IBM ViaVoice for the iPAQ 3600, 3700, 3800 and 3900

[Brad Adrian]

<a href="http://www-3.ibm.com/pvc/products/voice/vv_mobility_suite.shtml">http://www-3.ibm.com/pvc/products/voice/vv_mobility_suite.shtml</a><br /><br />Reader Bob Anderson has reminded me of a post I meant to finish up several days ago about IBM's ViaVoice. Of course, the iPAQ 3800 series ships with a version of the ViaVoice speech recognition software installed, but IBM now has similar versions for the 3600, 3700 and 3900 devices.<br /><br />"When you 'Go to Mail', you can have all of your mail read to you, or you can read only selected messages. You can easily keep track of your busy schedule, all by using voice commands. In the 'Calendar' function, you can check your calendar for your next appointment, or add new ones. In addition, this IBM software gives you the added convenience of being able to listen to, rather than read information and messages."<br /><br />The link above contains three different downloads for the:<br /><br />• Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC H3800 - owners of Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC H3800 Series can refresh the IBM Embedded ViaVoice Mobility Suite version currently installed. <br /> • Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC H3700 and H3600 - Embedded ViaVoice Mobility Suite will be available July 12, 2002 for Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC H3700 and H3600 Series. <br /> • Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC H3900 - Embedded ViaVoice Mobility Suite for the H3900 is available for purchase or a free reduced functionality trial version for download. <br /><br />The "refresh" files for the 3800 iPAQs are free, but the software for the 3600, 3700 and 3900 costs $29.95 apiece. I never really use this feature of my iPAQ, but I'd love to hear what those who have used it think.<br /><br />Thanks, Bob!

[JonnoB]

This technology is still too young to be practical as an alternative interface. Text to speach however is very handy. It is improving however and I hope that ASR and TTS technologies continue to improve to the point where we can rid ourselves of much of the manual keying we do now.

In limited fashions, it does work well... for example, the Mobile Conversay software that came bundled with the HP Jornada 56x devices can be mapped to the record button and then quick short commands given... and when driving, it is good to listen to the appointments of the day. That is one example where it worked... until the technology improves, it is trying to do too much.

[Birdman]

I didn't notice the option for a trial version. (Prehaps because there isn't one.) I would like to try it out for my trust 3635 but not for US$30 only to find out it's not any good.

[rubberdemon]

I had it on my 3800 iPaq and found it to be pretty frustrating overall. It's not really ready for prime time. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it would refuse to recognize even simple commands, either because of background noise (hard to escape when you're in a car, for instance) or cosmic rays, or something... I uninstalled it eventually (did I mention it takes up a good whack of storage space, as well as operating memory when it's on?).

That said, I can certainly see the potential - I'd love to have it read me my email, for instance, and I do use the voice recognition on my cell phone all the time.

[Brad Adrian]

I guess I've always thought that a good text-to-speech app would be more useful that a good speech-to-text app for the Pocket PC. Personally, I'd rather be able to listen to e-mail messages or documents than be able to dictate. When I use my Pocket PC, I'm usually around other people and wouldn't want to be speaking out loud anyway.

[topps]

The "refresh" files for the 3800 iPAQs are free, but the software for the 3600, 3700 and 3900 costs $29.95 apiece. I never really use this feature of my iPAQ, but I'd love to hear what those who have used it think.

Thanks, Bob!

I installed it initially thinking that this would be a neat 'wow factor' app to show off the PPC...except that it is not reliable enough to wow anybody. Ya look pretty stupid, standing there yelling "Phone home" or whatever and it dumbly asks you to repeat the question...

Shame because some simple structured voice recog is what a lot of my colleagues are waiting for...although how much they'll actually use it in practice is harder to predict...I suspect that after the novelty wears off, it won't get used that much, even if it does become reliable.

How many people use the voice activated dialler on their cell phones after the first month of novelty effect? They seem to be more reliable in recognising commands but do folks use them much in real life?

Of course, my Scottish accent has nothing to do with it! (ya wee bastard!)

[Brad Adrian]

How many people use the voice activated dialler on their cell phones after the first month of novelty effect?

I use it constantly. Even though I can only program 20 voice dial phone numbers, I probably only have to manually dial 5% of the calls I make.

[Martin I Pettinger]

Is there an free application for the iPAQ (I am a 3850 owner) that does what my old Psion used to do - please read below. BTW it is great that the Psion is back in production - if that is true.

Many moons ago - about 6 years past I used a Psion 3a. It had a built in dialer which was really useful for my job as a design co-ordinator as I was constantly ringing different offices and different engineers with their own speed-dial.

To use you found the contact from the address book, put the Psion next to the mouth piece of the phone and selected dial. The Psion would then beep notes into the earpiece and hey presto the number would ring.

I think you could also tell the Psion 3a whether you were at home or at the office and it would automatically add the 9 for an outside line if you were at the office.

The Psion also had a fantastic keyboard - which makes me think of a crazy idea - can the Psion communicate with the iPAQ via IR - i.e. an IR keyboard for the iPAQ - Psions can be picked up quite cheap. Probably a stupid suggestion but it just came to me in my lunchbreak.

