Technology and being Scottish

**Jock Scot** · 16th August 10, 04:43 AM

Hehehe.

**BEEDEE** · 16th August 10, 05:13 AM

Got to figure how I can incorporate this in my Intro to the Internet class!

Brian

**MacMillans son** · 16th August 10, 06:09 AM

Brilliant! Videos usually get a bit of chuckle out of me, but this one had me laughing out loud

Thanks!

**O'Callaghan** · 16th August 10, 10:42 AM

Sad but true!

Has anyone ever tried using speech recognition on a computer? I tried Dragon Naturally Speaking, after discovering that all it's major rival (IBM ViaVoice) was set up only to recognise people with American accents, and therefore about as much use as a lead balloon to the rest of the English speaking world. A friend of mine e-mailed me using IBM Via Voice, just to show me how hilarious the results were. He is from Barrow-in-Furness, in the NW of England, for reference (although as a matter of fact he lives in Scotland, in Aberdeen).

Even with Naturally Speaking, I found that the results needed a lot of correction when I used it to 'type'. Using the spellcheck in whatever I was 'typing' into was very necessary, as when set for a 'British' accent it automatically outputted UK spelling, with no way to set the accent and spelling independently, but I live in the US. I think Dragon are from Wales, and yet they seemed to think one setting would do all UK accents. I hate to think how it would handle a Glasgow accent. I am from SE England, and I suspect probably fairly close to a 'standard' British accent, whatever that may be, as in reality there really isn't one.

I was using version 5 of Dragon NS, and hopefully they should have improved since then. Maybe even IBM will have improved ViaVoice as well. I still can't imagine using it to control a lift (Am. Elevator), though. Using IBM ViaVoice, non-Americans would be trapped in the lift until the fire brigade arrived, even (or perhaps especially) those who were native speakers of English, assuming you didn't rely on voice recognition to call out the firemen as well!

**Mipi** · 16th August 10, 11:14 AM

That reminds me of my experience in Moscow. Many years ago I was in hotel Belgrade and there actually were buttons in the lift, but there was a sort of Intercom attached on the wall, too. One day I was joking about this Intercom, saying to my college that this is sophisticated Russian voice recognition system. He said we should try it and he loudly said "12". A second after that, women voice said something in Russian language and the lift started the journey. We were so surprised that we laughed after we stepped out of the lift.

I guess such a Russian version could accommodate to different dialects easily.

**kennethrmc** · 16th August 10, 01:07 PM

Hilarious skit!

**Bill aka Mole** · 22nd August 10, 07:30 PM

Loved it.

**macshorty** · 25th August 10, 05:24 AM

ELEVEN!!!! That was awesome.

**Schiehallion** · 25th August 10, 05:34 AM

eeee lev fen.... would that help guys

or.... EE-el havfen Helll a van!

What a Larffff !

**ForresterModern** · 28th August 10, 01:20 PM

LMAO as I can understand the futility with which those guys are suffering.

I do use an industrial version of Dragon, something called Powerscribe, for voice recognition transcription of literally hundreds of reports some days. Our version has a 98% accuracy, according to the vendors. Not bad, but it just cannot seem to get names, dates, and small one syllable words right, nor numbers and letters. The problem is that despite being 98% accurate, you still have to reread the whole report each time to make sure you pick up the 2% mistakes, because they can be significant most of the time. Doesn't help the average Dragon user, but I have the benefit of setting up templates for normal reports or reports that I use frequently and simply have to use a couple key word to call up a macro in the word processing part of the program. Once you set the template, and check it for accuracy, you never have to read it again. Saves a lot of time and trouble. Might work with Dragon users if you do similar letters or reports with only a few alterations from the basic template. When it is working at its best it really is a productivity booster. Reports can get turned around in literally seconds a lot of times, instead of hours or even days in the bad old days (meaning a couple years ago). And it is capable of learning a person's dialect---we have two native Indians (dots not feathers---to quote Robin Williams in "Good Will Hunting")---and it actually learns their specific ways of saying certain words, after you go through the process of teaching it. Also works pretty good with the hillbilly accents we have around here.

jeff