime, the solution will work well for tens of millions of people and Google can learn from them.

Re: Google launches voice typing in Google Docs

#125

Post by melling »

shanselman wrote: post #101

Voice dictation is HUGELY useful but few people use it anymore. Most of us tried Dragon in years past, it sucked, and we gave up. I believe so much in this that I made a Siri->Windows bridge and dictate 80% of my text with it. (except that hash rocket) http://myechoapp.com/

David Pogue has been using Dragon for over a decade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0GXX-SJuQM

John Siracusa used Dragon to write his 20,000 word Mac reviews.

Developers have even used Dragon to assist with programming: http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html

I think voice accuracy is there but we need more integration with our apps and operating systems. Consistency would help too. Google recognizes "undo" while Dragon recognizes "scratch that"

Re: Google launches voice typing in Google Docs

#126

Post by cableshaft »

melling wrote: post #124
cableshaft wrote: post #123

Looks like it's still not great for writing fiction. I didn't see anything for "Quotation Marks" for dialogue in their Voice Commands, and even if it did, I sure hope I wouldn't have to say "Quotation Mark What was that Question Mark Quotation Mark asked Billy Period. Quotation Mark I said Poop Nuts Exclamation Point Quotation Mark said Daniel Period." This is much much slower than I can type. I know it'd be hard to…

If you're willing to pay, Dragon Naturally Speaking has more features: http://whatsnext.nuance.com/connected-living/thursday-tip-ho... If you simply want a better free product, you'll have to wait a few more years. In the meantime, the solution will work well for tens of millions of people and Google can learn from them.

How are they nowadays? I tried their free demo app awhile back and had to correct pretty much every third spoken word using an annoying user interface to go back to my previous text, that it was easily taking less time for me just to type it in the first place.

Re: Google launches voice typing in Google Docs

#127

Post by melling »

cableshaft wrote: post #126
melling wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're willing to pay, Dragon Naturally Speaking has more features: http://whatsnext.nuance.com/connected-living/thursday-tip-ho... If you simply want a better free product, you'll have to wait a few more years. In the meantime, the solution will work well for tens of millions of people and Google can learn from them.

How are they nowadays? I tried their free demo app awhile back and had to correct pretty much every third spoken word using an annoying user interface to go back to my previous text, that it was easily taking less time for me just to type it in the first place.

Siri is powered by Nuance technology. They've been pretty good for a decade now. David Pogue and John Siracusa have been using it to do their writing.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/23/

Re: Google launches voice typing in Google Docs

#128

Post by jamessb »

cbhl wrote: post #98
melling wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dragon Naturally Speaking has been great for years. Developers have been using it to cobble together a voice programming solution for a few years: https://www.extrahop.com/community/blog/2014/programming-by-... http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html I've got more notes on Github: https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes/blob/master/progra... We really seem to be at the point where voice is ready to beco…

Wasn't there a case where the core engineer on Dragon was screwed out of being able to continue working on the product / in the field?

Dragon was sold to L&H, which had been engaging in fraud and went into brankrupcy; some of the technology was apparently sold to Visteon, some to ScanSoft (which then acquired Nuance, and took on its name).

The founder, Jim Baker, lost out and unsuccessfully tried to sue Goldman Sachs (who had been advising him).

And yet, even today what happened next to the Bakers seems remarkable. With Goldman Sachs on the job, the corporate takeover of Dragon Systems in an all-stock deal went terribly wrong. Goldman collected millions of dollars in fees — and the Bakers lost everything when Lernout & Hauspie was revealed to be a spectacular fraud. L.& H. had been founded by Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie, who had once been hailed as stars of the 1990s tech boom. Only later did the Bakers learn that Goldman Sachs itself had at one point considered investing in L.& H. but had walked away after some digging into the company.

- a 2012 NY Times article "Goldman Sachs and the $580 Million Black Hole" http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/business/goldman-sachs-and...

recent discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10994707#up_11014194

Re: Google launches voice typing in Google Docs

#129

Post by shanselman »

melling wrote: post #125
shanselman wrote: post #101

Voice dictation is HUGELY useful but few people use it anymore. Most of us tried Dragon in years past, it sucked, and we gave up. I believe so much in this that I made a Siri->Windows bridge and dictate 80% of my text with it. (except that hash rocket) http://myechoapp.com/

David Pogue has been using Dragon for over a decade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0GXX-SJuQM John Siracusa used Dragon to write his 20,000 word Mac reviews. Developers have even used Dragon to assist with programming: http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html I think voice accuracy is there but we need more integration with our apps and operating systems. Consistency would help too. Google recognizes "u…

Point taken but I would guess that they use nice headset mics and extensively train (and maintain and carry around) their voice databases. With Siri you can get 99% accuracy if you dicate punctuation and there's no training or fancy mics.

Re: Google launches voice typing in Google Docs

#130

Post by zepn »

shanselman wrote: post #101

Voice dictation is HUGELY useful but few people use it anymore. Most of us tried Dragon in years past, it sucked, and we gave up. I believe so much in this that I made a Siri->Windows bridge and dictate 80% of my text with it. (except that hash rocket) http://myechoapp.com/

A very niche use-case and an anecdote at that, but I guess every hospital radiology department in the UK employs at least one full-time transcriber who types radiologists' recorded notes.

In the hospital I worked in, there were four full-time staff doing just this. Just in radiology.

When I had this job for a couple of months most of a decade ago, it was obvious what would eventually happen to those jobs.

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