SpeakQ User Guide Contents
Contents
1. SpeakQ will not work with any non Microsoft recognition engine that may be displayed Step 4 Create a speech recognition profile Click the New button in the Speech recognition dialog to create a new recognition profile Enter a name for your profile such as your personal name e g Tom and click OK This name will now appear in the list of recognition profiles Step 5 Adjust the microphone speaker volume A microphone wizard will then be displayed to adjust the volume of your microphone Click Next gt on the first page to display the page below When you are ready speak a sentence You can read the sentence shown or you can make up your own Speak normally The system will automatically adjust the volume of the microphone as you now speak Pause after you speak and the Next gt button should become available which you should now click If it is not available speak another sentence and pause The next step in the wizard tests your speakers headset In this step speak a sentence and then pause You should hear whatever you said through the speakers headset If you don t hear anything check to make sure they are plugged in powered and turned on if necessary and the volume adjusted Click Next gt when satisfied Step 6 Train your speech Click the Train button in the Speech recognition dialog to begin training your recognition profile You will first be prompted to choose a training text Choose a t2. from the list instead of is If your desired new word is not shown type one or more letters until it is shown and select it Then the words going to be difficult will be at or near the top of each subsequent list Step 6 Adding punctuation In the Speak and Select mode you must type punctuation marks rather than speak them Step 7 Additional training At first you may be disappointed with recognition in comparison to the training where the training text is known in advance and your recognition appears perfect In actual use the computer does not know what you are saying in advance With practice the recognition will improve You will also learn how to dictate more comfortably leading to better recognition Additional training may be required if you are not satisfied with the recognition preferably with text that is similar to what you want to write see Appendix B Custom training text Further with time you will work out your own strategy for combining speech with typing and word prediction Speak continuously Speak continuously is the second of two available speech recognition modes with SpeakQ Here your spoken words are typed directly into your document as you say them You can manually choose Speak continuously by choosing it under the Dictation section of the Options gt Speech Recognition dialog This dialog also includes an option to limit single word recognitions to only words from your voc
3. texts 28 Appendix C Punctuation marks 29 Service and support 30 Acknowledgements 4 5 SpeakQ features SpeakQ is a simple to use speech recognition plug in to WordQ Writing Software With SpeakQ you can Enjoy all of the existing benefits of WordQ Train speech recognition using training text of your choice Train using speech prompting if you have difficulty reading the training text Work directly within any standard application e g Microsoft Word Wordpad Outlook Dictate either continuously into a document or discretely into the word prediction box Dictate in phrases or individual words Hear what the computer recognizes Type use word prediction or speak to write at any point in your writing Make corrections using speech enabled word prediction Back up and restore your speech profile Use speech recognition without having to learn and memorize speech commands What you need to get started To install and use the SpeakQ plug in you need WordQ 2 software pre installed A Windows PC with 1 GHz or higher processor speed 2 GHz preferred Windows NT SP 6 2000 XP or Vista Sound card noise canceling microphone headset or desktop and headset or desktop speakers WordQ with SpeakQ plug in software has been designed for individual PCs Only one user may run a single copy at a time However
4. that copy may be used by more than one user each with a different user vocabulary file Make sure that your Windows user account has administrator privileges before proceeding with the installation WordQ software must be installed directly on an individual PC However if you are connected to a network and the user has a login account then it is possible to configure the PC to store and retrieve WordQ user files from the user s network directory For detailed information on configuring such network installations please refer to the Support page on www wordq com Note If you have a current WordQ 2 with SpeakQ demonstration version installed you can simply register it with the serial number provided There will be no SpeakQ icon on your desktop you will access the features of SpeakQ from within WordQ 2 6 7 Install SpeakQ 1 Put the SpeakQ software CD in your computer 2 If the CD Autoplay feature is turned on you will be asked to install SpeakQ If the CD Autoplay feature is turned off open the CD from My Computer then double click on Install exe 3 Follow the onscreen instructions 4 The following software will be installed SpeakQ plug in for Windows NT 2000 XP Vista Microsoft Speech 5 1 Drivers Microsoft English U S v6 1 Recognizer except Vista Register software 1 Double click the WordQ 2 desktop icon to run WordQ 2 You will be prompted to register the SpeakQ plu
5. 1 SpeakQ User Guide Contents 3 Getting started Please read this section to get started using SpeakQ quickly 3 SpeakQ features 4 What you need to get started 5 Install SpeakQ 6 Register software 6 7 Using SpeakQ What can I do with SpeakQ 7 8 Training SpeakQ 14 Things to know New WordQ Buttonbar buttons 14 Dictation Options 14 Microphone on off settings 14 Immediate undo 15 No speech commands 15 Recognition speech feedback 15 16 Speak and select 19 Speak continuously 23
