[MV] speech to text french-able applicaiton

[Chuck Rogers]

Jean-Christophe (and everyone else):

I can't remember the particulars - it wasn't that we *couldn't* sell  
it, just that the tariffs imposed on us would have made its cost  
unreasonable - at least I think that had something to do with it (I  
wasn't intimately involved with the decision).

The bottom line is that we did start work on it - it was really more of  
an 'alpha' version, and it never went farther than Mac OS 9. We have  
not done any work on a Mac OS X version for French, and it is not on  
our development radar for now. At this point, we have a lot of other  
things planned that we feel would be a better use of our resources. In  
the past year or so we have released German and Italian versions, and  
have other languages in the works, so a French version just isn't going  
to happen until we run out of other things to do - and we have plenty  
to do. (For instance, there are almost 40 Million Spanish speaking  
people in the US alone!)

Regarding the file format, iListen is the only Mac software that  
supports transcription of a recorded voice file. The formats supported  
are 16Khz, 16-bit WAV or AIFF files. We also support 11 or 12Khz files  
from certain Olympus digital recorders. There are many other  
requirements, however. Complete information about transcribing a voice  
file can be found in our online Knowledge Base at  
<http://macspeech.crmhelp.net/index.php? 
_a=knowledgebase&_j=questiondetails&_i=2&nav2=Using%20iListen>.

Developing speech recognition software is a very complex undertaking.  
There are very few speech engines available out there. We use the  
Philips FreeSpeech engine, and many of our limitations (such as what  
languages we can offer) are initially determined by what languages  
Philips makes available to us.

For a more detailed explanation of how speech recognition works, check  
out  http://cslu.cse.ogi.edu/HLTsurvey/ch1node4.html


Best Regards,

Chuck Rogers, Chief Evangelist
MacSpeech, Inc.

On Feb 20, 2005, at 9:07 AM, suzume at mx82.tiki.ne.jp wrote:

> Thank you for your reply.
>
> Well, I did finish my transcription job anyway :)
>
> I'd be curious to know what kind of French law keeps you from selling  
> your software online for example ? It is merely a technical question  
> though.
>
> As for file formats, I am sure it has already been discussed in the  
> proper places, but what is the ideal format for speech recognition ?
>
> I heard somebody had worked on a french beta of iListen that did not  
> give good enough results, what is the status of this beta ? Does it  
> still exist ?
>
> I don't understand the technical difficulties related to the  
> development of such a software, can anybody give me pointers ?
>
> Sincerely,
>
> JC
>
> On 2005/02/20, at 0:25, Chuck Rogers wrote:
>
>> Jean-Christophe (and everyone else):
>>
>> There is no French dictation software for the Mac. Our product,  
>> iListen, supports US, UK. and Australian/New Zealand English, German,  
>> and Italian. Later this year we hope to be coming out with Spanish.
>>
>> We initially announced we intended to support French, but early on  
>> discovered that the laws in France make it almost impossible for a  
>> US-only company to sell software there. Without France as a  
>> marketplace, there would not be enough sales to sustain the  
>> development and support of a French product.
>>
>> But even if there were a French dictation product, you would be out  
>> of luck. MP3 files do not contain enough audio information for speech  
>> recognition. The format is optimized for compression of music.  
>> Applying that compression to spoken word renders the recorded speech  
>> unusable to the speech engine.
>>
>>
>> Best Regards,
>>
>> Chuck Rogers, Chief Evangelist
>> MacSpeech, Inc.
>>
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