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diff --git a/2023/talks/voice.md b/2023/talks/voice.md index 6d44de97..f12d5195 100644 --- a/2023/talks/voice.md +++ b/2023/talks/voice.md @@ -66,222 +66,6 @@ stress injury flared up while entering data in a spreadsheet. I tripled my daily word count by using the speech-to-text, and I get a kick out of running remote computers by speech-to-command. -# Transcript - -[slide 1] -Hi, I'm Blaine Mooers. I'm an associate professor of biochemistry at - the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. - My lab studies the role of RNA structure in RNA editing. We use X-ray - crystallography to study the structures of these RNAs. We spend a lot - of time in the lab preparing our samples for structural studies, and then - we also spend a lot of time at the computer analyzing the resulting data. - I was seeking ways of using voice computing to try to enhance - my productivity. - -[slide 2] -I divide voice computing into three activities, speech-to-text or dictation, -speech-to-commands, and speech-to-code. I'll be talking about -speech-to-text and speech-to-commands today because these are two -activities that are probably most broadly applicable to the workflows of -people attending this conference. - -[slide 3] -This talk will not be about Emacspeak. This is a venerated program for -converting text to speech. We're talking about the flow of information in -the opposite direction, speech-to-text. We need an Emacs Listens. We -don't have one, so I had to seek help from outside the Emacs world via - the Voice In Plus. This runs in the Google Chrome web browser, and it's - very good for speech-to-text and very easy to learn how to use. It also - has some speech-to-commands. However, Talon Voice is much better - with the speech-to-commands, and it's also great at speech-to-code. - -[slide 4] -The motivations are, obviously, as I mentioned already, for improved -productivity. So, if you're a fast typist who types faster than they can speak, -then nonetheless you might still benefit from voice computing when you -grow tired of using the keyboard. On the other hand, you might be a -slow typist who talks faster than they can type. In this case, you're -definitely going to benefit from dictation because you'll be able to encode -more words in text documents in a given day. If you're a coder, -then you may get a kick out of opening programs and websites and -coding projects by using your voice. - -Then there are health-related reasons. You may have impaired use -of your hands, eyes, or both due to accident or disease, or you may -suffer from a repetitive stress injury. Many of us have this in a mild -but chronic form of it. We can't take a three-month sabbatical from -the keyboard without losing our jobs, so these injuries tend to persist. -And then you may have learned that it's not good for your health to -sit for prolonged periods of time with your staring at a computer screen. -You can actually dictate to your computer from 20 feet away while -looking out the window, thereby giving your lower body a break -and your eyes a break. - -[slide 5] -I'm not God, so I have to bring data. I have two data points here, -the number of words that I wrote in June and July this year and in -September and October. I adopted the use of voice computing in -the middle of August. As you can see, I got an over three-fold increase - in my output. - -[slide 6] -So this is the Chrome store website for voice-in. It's only available -for Google Chrome. You just hit the install button to install it. To configure it, -you need to select a language. It has support for 40 languages and -it supports about a dozen different dialects of English, including Australian. - -[slide 7] -It works on web pages with text areas, so it works. I use it regularly on -Overleaf and 750words.com, a distraction-free environment for writing. - It also works in webmails. It works in Google. It works in Jupyter Lab, - of course, because that runs in the browser. It also works in Jupyter - Notebook and Colab Notebook. It should work in Cloudmacs. I've - mapped option-L to opening Voice In when the cursor is on a web page - that has a text area. The presence of a text area is the main limiting factor. - -[slide 8] -Voice In has a number of built-in commands. You can turn it off by saying -"stop dictation". It doesn't distinguish between a command mode and -a dictation mode. It has undo command. When you use the command -"copy that" to a copy of selection. You say "press enter" to issue a -command or submit text that has been written in a web form, and then -"press tab" will open up the next tab in a web browser. The scroll up -and down will allow you to navigate a web page. I've put together a quiz -about these commands so that you can go through this quiz several -times until you get at least 90 percent of them correct, 90 percent of -the questions correct. In order to boost your recall of the commands, -I have a Python script that you can probably pound through the quiz -with in less than a minute, once you know the commands. I also -provide an Elisp version of this quiz, but it's a little slower to operate. - -[slide 9] -These are some common errors that I've run into with Voice In. It -likes to contract statements like "I will" into "I'll". Contractions are not -used in formal writing, and most of my writing is formal writing, so -this annoys me. I will show you how I corrected for that problem. It -also drops the first word in sentences quite often. This might be some -speech issue that I have. It inserts the wrong word because it's not -in the dictionary that was used to train it. So, for example, the word -PyMOL is the name of a molecular graphics program that we use in -our field. It doesn't recognize PyMOL. Instead, it substitutes in the -word "primal". Since I don't use "primal" very often, I've mapped the -word "primal" to "PyMOL" in some custom commands I'll talk about -in a minute. Then there's a problem that the commands that exist might -get executed when you speak them when, in fact, you wanted to use -the words in those commands during your dictation. So this is a problem, -a pitfall of Voice In, in that it doesn't have a command mode that's -separate from a dictation mode. - -[slide 10] -You can set up through a very easy-to-use GUI custom voice -commands mapped to what you want inserted, so this is how -misinterpreted words can be corrected. You just map the misinterpreted -word to the intended word. You can also map the