Speech Listener found!
Speech Listener found!
- Subject: Speech Listener found!
- From: Bill Cheeseman <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 07:43:58 -0400
There is a lot more AppleScript buried in Mac OS X 10.1 than anybody
imagined. You just have to know where to look. Here is what I found out
about scriptable speech recognition, thanks to a clue from Apple's speech
guru, Kim Silverman (these are quoted from some additions to The AppleScript
Sourcebook's report on AppleScript 1.7, which I will post later this
weekend):
SpeakableItems 3.0.1
The SpeakableItems application is found in
/System/Library/Speech/Recognizers/AppleSpeakableItems.SpeechRecognizer/Cont
ents/Resources/. To write scripts using its supplied commands, use the form
'tell application "SpeakableItems" to
'. The SpeakableItems dictionary is
actually entitled the "Speakable Items Server Dictionary." In a bit of Mac
OS X magic, once you turn on speakable items in System Preferences, a new
Speech folder will be created automatically in your ~/Library/ folder. In
it, you will find a Speakable Items folder containing all of the familiar
speakable items, such as "Tell me a joke," and an Application Speakable
Items folder containing speakable items for three applications. Only one of
the speakable items, "Open Sherlock," is configured as a traditional
AppleScript, but you can write more of your own.
SpeechRecognitionServer 3.0.1
The Mac OS X v10.1 Technical Note refers to improvements in Speech Listener.
The classic Mac OS has a scripting addition with the name "Speech Listener,"
a relatively recent addition to Apple's standard set of scripting additions,
which allows you to write custom interactive speech-based scripts. However,
Speech Listener appears at first glance to be missing in action in Mac OS X
10.1. Thanks to Kim Silverman, Apple's Principal Research Scientist and
Manager, Spoken Language Technologies, I have learned that it has simply
been incorporated into the speech recognition engine in Carbon frameworks,
where it uses less memory and is much more robust, accurate and responsive.
To open its dictionary, navigate to this rather daunting address:
/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/SpeechReco
gnition.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SpeechRecognitionServer. If you plan
to do any speech recognition scripting, I recommend that you save an alias
to it in a more convenient location. Scripting it is easy; just 'tell
application "SpeechRecognitionServer" to
', although its dictionary is
entitled "Speech Recognition Server Dictionary" (with spaces).
--
Bill Cheeseman - email@hidden
Quechee Software, Quechee, Vermont, USA
http://www.quecheesoftware.com
The AppleScript Sourcebook -
http://www.AppleScriptSourcebook.com
Vermont Recipes -
http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/VermontRecipes
Croquet Club of Vermont -
http://members.valley.net/croquetvermont