6. Backing up and restoring Backing up a recognition profile 23 Restoring a recognition profile 24 2 3 Getting started Thank you for purchasing SpeakQ Please read this section to get started using SpeakQ quickly Speak Q is a speech recognition software which works with WordQ to provide you with a writing tool that is sophisticated and powerful yet clear and easy to use SpeakQ was researched and developed at the Bloorview Kids Rehab one of the largest children s rehabilitation hospitals in North America in partnership with the Education Development Centre Newton MA under a US Department of Education grant Your WordQ with SpeakQ combination offers several unique features simplified training with speech prompting speech feedback of recognized words and phrases seamless integration with word prediction a choice of discrete or continuous dictation and no voice commands just text and punctuation It benefits a wide range of users from those with severe spelling and writing difficulties to those who simply have to write a lot For some people it is a way of finally being able to communicate in writing for others it is a simple tool for a busy life Please become familiar using WordQ before using SpeakQ 25 Appendix A Taking care of your voice 27 Appendix B Creating training
7. abulary Step 1 Start a writing application Start a writing application such as Microsoft Word The prediction box will appear as you normally have it set Step 2 Turn on microphone Turn on the microphone by clicking the Mic button or by pressing F8 Step 3 Speak a phrase It is recommended that you speak in short phrases While you can speak individual words recognition accuracy is better with short phrases Notice that while the computer is recognizing your voice an ellipsis is shown in the prediction box if visible and in WordQ s titlebar After you pause your recognized text is immediately written down in your document and spoken out 20 21 Step 4 Correcting within a recognized phrase There are three ways to make corrections use the keyboard and type over any errors press Esc to quickly undo the recognized phrase and speak the phrase again or press Esc to quickly undo the recognized phrase and use speech enabled word prediction In this last method SpeakQ temporarily remembers whatever you just said and makes those words available for you to use as word predictions You can then quickly re create the original phrase in a few keystrokes when changing adding deleting one or two words For example consider having to change the word is to was if the phrase this is going to be difficult has been recognized and typed out After pressing Esc to quickly undo the re
8. cognized phrase you will notice that the word this is immediately at the top of the predicted list Select it and is will be at the top of the next predicted list At this point select was from the list instead of is If your desired new word is not shown type one or more letters until it is shown and select it Then the words going to be difficult will be at or near the top of each subsequent list Step 5 Inserting punctuation You may speak common punctuation marks rather than type them see Appendix C It is generally easier to type punctuation on the keyboard WordQ then automatically adjusts spacing around punctuation marks and capitalizes the first word in a sentence if this option is checked under Options gt Prediction gt Prediction Step 6 Correcting within your document Begin by taking advantage of WordQ s proofreading features to review your document for any errors Exit proofreading to make corrections You can review a small phrase by highlighting it and pressing the Read button to hear it spoken You can also hear what you actually said in your own voice if you used speech recognition for that phrase by pressing the RePlay button This voice replay feature is available as long as your document has not been closed Note The quality of your own voice recording is limited You then have a choice of typing over or inserting new text by voice or by keyboard with the help of
9. ech recognition modes with SpeakQ Here spoken words are displayed as a list of choices enhanced by word predictions You then select from the list of words or phrases using the keyboard or mouse or type letters to further refine the suggestions When SpeakQ is first installed Speak and select mode is automatically chosen You can manually choose this mode by choosing Speech Recognition from the Options menu and then select it under Dictation This dialog also includes an option to limit single word recognitions to only words from your vocabulary Step 1 Start a writing application Start a writing application such as Microsoft Word The prediction box will appear as you normally have it set Step 2 Turn on microphone Turn on the microphone by clicking the Mic button or by pressing F8 Step 3 Speak a word or phrase Speak a word or short phrase Notice that while the computer is recognizing your voice an ellipsis is shown in the prediction box After you pause your recognized text is displayed and the most likely recognition will be spoken If you speak a single word you may see several similar sounding words If you speak a short phrase you may only see a single recognized phrase It is suggested that you speak in short phrases 3 5 words At this point it is suggested that you simply practice speaking and reviewing the recognized words or phrases You can hear each word or phrase in the prediction b
