If you want something more full features that works everywhere, I’ve used https://talonvoice.com/ for a while now.
I was able to get a couple of simple commands to work in Chrome, sometimes, such as "reload" and "show history". In Visual Studio code, it just spouted a bunch of errors in the console [1], and in JetBrains Rider all it would do it type gobbledygook, like a cat had walked on the keyboard or something. Pretty dissapointing :(
The logs also fill up with "WARNING actions: skipped because they have no matching declaration: (user.select_next_token)".
It was a bit confusing to use too (apart from not really working, I mean!), as it wasn't clear if I had to use some kind of command to enable voice commands, or if it was litening all the time. Eventually I figured out that it seems to be the latter, but still, it's not clear what commands it has heard and understood - I found myself speaking and nothing was happening, and I had no idea what it had understood. Similarly, I'd say something like "close tab", and it would type some nonsense like "aa&" into the current file - again, no idea what command it was actually trying to use.
[0] https://github.com/knausj85/knausj_talon [1] "No such file or directory: 'C:\\Users\\MyUser\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\vscode-port'"
It's a tool to be learned and practiced, it's not fully optimized for out of the box experience (yet), currently more optimized for customization and total control by people who have the time and motivation to go hands free (e.g. due to limited motor function).
This is what it can look like if you practice a bit: [2]
---
Some recommendations:
- say "say hello world"
- say "help alphabet"
- say "help context"
- say "command history"
- say "dictation mode" then speak freely, then say "command mode"
- Try chaosparrot's Talon Practice [3]
[1] https://talonvoice.com/chat
[2] https://twitter.com/lunixbochs/status/1378159234861264896
[3] https://chaosparrot.github.io/talon_practice/lessons/formatt...
It probably is worth for physically impaired people (but i fear what 6hrs daily of this will do to their vocal cord). I am more interested in BCI technology which is where i see the future.
https://talonvoice.com/update/pgUuEYK3vzmYQtF2PMgOyK/appcast...
For years people would always comment “I can type faster”, not realizing that we should be able also make it smarter than word by word, or character.
Notice this guy is also using his “hat” as a pointing device
The voice commands are also cool but needing to pause between each one seems like a huge drawback, compared to typing where I can just blaze through.
My first thought was that our eyes and hands do all the work; our mouth and ears are untapped resources in the quest to become true 100x engineers ;)
All joking aside, I am interested in how well this might work outside of a11y use-cases. Speaking is just so natural. It doesn't have to be used exclusively but I do want to find out if there are cases where it's just nicer to say a command during coding than remembering all kinds of keyboard shortcuts. I always wonder if a more hybrid approach of using touch, speaking and typing for various situations could feel better than keyboard all the way.
Our upper primate brains are actually MUCH better at pattern matching than reading!
Don't think only voice coding for enabled, becoming standard anytime soon.
It's by a developer who developed RSI and had to find another way to write code. He uses a combination of Dragon and custom Python scripts to control Emacs.
The fascinating bit for me was the language he created around text navigation and manipulation. Lots of custom short words to optimise the amount of speaking he actually had to do.
Really worth a watch for anyone interested in this. If you want a quick demo, this part of the video is fairly representative: https://youtu.be/8SkdfdXWYaI?t=1034
I’ve only taken it for a test run but it seems really good and smooth.
Guess which one I'm rooting for. :-)
Or does it use some windows dictation api?
Ray Kurzweil’s predictions are taking longer than expected
https://singularityhub.com/2015/01/26/ray-kurzweils-mind-bog...
