Speech recognition USB device

Question

This is really a thinking out loud type of question, so apologies if this is in the wrong place as it's not really a question - more looking for suggestion/comments.

I've recently started using Windows Speech Recognition to pretty good effect on Windows 7. I'm a reasonably advanced user (being a programmer) and using it in typing mode is a great way of getting round the PC if you know your shortcuts. The problem I have is moving to another computer. I know you can import/export your speech profile, but the couple of times I've tried this on a new system the results have been poor (possibly due to is missing all the reference material it uses such as emails and documents you've written - not sure). It also, obviously doesn't work on Linux, a Mac, servers or older Windows system.

So that got me thinking wouldn't a neat solution to taking your speech recognition profile with you be solved by a USB speech recognition device. This device would contain just enough software to run, say, Windows Speech recognition (maybe as embeded software) and store your data in the usual way on the device. The output of this device would basically by key strokes on a generic keyboard. So you could plug this USB device into any other PC with a USB port that expects a keyboard - ie the device would appear to be a keyboard. I don't see why such a device would be larger than say an iPod and I could carry that around me with me whenever I expect to have to use a keyboard.

So my question is: does anybody know of such a device. To me :-) this seems such a neat solution I can't imagine no-one has produced something like this. But maybe I'm just weird!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Regards,

ZB

Answer 1

In answer to my own question, I think smartphones are/will be solution to my rather unclear question. I must have been rather tired when asking that!

Answer 2

I have an Android smartphone. It does voice recognition. It has a USB port.

I'd like to be able to:

• connect the smartphone to a PC, via USB
  • PC thinks I've hooked up a USB keyboard
• connect my headset to my smartphone
• engage a voice recognition input -> keyboard output app
• talk to the smartphone
• smartphone does the voice recognition
  • PC thinks I'm just typing really fast on that USB keyboard

In this fashion, you could take your voice recognition to any machine which accepts a USB keyboard input. And the voice recognition could adapt to your particular voice, without needing to move software from one machine to another.

Not to mention the fact that my boss would be perfectly happy to have my smartphone connected to my PC, insomuch as I can show productivity improvements from doing so.

Personally, I tend to think that smartphone manufacturers are missing a bet.

• Instead of needing your office PC to have a headphone and microphone input, for purposes of VoIP software or for audio for training purposes, hook up a smartphone and have the PC believe that's an external, USB-connected audio module. Chance are, the smartphone owner already has a headset/headphones they like.
• Instead of needing a webcam on a desktop/laptop machine, for purposes of video conferencing, let me use the front-facing camera on my smartphone. The PC/laptop thinks it's a USB-connected webcam.
• Instead of needing a mouse or touchpad on my PC/laptop, let me use the front face of my smartphone as a touchpad. It's already setup with a texture that I like and my fingers are already used to working with it.
• And, of course, there's the aforementioned voice recognition. The phone is going to have that functionality anyway. Why spend more money on PC software, which will need time to adapt to the user's voice anyway?
• Why do I need a VoIP desk phone AND a PC/laptop, both on the company network? Yeah, I know, ideally those are on separate networks; for too many places where I've worked, they weren't. And a desk phone will work when the PC is logged out or shut down. How often am I here to answer the phone when the PC is logged out or shut down? Pretty much NEVER. And no one else answers my phone, even though they COULD. Give me a way to run an app on my smartphone and hit the company phone network with it, wirelessly or when connected to the PC via USB. I already have a headset I like for my smartphone. Headsets for my desk phone are expensive.

Naturally, your smartphone won't be able to do ALL of the above at the same time. Kinda hard to use the front-facing camera while you're using it as a touchpad. But the front-facing camera AND the external audio module are a good fit.

Additionally, if the smartphone and the PC/laptop have Bluetooth, there's another channel for connectivity. I tend to prefer USB because I can use that to keep my smartphone charged all day.