10. eech recognition A USB microphone is often best Consider using a headset microphone with earphones that allows you to hear the speech feedback privately without disturbing others You may also use a directional desktop microphone and desktop speakers if you are using the computer in a quiet environment In a classroom it is suggested that you sit at the back facing the front of the class so that the microphone does not pick up sounds from the teacher or other students You should not change your microphone once you have trained SpeakQ with it If you do change microphones or change places where you use SpeakQ then you should create a new speech profile for each situation and repeat training in each There are no limits on the number of speech profiles that you may create Step 2 Do a quick test of your microphone Choose Speech recognition gt from the Options menu Speak a phrase You should see a moving horizontal green bar displayed in the microphone section If you do not see this moving bar while speaking make sure that your microphone is connected and that the correct microphone is selected from the drop down list in this section You may have several possible microphones listed 10 11 Step 3 Choose the recognition engine Ensure that only a Microsoft English Recognizer is chosen NT 2000 XP choose Microsoft English U S v6 1 Recognizer Vista choose Microsoft Speech Recognizer 8 0 for Windows
11. es It may take you some time to work out for yourself how to balance typing with speaking Everyone is different 8 9 Training SpeakQ It s a good idea to read the whole of this section before you start the training that way you will know what to expect and your training will be more successful Note Please review the vocal hygiene recommendations provided in Appendix A at this time Before using SpeakQ you must create a speech recognition profile and train it so that SpeakQ recognizes your speech You will read several training texts aloud Each involves speaking for about 2 5 minutes You will need to do several of these with breaks in between so that SpeakQ can work more accurately You need to train at least 800 1 000 words or about 15 minutes of your speech for best results If you find that recognition is poor when you come to dictating then do some further training preferably with text that is similar to what you want to write see Appendix B Custom training text Note The SpeakQ speech training interface described below has been designed for a user who has difficulty with reading If this is not your case you can use the standard Microsoft speech training wizard located under Start gt Control Panel gt Speech This wizard allows somewhat faster training without speech prompting Step 1 Connect your microphone You must connect to your computer a quality noise canceling microphone certified for sp
12. ext that is at an appropriate level beginner 12 13 intermediate or advanced and in an area of interest to you See Appendix B for creating your own training texts A training window will now be displayed The upper portion of the window will display the training text one phrase at a time Click on the Train button to begin your training You will see a short piece of text at the top of your screen It will be read to you and highlighted word by word When the highlighting stops and the go icon appears at the top of the training window say the phrase into your microphone Note It is necessary to wait for the highlighting to stop before you speak the microphone automatically turns off while SpeakQ is highlighting the text so it won t hear you Speak in your normal voice not too fast slowly loud or quietly After you speak the computer will write down what you have said in the bottom section of the training window Once the complete phrase is recognized you will be prompted with the next phrase After a while you should find that you develop a rhythm of reading listening and speaking your training should then go quite smoothly If you do not say everything or the computer does not recognize your voice do not worry After a short pause the computer will say any remaining words again Take a break whenever you need one by clicking on Pause Click Train to continue with training If you
13. g in Type in your name your organization optional and the serial number that is provided on the back cover of your SpeakQ CD case This serial number is in three groups 3 6 and 3 numbers The WordQ buttonbar will then appear with two new buttons as shown below Using SpeakQ What can I do with SpeakQ You can do everything that WordQ does plus you can write by speaking At any time you have the choice of typing with the keyboard using word prediction or speaking straight into your text Speech recognition and word prediction are integrated to enhance the effectiveness of each other You can train SpeakQ to recognize your speech using texts provided that match your reading level or you can write your own training texts Once you have finished training you can dictate words or phrases directly into your documents similar to other speech recognition software You can also use SpeakQ s unique speech enabled word prediction Here spoken words are displayed as a list of choices enhanced by word prediction You then choose from the prediction box using the keyboard or mouse or type letters to further refine the suggestions Recognized words and phrases are immediately read aloud to help you identify mis recognitions To help you make any corrections highly accurate word predictions are suggested by combining speech with predictive information As a result the desired word can be selected with a minimum number of keystrok
