Mike Painter said:
One of my favorite computer cartoons shows a guy talking to his
computer. "Down, down, over, over over, up a little, down, right,
right left, down. There, erase that."
Hopefully that is not Microsoft's Way.
Currently I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
I can delete a file/folder/shortcut by positioning the pointer and
saying "Delete". The script clicks and then deletes.
Many of my voice-activated scripts use the pointer position as a cue.
A good example is entering a username and password for signing into a
website, pointing at the first text box and then uttering something
like "enter Amazon" (the script does everything else). As a rule, my
scripts (especially scripts that loop) use a selected/highlighted
object as the first object of the script.
Speech activated scripting is a very nice compliment to speech
recognition. That combination plus a pointing device provides almost
hands-free use of the computer.
I am developing what (in my not so humble opinion) could be considered
the first computer language. I use Windows' shortcut functions like
delete, copy, cut, paste, switch windows, click/double-click, back,
down/up/left/right, top/bottom/end/home, select word (double-click),
select line, select all, non-alphanumeric keys, "close yes" (closes
the current file, saving changes), and maybe others. Unfortunately,
Naturally Speaking's scripting mode does not understand commands the
same way it does dictation. Therefore, all of the functions mentioned
above cannot be used as individual words combined into a command
phrase. The phrase "2 get switch" double clicks, copies the selected
word, and switches to the prior window. Sometimes that one script is
used very frequently like when window shopping or doing research,
saving jillions of clicks/keystrokes. But, again, NaturallySpeaking
cannot understand that command as three individual commands to be
executed all at once (the reason is too difficult to explain here).
Therefore, my computer language is not a short list of individual
words like the functions above, it is a tediously long list of phrases
made up of those words. A language grows very slowly when every
combination of words must be defined. Now speech recognition is in
Microsoft's headlights. Whoever it is at the helm of personal computer
speech recognition, hopefully someday individual command words can be
combined ad-lib into phrases.
I am seriously hopeful about Microsoft including speech recognition in
Windows. Too bad if Microsoft does not reward the pioneers, but
whatever, running over them is Microsoft's Way. Hopefully Microsoft
will at least put great effort into the project.
