Speech to text on an android tablet
Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2019 2:44 pm
Hey this is interesting! This Android on-screen keyboard - Search Anysoft keyboard if you're interested - has a push on microphone button. Google picks up what I'm saying and translates it into text so I can talk and read things in to the tablet where it will type them. I have used it to construct this article.
It has a few problems though. Its speech recognition is slow. Since this tablet is only a about 1.8 gigahertz it's understandable. (I have to remember if I have an abbreviation like GHz I have to spell it out.) But it is smart enough to know when I say the word "period" (which I spelled out to be able to insert it in this sentence) that I want the punctuation not the word. Also works for hyphen (you get to choose whether you want the symbol or the word) but not for semicolon. Not too shabby.
In fact when saying a sentence it knows enough to capitalize the first letter. However that may be the keyboard capitalizing it rather than Google. Typing one now - or rather speaking one now - I found out that the keyboard is in fact making the capitalization. So it's actually not too bad since other than minor corrections like some punctuation it won't insert I've been able to do almost all of this article by voice. When it works right it's fairly nice.
However, it can be very irritating when it throws away everything you just said. I had to break the previous sentence three times to get it to take it. This can be frustrating when you can see on screen it's got it right but it re-examines it then discards it. Like it's not sure if what it has done is correct but won't allow me to tell it "yes it is."
I'm watching it now as it translates what I spoke into text. If it doesn't "bail out" and cancel the sentence because it's afraid it misunderstood, it will then offer me a selection of what it thinks I said along with alternatives to use in case it is incorrect. Sometimes it only gives one selection because it knows it's gotten it absolutely correct.
There are a few things I wish it would do. One is that while it is showing me what it thinks I said that it shows the words on the screen but there's nothing you can do with them. If it isn't quite sure of what you said, it will often delete the whole thing and cancel the request (what I referred to earlier as "bail out."). What would be nice is, if while sassembling the sentence, you saw that it's right, it would let you touch it to inform it that, yes, that is correct, it would be much more useful. But considering that it's free it's not too bad at all.
I just purchased a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking and a microphone for my PC. The software wasn't terribly expensive - under $10, probably one of those OEM packages or something - all I got was the disc but it was a legitimate disc it wasn't a bootleg copy. I'm still waiting on the microphone/headset, which cost less than $3 but is shipped all the way from China and takes about three to five weeks. (Yes, I know, I'm a cheap son of a bitch. I have to be. I can't very well afford 15 or 20 dollars for a microphone when I only have $40 a month after they take almost all my money.) IThe microphone/headset should be here in a few days. Once I get it, I can send see which works better. I have a headset with microphone for the Android but it won't work on the PC. (Since it's a combined unit with a single plug you can't use it on a PC.)
I'm going to be doing a lot of writing and since my left hand is crippled with Dupychen's syndrome I can no longer touch type. Being able to have the computer (tablet) typing what I speak will certainly help a lot. I have several books I want to finish and then dump upon err I mean unleash or maybe expose to the public.
Wow, this article is a lot longer than I expected it to be. Being able to speak what I want to say, instead of having to type it, has really unleashed my verbal diarrhea, err I mean my innate creativity. Two things I have to note about this system:(1) it works better on shorter sentences. (2) I wish it supported continuous speech translation.
Again, the slowness is an issue. Having to push the button, wait for Google to respond, speak what I have to say, wait for it to translate my words, then select the correct translation, probably takes longer than it would for me to type what I wanted to say in the first place. But it is a hell of a lot easier.
Another problem it has like the other things I've noticed is its prudishness. When I said earlier, that I was a cheap son of a b****, what you see here is exactly what Google typed in. Apparently, hell, bastard, and goddamn (I might have left off the trailing n) are okay, but s***, b****, f*** , f***** , m***********, c********* , a****** , c*** are not. Fuck! This asshole bitch of a motherfucking cocksucker acts like a cunt, and just won't let any shit get past the fucker.
George Carlin would not appreciate this expurgation.
It has a few problems though. Its speech recognition is slow. Since this tablet is only a about 1.8 gigahertz it's understandable. (I have to remember if I have an abbreviation like GHz I have to spell it out.) But it is smart enough to know when I say the word "period" (which I spelled out to be able to insert it in this sentence) that I want the punctuation not the word. Also works for hyphen (you get to choose whether you want the symbol or the word) but not for semicolon. Not too shabby.
In fact when saying a sentence it knows enough to capitalize the first letter. However that may be the keyboard capitalizing it rather than Google. Typing one now - or rather speaking one now - I found out that the keyboard is in fact making the capitalization. So it's actually not too bad since other than minor corrections like some punctuation it won't insert I've been able to do almost all of this article by voice. When it works right it's fairly nice.
However, it can be very irritating when it throws away everything you just said. I had to break the previous sentence three times to get it to take it. This can be frustrating when you can see on screen it's got it right but it re-examines it then discards it. Like it's not sure if what it has done is correct but won't allow me to tell it "yes it is."
I'm watching it now as it translates what I spoke into text. If it doesn't "bail out" and cancel the sentence because it's afraid it misunderstood, it will then offer me a selection of what it thinks I said along with alternatives to use in case it is incorrect. Sometimes it only gives one selection because it knows it's gotten it absolutely correct.
There are a few things I wish it would do. One is that while it is showing me what it thinks I said that it shows the words on the screen but there's nothing you can do with them. If it isn't quite sure of what you said, it will often delete the whole thing and cancel the request (what I referred to earlier as "bail out."). What would be nice is, if while sassembling the sentence, you saw that it's right, it would let you touch it to inform it that, yes, that is correct, it would be much more useful. But considering that it's free it's not too bad at all.
I just purchased a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking and a microphone for my PC. The software wasn't terribly expensive - under $10, probably one of those OEM packages or something - all I got was the disc but it was a legitimate disc it wasn't a bootleg copy. I'm still waiting on the microphone/headset, which cost less than $3 but is shipped all the way from China and takes about three to five weeks. (Yes, I know, I'm a cheap son of a bitch. I have to be. I can't very well afford 15 or 20 dollars for a microphone when I only have $40 a month after they take almost all my money.) IThe microphone/headset should be here in a few days. Once I get it, I can send see which works better. I have a headset with microphone for the Android but it won't work on the PC. (Since it's a combined unit with a single plug you can't use it on a PC.)
I'm going to be doing a lot of writing and since my left hand is crippled with Dupychen's syndrome I can no longer touch type. Being able to have the computer (tablet) typing what I speak will certainly help a lot. I have several books I want to finish and then dump upon err I mean unleash or maybe expose to the public.
Wow, this article is a lot longer than I expected it to be. Being able to speak what I want to say, instead of having to type it, has really unleashed my verbal diarrhea, err I mean my innate creativity. Two things I have to note about this system:(1) it works better on shorter sentences. (2) I wish it supported continuous speech translation.
Again, the slowness is an issue. Having to push the button, wait for Google to respond, speak what I have to say, wait for it to translate my words, then select the correct translation, probably takes longer than it would for me to type what I wanted to say in the first place. But it is a hell of a lot easier.
Another problem it has like the other things I've noticed is its prudishness. When I said earlier, that I was a cheap son of a b****, what you see here is exactly what Google typed in. Apparently, hell, bastard, and goddamn (I might have left off the trailing n) are okay, but s***, b****, f*** , f***** , m***********, c********* , a****** , c*** are not. Fuck! This asshole bitch of a motherfucking cocksucker acts like a cunt, and just won't let any shit get past the fucker.
George Carlin would not appreciate this expurgation.