14. get stuck on a word and it is not recognized just click on Skip to skip that word If you happen to say the wrong word and the computer thinks it is correct do not stop Just continue with the training You do not have to make any corrections now Along the bottom of the window you will notice a progress bar that indicates your progress through the training When all of the text is trained the SpeakQ training window will close and save your trained profile Step 7 Repeat training Repeat this training procedure with more training texts At least three of the full training texts i e all parts provided should be trained This is about 800 1 000 words or about 15 minutes of your speech You can take a break between trainings or do them on different days The recognition will improve with more training 14 15 Things to know New WordQ Buttonbar buttons The following buttons are added to the WordQ buttonbar after SpeakQ is installed Mic Turn the microphone on and off Click or press F8 or assigned hot key RePlay Replay a recording of your selected text to hear your own voice Click or press F6 or assigned hot key Dictation Options SpeakQ offers two dictations modes Speak and select and Speak continuously which are described in the next two chapters Associated with these is an option to limit single word recognition to only words from your WordQ vocabulary Microphone on off settings From the Op
15. ness Do not breathe too shallowly or exaggerate your breathing Keep your shoulders down Take frequent breaks Take a break of at least 10 minutes every 30 to 60 minutes or more often if required During your breaks drink water and relax 26 27 Drink water frequently Drink water throughout use of speech recognition not just during breaks Small sips of water help prevent dryness Speak with varied intonation Using intonation i e a sing song pattern in your voice will help you vary your pitch and avoid speaking in a monotone which can stress your voice Humidify the room Ensure that the environment in which you are speaking is not too dry Use a humidifier if necessary Keep dust to a minimum Dust can irritate your throat Limit use when feeling ill Don t do too much speech recognition if you have a cold or are feeling ill Pay extra attention to how your speech sounds and how your throat feels Take more breaks and drink more frequently Try not to speak as much as usual AVOID Smoking Speech recognition should be used in a room that is free of smoke Smoking is not recommended for speech recognition users Throat clearing Many people are not aware that they frequently clear their throat when talking When you feel the need to clear your throat take a drink of water and swallow hard instead Excessive coughing If coughing is unavoidable do
16. on Hint It is always a good idea to make sure that you know exactly what you want to say before you start speaking It is helpful to say a phrase in your head first before speaking out loud Backing up and restoring It is recommended that you back up your recognition profile immediately after you have completed training it This profile is separate from your user vocabulary although the name of your current profile is recorded with your vocabulary You should also back up your recognition profile on a regular basis Hint Consider using a different file name each time that you back up your recognition profile e g Tom1 Tom2 Tom3 Then if something goes wrong with your recognition profile you can then recover to a time when it was working without having to redo all of your training Backing up a recognition profile 1 Select Speech Recognition from the Options menu 2 Choose the recognition profile that you wish to back up 3 Then click the Back up button A Save As dialog will be displayed 4 Enter a name for the back up file It will then be saved in a compressed format with a pfr extension under My Documents WordQ 2 Users You can transfer a back up file to another computer by copying it to a USB thumbdrive or by burning it onto a CD 24 25 Restoring a recognition profile 1 Select Speech Recognition from the Options menu 2 Choose the recognition profile that you wish to back u
17. ox by using the usual WordQ method of pressing the key or mousing over the words When listening to the words you can select them with the Enter key or by clicking them Note Only words contained within your WordQ user vocabulary are suggested in the Speak and select mode You can increase the accuracy of recognition by typing a single letter to limit the suggested recognized words to those beginning with that letter Step 4 Select a word or phrase If the word or phrase that you want is in the prediction box you can select it as you would with any predicted word If your word or phrase is not shown speak again As soon as you select a word or phrase it will be typed into your application It will also be spoken aloud Step 5 Correcting within a recognized phrase SpeakQ temporarily remembers whatever you just said and makes those words available for you to use as word predictions You can then quickly re create the original phrase in a few keystrokes when changing adding deleting one or two words 18 19 For example consider having to change the word is to was if the phrase this is going to be difficult is shown in the prediction box Instead of selecting the phrase in the prediction box begin typing i e start with the letter t The word this will be at the top of the predicted list Select it and is will be at the top of the next predicted list At this point select was
18. p Then click the Restore button An Open dialog will be displayed 4 Locate and select the desired back up file with a pfr extension You will then be prompted to enter a name for the profile to restore 5 You can accept the default name which is the same as the file name type an existing name in the recognition profile list or type a new name Note Be aware every computer is different and that a recognition profile may not work as well if restored on a different computer than the one on which it was created Appendix A Taking care of your voice It is very important to take care of your voice when you are using speech recognition If you have frequent hoarseness loss of speech sore throats pain or discomfort when speaking or if speaking starts to require significant effort do not use speech recognition If these problems persist and are not associated with a cold or other illness please contact a speech language pathologist or an ear nose and throat specialist We recommend the following when using speech recognition Speak in your natural speech Speak the same way you would to a person sitting right in front of you Do not whisper speak extra loudly or put extra emphasis on words Relax Stay relaxed when using the system Make sure that you are sitting comfortably and able to maintain good posture Breathe in through your nose This helps prevent dry