contractions to their -expansions. I did this for 94 English contractions, and you can find -these on GitHub. You can also insert acronyms and expand those -acronyms. I apply the same approach to the first names of colleagues. -I say "expand Fred", for example, to get Fred's first and last name -with the correct spelling of his very long German name. You can also -insert other trivia like favorite URLs. You can insert LaTeX snippets. -It handles correctly multi-line snippets. You just have to enclose them -in double quotes. You can even insert BibTeX cite keys for references -that you use frequently. All fields have certain key references for certain -methods or topics. - -[slide 11] -Then it has a set of commands that you can customize for the purpose -of speech-to-commands to get the computer to do something like open -up a specific website or save the current writing. In this case, we have -"press: command-s" for saving the current writing. You can change the -language with "lang:", and you can change the case of the text with "case:". - -[slide 12] -But the speech-to-command repertoire is quite limited in Voice In, -so it's now time to pick up on Talon Voice. This is an open source project. -It's free. It is highly configurable via TalonScript, which is a subset of -Python. You can use either TalonScript or Python to configure it, but it's -easier to code up your configuration in TalonScript. It has a Python -interpreter embedded in it, so you don't have to mess around with -installing yet another Python interpreter. It runs on all platforms, and it -has a dictation mode that's separate from a command mode. You can -activate it, and it'll be in a listening state asleep. You just bark out -"Talon Wake" to start to wake it up, and "Talon Sleep" to have it go into -a listening state. It has a very welcoming community in the Talon Slack -channel. Then I need to point out that there's several packages that -others have developed that run on top of Talon, but one of particular note -is by Pokey Rule. He has on his website some really well-done videos -that demonstrate how he uses Cursorless to move the cursor around -using voice commands. This, however, runs on VS Code. At least that's -the text editor for which he's primarily developing Cursorless. - -[slide 13] -I followed the install protocol outlined by Tara Roys. She has a collection -of tutorials on YouTube as well as on GitHub that are quite helpful. I -followed her tutorial for installing Talon on macOS without any issues, -but allow for half an hour to an hour to go through the process. When -you're done, you'll have this Talon icon appear in the toolbar on the Mac. -When it has this diagonal line across it, that means it's in the sleep state. -So, this leads to cascading pull-down menus. This is it for the GUI. One -of your first tasks is to select a language model that will be used to -interpret the sounds that you generate as words. And the other kind of -key feature is that there's a, under scripting, there's a view log pull-down -that opens up a window displaying the log file. Whenever you make a -change in a Talon configuration file, that change is implemented -immediately. You do not have to restart Talon to get the change -to take effect. - -[slide 14] -This is an example of a Talon file. It has two components. It has a header -above the dash that describes the scope of the commands contained -below the dash. Each command is separated by a blank line. If a voice -command is mapped to multiple actions, these are listed separately on -indented lines below the first line. The words that are in square brackets -are optional. So, I have mapped the word toggle voice in, or the phrase -toggle voice in, to the keyboard shortcut Alt L in order to toggle on or off -voice in. If I toggle voice in on, I need to immediately toggle off Talon, -and this is done through this key command for Control T, which is -mapped to speech toggle. Speech toggle. Then there are, there's a -couple other examples. So, if there's no header present, it's an optional -feature of Talon files, then the commands in the file will apply in all -situations, in all modes. - -[slide 15] -Here we have two restrictions. These commands will only work when -using the iTerm2 terminal emulator for the Mac, and then only when the -title of the window in ccc has this particular address, which is what -appears when I've logged into the supercomputer at the University of -Oklahoma. One of the commands in this file is checkjobs. It's mapped -to an alias, a bash alias called cj for "check jobs", which in turn is mapped -to a script called checkjobs.sh that, when it's run, returns a listing of the -pending and running jobs on the supercomputer in a format that I find -pleasing. This backslash n after cj, the new line character, enters the -command, so I don't have to do that as an additional step. Likewise, -here's a similar setup for interacting with a Ubuntu virtual machine. - -[slide 16] -In terms of picking up voice computing, these are my recommendations. -You're going to run into more errors than you may like initially, and so -you need some patience in dealing with those. And also, it'll take you -a while to get your head wrapped around Talon and how it works. You'll -definitely want to use custom commands to correct the errors or -shortcomings of the language models. And you've seen how, by -opening up projects by voice commands, you can reduce friction in -terms of restarting work on a project. You've seen how Voice In is -preferred for more accurate dictation. I think my error rate is about -1 to 2 percent. That is, 1 to 2 out of 100 words are incorrect versus -Talon Voice where I think the error rate is closer to 5 percent. I have -put together a library of Enlgish contractions and their expansion for -Talon too, and they can be found here on GitHub. And I also have posted -a quiz of 600 questions about some basic Talon commands. - -[slide 17] -I'd like to thank the people who've helped me out on the Talon Slack -channel and members of the Oklahoma Data Science Workshop where -I gave an hour-long talk on this topic several weeks ago. I'd like to thank -my friends at the Berlin and Austin Emacs Meetup and at the M-x research -Slack channel. And I thank these grant funding agencies for supporting -my work. I'll be happy to take any questions. - [[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/voice-after)" raw="yes"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2023/info/voice-nav)" raw="yes"]] |