XVoice

On Sun, Feb 25, 2001 at 05:59:18PM -0500, Ken Olum wrote:
> At this point, I got a running xvoice.  Hooray!  Unfortunately, there
> doesn't seem to be any documentation.  I know it's a drag to write

README goes over getting the program running. COMMANDS documents the
file format.

> Finally, there seems to be something funny about the phonetic
> alphabet.  If I think the name for "x" should be "x-ray" not "x", and
> "p" should be "papa", not "paris".

yeah, I borrowed from a couple different phonetic alphabets, because
I couldn't find one where all the characters were matched accurately.
"x-ray" and "papa" were regularly matching other words. Probably it
could be fixed with training, but there wasn't a trainer available.

b.c.

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From: Brian Craft <bcboy@...>
   Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 17:35:26 -0800

   yeah, I borrowed from a couple different phonetic alphabets, because
   I couldn't find one where all the characters were matched accurately.
   "x-ray" and "papa" were regularly matching other words. Probably it
   could be fixed with training, but there wasn't a trainer available.

I don't think this is a good idea, even if it helps your recognition.
I think if you want this to be a product that people can download and
use, and you say "do such and such to get a phonetic alphabet"
then the person should really get a standard phonetic alphabetic, as
normally recognized and as used by ViaVoice, rather than one with odd
modifications.

Of course, anyone can make whatever modifications they want that help
their recognition, but I think the product as shifts should be
standard.

Does xvoice use the same speech files as ViaVoice Dictation for Linux?
That is to say, if I use ViaVoice to train a word, does my xvoice
recognition improve?

				Ken

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On Wed, Feb 28, 2001 at 09:57:45AM -0500, Ken Olum wrote:
> I don't think this is a good idea, even if it helps your recognition.
> I think if you want this to be a product that people can download and
> use, and you say "do such and such to get a phonetic alphabet"
> then the person should really get a standard phonetic alphabetic, as
> normally recognized and as used by ViaVoice, rather than one with odd
> modifications.

Well, if the alphabet doesn't work, people can't really "use" it, eh?

But I agree that the default vocabulary is very idiosyncratic and badly
documented.  I'm not aware of a phonetic alphabet that comes with ViaVoice.

b.c.

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From: Brian Craft <bcboy@...>
   Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 15:01:48 -0800

   Well, if the alphabet doesn't work, people can't really "use" it, eh?

It may depend on your voice.  When I switched to the regular alphabet,
it seemed to work fine for me, although I admit that I have not used it
all that much.

   I'm not aware of a phonetic alphabet that comes with ViaVoice.

ViaVoice Dictation for Linux does document the usual phonetic
alphabet.  I'm not sure in what contexts you can use it.  On a similar
issue, ViaVoice has a set of names for punctuation, and it might be
better to ship xvoice with the same names.  In this case, I'm not sure
if there's anything like a standard about such issues as "pound sign"
versus "number sign", but at least including the names used by
ViaVoice seems like a good idea.

		      Ken

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Ken Olum wrote:
> 
>    From: Brian Craft <bcboy@...>
>    Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 15:01:48 -0800
> 
>    Well, if the alphabet doesn't work, people can't really "use" it, eh?
> 
> It may depend on your voice.  When I switched to the regular alphabet,
> it seemed to work fine for me, although I admit that I have not used it
> all that much.

FWIW, I have used ViaVoice for Linux, ViaVoice for Windows version 7,
Dragon NaturallySpeaking versions 1 to 4, and Dragon Dictate before
that.  I haven't had any special problems with the standard phonetic (or
"fanatic," as ViaVoice seems to prefer to call it :-) alphabet.  
 
>    I'm not aware of a phonetic alphabet that comes with ViaVoice.
> 
> ViaVoice Dictation for Linux does document the usual phonetic
> alphabet.  

The alphabet used by ViaVoice and Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the "NATO
phonetic alphabet" described here:

   http://www.columbia.edu/~fuat/cuarc/phonetic.html

> I'm not sure in what contexts you can use it.  On a similar
> issue, ViaVoice has a set of names for punctuation, and it might be
> better to ship xvoice with the same names.  

I agree.  

> In this case, I'm not sure
> if there's anything like a standard about such issues as "pound sign"
> versus "number sign", but at least including the names used by
> ViaVoice seems like a good idea.

There is no standard that I know of.  The two de facto standards are
ViaVoice and NaturallySpeaking.  NaturallySpeaking tends to give you
more options than ViaVoice.  For example, it gives you three ways to say
"<" whereas ViaVoice gives you one:

NaturallySpeaking:
   left angle bracket 
   less than 
   open angle bracket

ViaVoice:
   left angle bracket

(I'm going by the documentation, which isn't always accurate.  ViaVoice
claims to only take "pound sign" but, similar to NaturallySpeaking, it
accepts either "pound sign" or "number sign.")

-- Pete

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