19. slash Slash Hyphen Dash Equals Plus sign Pound sign Percent sign Dollar sign Quote Service and support Whichever way you use SpeakQ and WordQ we hope you enjoy it If there s any way we can help you with any questions please feel free to get in touch by phone fax email or regular mail Quillsoft Ltd 2416 Queen Street East Toronto Ontario CANADA M1N 1A2 Tel 001 416 698 0111 or 1 866 629 6737 Fax 001 416 698 1555 Web site http www wordq com Support support wordq com Sales sales wordq com 001 905 726 2853 1 800 726 7784 30 The following people are thanked for their contributions to the development of SpeakQ Shae Birch Teresa Brown Olivia Date Bob Follansbee Colin Laine Tom Nantais Rose Nishiyama Fraser Shein Cynthia Tam Chen Wang Original training texts were authored by Olivia Date We also wish to thank the many beta testers end users educators and clinicians who have contributed valuable ideas and feedback The following are thanked for the financial support provided for the development of SpeakQ Ontario Rehabilitation Technology Consortium Education Development Center Newton MA with funding from the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research US Department of Education Grant No H133G000204 02 Quillsoft Ltd Acknowledgements
20. speech enabled word prediction Whenever speech information is available it will be combined with word prediction when editing individual words Step 7 Training new words You can add new words with unusual spelling and or pronunciation such as proper names Choose Train Word from the Options menu Type in your word Click the Record Pronunciation button and speak the word clearly Once recorded the word will be added to the Dictionary list You may add as many new words as you wish now or at a later time Close this dialog when done 22 23 Note Training new words does not add those words to your prediction vocabulary if they are not already included Manually add them to your vocabulary through the Options gt My Words dialog if necessary Step 8 Additional training At first you may be disappointed with recognition in comparison to the training where the training text is known in advance and your recognition appears perfect In actual use the computer does not know what you are saying in advance With practice the recognition will improve You will also learn how to dictate more comfortably leading to better recognition Additional training may be required if you are not satisfied with the recognition preferably with text that is similar to what you want to write see Appendix B Custom training text Further with time you will work out your own strategy for combining speech with typing and word predicti
21. this as gently as possible Appendix B Creating training texts You can create your own training text files from samples of your own writing or from any other source Training texts are simply text files created in the word processor of your choice using text characters only i e no numbers and simple punctuation These are then saved in text only format with a txt extension 1 Find or write your piece of text Press Enter after each sentence to separate it from the next 2 Break each sentence into chunks 5 or 6 words per chunk is a good average but you can choose how many or how few you have 3 Type out your text inserting the symbol after each chunk This is an example of how a training text file might look Introduction to Speech Recognition Please repeat what the computer says Speak clearly in your normal voice Do not talk too fast or too slowly After you speak the computer will write down what you have said If you do not speak everything do not worry The computer will speak any remaining words again This speech training will help the computer better recognize your voice 4 Save your training text in a text only format in a folder such as My Documents WordQ2 Users 28 29 Appendix C Punctuation marks To write Say Period Comma Colon Semi colon Question mark Exclamation point amp Ampersand At sign or at Back
22. tions gt Speech Recognition dialog you can choose to have the microphone automatically turn off while editing after every recognition or never Turn mic off while editing default The microphone automatically turns off whenever you click with the mouse use the or keys or press Esc This allows you to make edit without worrying about unwanted recognitions being inserted Click on the Mic button or press F8 to turn the microphone on again when needed Turn mic off after speaking This is useful when you occasionally use speech recognition Turn on the microphone when you want to insert a word or phrase and then the microphone turns itself off Turn mic off never The microphone will stay on until you manually turn it off Immediate undo Press Esc to immediately undo any text entered in your document through speech recognition No speech commands SpeakQ focuses on recognizing words for writing only There are no speech commands e g command and control selection correction editing selection navigation capitalization to get confused with your writing However a limited set of punctuation marks can be used see Appendix C Recognition speech feedback When first installed SpeakQ will speak back whatever is recognized You can turn this off by unchecking Speak words in the Options gt Speech Feedback gt Feedback dialog 16 17 Speak and select Speak and select is one of two available spe
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search