Voice recognition software for chat and IM

I am looking for software, that will let me convert voice to text and send it to the chat bar or IM bar in Second Life, or Open Life. Does anyone know if it is available, or am I going to have to build it from scratch? I want it for streaming my lectures into my Darkstone learning center in Second Life, and Darkstone College in my Open Life stand alone.

Tags: chat, im, lecture, media, streaming, voice

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Permalink Reply by SuezanneCB-SuezanneC-Baskerville on July 24, 2008 at 2:30am: You could try using Naturally Speaking and see if works with Second Life.

To the best of my knowledge, Naturally Speaking is the best voice to text program in existence for normal purchase and use on a pc. I have not been able to get accurate enough results with it to make it be useful. Voice recogniton accuracy is highly variable depending on the person, microphone, background noise, training the softwared, etc.

It's been a few years since I tried Naturally Speaking with SL. It didn't work well then. SL would drop letters. SL's had many revisions since then so it might work again. There are still problems with this idea, the text goes where you have the focus, so if you click outside the text entry area, the text goes somewhere it doesn't need to and not to where it does need to.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Soulla Stylianou on October 13, 2008 at 1:31pm: take a look at our chatbots (which can be used on the web or in SL as robotars) on www.daden.co.uk or go to daden prime in Second Life and talk to our avatars there. Email david.burden@daden.co.uk for more information; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Myron Curtis on October 13, 2008 at 1:40pm: Thanks this sounds interesting. The voice recognition software I have been playing with has been less than dependable; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by SuezanneCB-SuezanneC-Baskerville on October 13, 2008 at 9:06pm: You seem to be looking for voice to text software such that you can speak out loud and have the computer convert your speech to text.

It doesn't like your chatbots serve this purpose at all.

The program I mentioned, Naturally Speaking, is the best voice to text program in existence in the commercial sector. There's no competition, really. There's a program called ViaVoice, but reviews always report it as being less accurate than Naturally Speaking. The site knowbrainer.com has microphones, voice to text software, vocabulary packs, microphones, a pre-made voice called uni-voice said to eliminate the need to train NS, and user forums.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Myron Curtis on October 15, 2008 at 1:14am: Thanks again. You are probably right, I'll have to buy Dragon if I can't find anything as good for my favorite price, free.
I want to use it for my lectures that I will be streaming live into Second life and my own Virtual Worlds College so that as I speak the program will type that into the chat or IM so that students who don't hear, or don't want the sound on can read. This would also let translation programs like Symbolic Translator convert the text into each student's native language.; ▶ Reply to This