[Jason Dunn]

Sure, there are many "dialer" apps for the Pocket PC - some of the first programs every released for it. Check Handango.com and you'll find some...I think Ilium Software had one too.

[timmy]

Sure, there are many "dialer" apps for the Pocket PC - some of the first programs every released for it. Check Handango.com and you'll find some...I think Ilium Software had one too.

It is also built into Agenda Fusion. www.developerone.com

/Timmy

[J.C.Port]

Brad,

I am using text-to-speak Fonix iSpeak on my iPAQ 3630 ,with CF support
for language files, and it works fine. The problem is that nobody talks
much about this app and if you could give a push on it perhaps
some improvements on this tech became faster. For the moment
they only have English voices.

I also use Voice Lookup ( in CF ) since the early stages but I can
give a good idea of is performance because it is made for English
voice recognition.
I think that we must insist that developers must considerer the CF,SD
support because files in this techs are always very big.

J.C.Port

[JonathanWardRogers]

How well does iSpeak work? What can it read? Email? Web pages? Reader?

I'm in search of a good general TTS app.

Thanks,
Jon

[J.C.Port]

From a text from Fonix:

Key Features and Benefits of iSpeak for Pocket PC.

Catch up on email messages while driving or exercising.

Make the most of your time by “listening” to information while your hands or eyes are occupied.

Play any text file of any length. For example, listen to web page information, presentations, papers, reports, books, etc.

Create or Merge your favorite playlists consisting of text, MP3, or Wave files.

Repeat the entire playlist or repeat an individual file.

Assign personalized voices to individual text files in your playlist.

Automatically listen to text copied to the clipboard.

Choose from multiple pre-installed themes.

Design your own themes for that personalized touch.

Choose your own background image, change the background color, or change the position and appearance of any of the buttons.

Use all the features of iSpeak for Pocket PC from the today screen.
(this does not work with me...)

Install to either the device Main Memory or any Storage Card.
( files on my Storage Card 5.2Mb...)

Select from over 11 high-quality, award winning Fonix U.S. English TTS voices, or purchase additional languages for Fonix iSpeak for Pocket PC.

[johnm]

I bought viaVoice for my 3600 and it works pretty good. It works a heck of a lot better than PDSay from Scansoft. Of course that is not saying much. So far the speech recognition is fine, and the text to speech is tolerable. I bought it mainly to read / manage email while I drive. So far it works great for that. I pipe the headphone output through my car stereo so no problems.

As for generic text to speech apps, I've been using TextAloud MP3 for over a year now. It is from a company called nextup. This thing is great. It is PC based (not pocket PC) but it converts anything you put on the clipboard to MP3 files. I have a long commute so I gather documents, news articles etc throughout the day and convert them. I use mono with a low bit rate to save on space. Then I dump them to my Ipaq's CF and listen to them on the way home. For longer files (I've converted and listened to entire books) I just burn the Mp3's to CD and use my car mp3 player. If you buy this, get the ATT true voice option. These are the best text to speech voices available. They are made from real human speech. I have listened to 100s of hours of ATT speech by now and I can say it is amazing.

[Chris Spera]

What I would really like to see is TRUE IBM ViaVoice functionality: You talk, it types.

I've got rheumatoid arthritis, and at times, typing can be a problem. I've used ViaVoice in the past on my PC and its been ok (Ok being relevant to the HARDWARE available at the time, and the SOPHISTICATION of the software.)

By this time (my ViaVoice hay-day was 1998-1999), I really think the Speech to Text functionality should be available to everyone. I know I'd use it for my VisualCE Journal App, as well as some of the freelance writing that I do. I'd love to be able to use my iPAQ as a "Note to Self" sort of "tape recorder" and have it type while I talk.

Does anyone know if this even exists, or if it will EVER exist??

Kind Regards,

Christopher Spera
-------
pocketnow Writer

pocketnow.com -- it's all about portability...
http://www.pocketnow.com

[bcl]

VoiceMP3 successfully implemented this ASR software in a new MP3 player for PocketPC that you can control with your voice.

http://www.bcltechnologies.com/voicemp3/

[dickstarke]

I'm a heavy TTS user--I've got a lot of stuff to read. Fonix iSpeak for the Pocket PC's quite good. I don't read E-mails, but instead text files, such as downloaded newspaper articles. I've found the Fonix program will read text files of any length without crashing. The reading speed is adjustable, though probably not on the fly. Voice quality, thru earbuds or a headphone, is certainly tolerably good. The only bugs in this first version (I'm hoping there's enough demand that it's not the last) are negligible.

The only thing I really wish the program did that it doesn't do is display the text being read at the same time as it's being read, with each word high-lighted as it's read. If it did that, I could jack up the reading speed and still absorb the material, as I could use two senses (ears and eyes) rather than one. If the voice quality were perfect, I wouldn't need that, but these voices are--of course--computer-generated.

Also, because the Fonix program requires a 206mhz StrongARM processor, I had to buy a new PDA.

Does anyone know of another Pocket PC TTS program that's as good or better? I'm always on the hunt for one.