Linux Speech Recogition

Speech Recognition for Linux

Contents:

1. IBM ViaVoice General

User experiences
From the Christchurch Linux Users' Group mailing list.

Some more answers about ViaVoice
Another user's report

All of my various files related to ViaVoice

Files

Getting the latest version of the ViaVoice runtime
IBM's boxed set of ViaVoice does not contain the latest rpms. The version info in short, and a copy of IBM's announcement including download-URL. The updated version which can be downloaded from there is ViaVoice_runtime-3.0-1.2.i386.rpm, which is still not as new as the one shipped with Mandrake 8.0 (ViaVoice_runtime-3.1-0.0.i386.rpm).

Downloading the ViaVoice SDK
28 Oct 02: Unfortunately the two links below only worked for a short time. The SDK is now pretty much dead. There is nowhere to download it from now.

Mar 02: The panic is over! IBM has re-organised their web site, and the SDK can still be downloaded from these two places after registering. Registration is free.

https://www6.software.ibm.com/dl/viavoice/linux-p

http://www6.software.ibm.com/devcon/devcon/docs/vvsdkrt.htm

The SDK comes with a 30-day evaluation license, after that the easiest way to purchase a permanent license is to purchase ViaVoice Dictation. As IBM does not sell that outside of the USA, it is useful to know that Mandrake Powerpack Deluxe 8.0 also contains a license as well as a slightly newer version with some bugfixes.
Thanks to the two people on the xvoice list who posted above two links.

2. IBM ViaVoice on SuSE Linux

IBM ViaVoice on SuSE 7.2

IBM ViaVoice on SuSE 7.3

Pretty much the same as above, but use this patch instead.

IBM ViaVoice on SuSE 8.0

I didn't do one for 8.0, sorry.

IBM ViaVoice on SuSE 8.1

HOWTO
Patch

IBM ViaVoice on SuSE 8.2

HOWTO
Patch

Users of other distributions

The patch to various ViaVoice scripts should be installed by every user of ViaVoice. The changes are not SuSE-specific. You will probably want to adjust the settings of SPCH_JAVA and LD_LIBRARY_PATH in /usr/bin/vvsetenv (after installing the patch). There are comments in the file to help with that.

3. Mailing Lists

IBM: the ViaVoice recognition engine, Linux SDK (viavoice)
This list was stopped by IBM in early March 2002. The archive is still up (we'll see for how long). There is a lot of useful information here which is also relevant to viavoice dictation.

unsubscribe

archive

IBM: ViaVoice Dictation for Linux (vvdictator)
This list was discontinued 10 Feb 2003.
The archive is broken (empty) for Mar - Jun 2002, and IBM says they can't fix it. I have put all messages of that period into this tar file.

unsubscribe

archive,
Mar-Jun 02

IBM: viavoice and vvdictator list archives
The archives for the above two lists have disappeared, so I've put a copy here.

xvoice
A GPL application which uses the ViaVoice engine
Previous list archives

unsubscribe

group, home page

ddlinux
Announcements/discussions of linux speech recognition

unsubscribe

home, archive

ViaVoice on MS-Windows
See what ViaVoice for MS-Windows is up to (currently version 10), and how many and what problems users have on that platform. Yahoo group.

unsubscribe

group

4. Useful links

DDLinux Numerous valuable links reg. speech recognition. Also mailing list, see below.

xvoice (yahoo group)

The Linux speech recognition HOWTO
This is outdated in some places and contains factual errors about ViaVoice. The ViaVoice engine was never free, free was a 30-day evaluation license. After that an unlimited license had to be purchased.

Joe Barr's 2 articles in LinuxWorld on ViaVoice

Printable, or with all the shebang: page 1, page 2, page 3 (page 3 has the talkback section).
Printable, or with all the shebang: page 1, page 2. Informative talkback reply by John Smart.
Page 2 says: "Maners also cleared up the question of why IBM doesn't sell the latest version. IBM did not do the versions of ViaVoice Dictation that were bundled with Mandrake and SuSE, but represented refinements added to IBM's version by Mandrake and SuSE." I can say with certainty that SuSE shipped a beta version of the viavoice engine with 6.3 (don't know about 6.4), but SuSE's involvement with viavoice had ceased with 7.0 and onwards.

http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/linuxsound/
A huge number of linux sound links.

http://www.speechcontrol.com/microphones/Headsetindex.asp
In the USA commercially available headsets and their ratings by the seller, Marty Markoe. The shop provides excellent service.
http://www.speechcontrol.com/articles/
Many good articles.

www.out-loud.com
By a long time user of speech recognition, Susan Fulton. Contains many articles and tips. Mostly MS-windows though, but a lot of the material holds for any voice recognition software.
http://www.out-loud.com/linux.html
Review of VV for linux (Aug 2000)

www.talktoyourcomputer.com/whywedont.htm
Why the home-level equipment is not adequate for serious use, compared with professional equipment. (They do seem to compare a cheap with an expensive headset though.)

www.sennheiserusa.com
Some good microphones

www.microphones.com
More microphones for sale

http://www.spracherkennung.de/
ViaVoice.de | Alles über Spracherkennung

IBM: the ViaVoice recognition engine, Linux SDK (viavoice) This list was stopped by IBM in early March 2002. The archive is still up (we'll see for how long). There is a lot of useful information here which is also relevant to viavoice dictation.	subscribe	unsubscribe	archive
IBM: ViaVoice Dictation for Linux (vvdictator) This list was discontinued 10 Feb 2003. The archive is broken (empty) for Mar - Jun 2002, and IBM says they can't fix it. I have put all messages of that period into this tar file.	subscribe	unsubscribe	archive, Mar-Jun 02
IBM: viavoice and vvdictator list archives The archives for the above two lists have disappeared, so I've put a copy here.
xvoice A GPL application which uses the ViaVoice engine Previous list archives	subscribe	unsubscribe	group, home page
ddlinux Announcements/discussions of linux speech recognition	subscribe	unsubscribe	home, archive
ViaVoice on MS-Windows See what ViaVoice for MS-Windows is up to (currently version 10), and how many and what problems users have on that platform. Yahoo group.	subscribe	unsubscribe	group