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Vic · Last edited by Vic on Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:10 pm; edited 1 time in total

Two final year information technology students from a private engineering college in Tambaram (in Tamil Nadu) have constructed a keyboard which, they say, could help visually challenged persons operate computers with ease.

The project titled ‘hardware keyboard for visually impaired’ won the first place at a national-level technology meet at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and was also presented at Worldcomp 2007, a global conference on embedded systems and their applications in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, last month.

S. Sivaraman and R. Srikanth, students of Sri Sai Ram Engineering College, said that they had been doing projects in different areas since their first year but wanted to do something that would be benefit a disadvantaged section of the society.

Their keyboard features 17 logical switches equipped with soft ‘touch sensors’. Twelve of the switches were in the ‘hash’ pattern and the rest in the ‘cross’ pattern on the keyboard. There was also an integrated text-to-speech conversion system, to minimise errors. Visually challenged people would need just a week to get used to the keyboard, the students said.

Source: The Hindu

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Vikas

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THOMASJACOB · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:41 pm Post subject:

That sounds interesting.................we need to help and encourage such people in the society to come out with more innovative aids and appliances that will help people with disabilities

I am just wondering if some one can come out with Real Time Speech to Text Software, this is not available in India.

I mean the speech should be converted into text simultaneosuly without the use of a typist., just as text converted into speech in JAWS..

This enables hearing impaired individuals to hear what is being talked about in conferences and large meetings

Regards
Thomas

Vic · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:48 pm Post subject:

I believe there are several speach-to-text softwares available with, of course, Dragon Naturally Speaking being the most popular.

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THOMASJACOB · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:55 pm Post subject:

Vikas,

But are these available in India? From where can one get it? And what are the costs?

And if they are available then why are the various seminars conducted for PWDs not using these for the benefit of hearing impaired???

Thanks and Regards
Thomas

Vic · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:01 pm Post subject:

Auth.Dist.Of Indian Addition Dragon Naturally Speaking Speech Recognition Software in Mumbai

Contact :  MR.MANISH R.GOENKA
Address :  D-3, Versova Andheri Ashirwad Co.Op.Hsg.Ltd., Plot No.8211, CD-66, Mhada Versova, Andheri (W), Mumbai - 400053
Tel.No :  (022 ) 26351063
Fax No :  (022 ) 26348625

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Dsamant · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:52 pm Post subject:

Hi Thomas,

This page contains some more information about speech recognition softwares. However I am not sure where and at what price these are available in India. Vikas, any guidance on where I can find this information?

http://www.jan.wvu.edu/media/speechrec.html

Thanks
Deepti

Vic · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:10 pm Post subject:

There are several speech recognition/ speech-to-text softwares. The following links will give you an idea (including prices) for some of them:

1. http://www.iglou.com/vrsky/

2. http://www.brothersoft.com/downloads/speech-to-text.html

3. Speech to Text Reporting - a service provided by stenographers or palantypists for people who have any kind of hearing loss, whether complete or partial.
a) http://www.speechtotext.co.uk/
b) RNID

4. You can set up speech recognition in Microsoft Windows XP for much cheaper by using Windows XP PLUS! (about $30) & Office XP applications. I have not tried this myself but this link lays out a step by step set-up guide)

I have used Dragon Naturally speaking speech recognition software & must say that it is quite a good tool.

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Vikas

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Dsamant · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:11 pm Post subject:

Some open source speech recognition tools available...

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Speech-Recognition-HOWTO/software.html

deepti

Vic · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:13 pm Post subject:

Deepti,

Thats a good link - I might give it a try as I do like open source softwares. In the meantime, if anyone else tries it out then please leave feedback here regarding its usability .

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Vikas

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THOMASJACOB · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 1:02 pm Post subject:

I have some queiries on this

Suppose my boss and I sit on two different PCs, and she wants to impart some training to me, will the Dragon Naturally Speaking Software help in this???? Can I read what she speaks on my PC if she is at a different location with a different PC, I mean in the next cabin etc, if i use this ????

Suppose in a conference there are 100 people who are hearing impaired and would like to hear what the speaker is saying in the absence of sign language interpreter, is it possible to see on a larger screen for the entire audience to read what the speaker is saying???

Does this need a different type of computer or is it a feature that can be incorporated in the normal present day PCs???

Just curious to know more about it, and want to try it out too, but to be frank I am the only one behind all this in Mumbai

Regards
Thomas

Vic · Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:31 pm Post subject:

Hi Thomas,

Dsamant

Hi all,

Its been a while since we had this discussion, but I came across a research article yesterday that might address some of the questions Thomas had raised.

Researchers at Villanova University are developing a speech recognition/transcription program that can be used in classroom settings i.e. to accommodate several different people speaking at the same time. They have tested it out during a lecture which also involved student discussion and their experiments are reporting decent success.

Needless to say they still need to fine-tune it. Of course this is being developed, so I am afraid it is available within their lab, and not in the market...but it does seem to have promise.

The researchers are Richard Kheir (richard.kheir@villanova.edu) and Thomas Way (thomas.way@villanova.edu). Publication details are here:
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1269900.1268860

If anyone is interested, it might be beneficial to directly contact the researchers and ask about the software and their current progress. I don't think I can post the article in the forum due to copyright issues but am happy to write a detailed summary if anyone is specifically interested.

Regards
Deepti