Using the English Speech Recognition software and the proper hardware, your computer can respond to your spoken commands. English Speech Recognition includes the Speech Recognition extension and a utility program called Speakable Items.
This document explains how to set up and use Speech Recognition and the Speakable Items software. For more information, open Mac OS Help (in the Finder's Help menu) and choose the Speech topic.
The instructions in this document tell you:
- What you need to use this software
- How to install the software
- How to prepare the microphone and sound software on your Macintosh
- About the Speakable Items software
- How to solve common problems
What you need to use Speech Recognition 1.5.4
To use Speech Recognition 1.5.4 you need the following:
- a Power Macintosh or Macintosh G3 computer.
- system software version 8.6 or later.
Note: The Read Me file included with Mac OS 8.6 Update mistakenly states that Speech Recognition 1.5.4 requires Mac OS 8.5. - a 16-bit microphone, such as the Apple PlainTalk microphone or the microphone built into some Apple audio-visual monitors.
Installing the Speech Recognition software
You may want to print these instructions before you start, because you won't be able to view them on screen during the procedure.
You install the Speech Recognition software as follows:
If you are installing Mac OS and would like to include Speech Recognition with the standard installation:
1. Double-click on the "MacOS Install" icon on your system software CD.
2. At the screen that shows "Click Start to Install MacOS..." click on the "Customize" button at the bottom of the window.
3. Select the "English Speech Recognition"check box.
4. Click "Install." The speech recognition software will be installed with the rest of the MacOS.
If you are installing Speech Recognition alone:
1. Click on the "MacOS Install" icon on your system software CD.
2. Indicate you are installing new software when asked.
3. Select the "English Speech Recognition"check box.
4. Click "Install." The speech recognition software will be installed.
5. When you see a message that installation was successful, click Restart.
The first time you turn on Speakable Items, you will see two windows on the screen at once: the feedback window and an Introduction to Speech tutorial window.
Note: If you see a message telling you the standard microphone is not selected, click OK, turn Speakable Items off in the Speech control panel, and check your sound input settings as described in "Preparing the Sound Software," later in this document.
Note to iMac users: If you're using the iMac's built-in microphone, you will see a message telling you that your recognition accuracy might not be optimal. For best results, connect an external PlainTalk microphone to your iMac.
Preparing the microphone
If you don't have an audio-visual monitor with a built-in microphone, you need to connect an Apple PlainTalk Microphone (or equivalent) to your computer. Position the microphone as follows:
- Center the microphone on top of your monitor (if possible), with the microphone's Apple icon facing you.
- Make sure that you're between 1 and 3 feet in front of the microphone when you're giving spoken commands.
- Adjust the microphone cord so it is not looped around itself or other cords.
Preparing the sound software
For your microphone to work, you need to select it as the sound input source in the Monitors & Sound control panel.
1. Open the Monitors & Sound control panel (in the Control Panels submenu in the Apple menu).
2. Click the Sound button.
3. Make sure the Sound Monitoring Source is set to the microphone you are using (External Mic or Built-in Mic).
4. Close the Monitors & Sound control panel.
About the Speakable Items software
Speakable Items is a utility that lets you speak commands to your computer. You can tell your computer to do things such as close windows, tell what time it is, open applications and folders, or tell a joke. Speakable Items comes with a set of commands that the computer already understands, and allows you to create new speakable items quickly and easily.
There are three components with which you interact with the Speakable Items utility: the Speech control panel, the feedback window, and the Speakable Items folder.
- You use the Speech control panel to turn Speakable Items on and off, and to specify how the computer listens and how it gives you feedback.
- You use the feedback window to check whether the computer is listening and how it has responded to your command. The feedback window is open whenever Speakable Items is turned on.
- The Speakable Items folder in the Apple menu contains all the items whose names the computer can recognize. When you say the name of an item in this folder, the computer acts as if you double-clicked its icon. You can add to or delete the items in this folder, or change their names.
For instructions on using Speakable Items, search on the term "Speakable Items" in Mac OS Help (in the Finder's Help menu).
Troubleshooting
If you run out of memory while using speech recognition
- If you see a message that Speech Recognition is having trouble due to lack of memory, save all your open documents and quit the application programs you have open.
- Use the Speech control panel to choose a voice that requires less memory, or turn off voice feedback altogether. The voices with "high quality" in their names use the most memory. "Fred" uses the least. To see how much memory a voice needs, look at the size of the voice files in the Voices folder in the Extensions folder.
- Use the Memory control panel to turn on virtual memory. (With virtual memory on, voices may be slightly distorted and, with some programs, speech performance may decrease.)
- Install more memory in your computer. If you are using System 8.5 or later on a Power Macintosh with English Text-to-Speech and English Speech Recognition installed, then it is recommended that your computer have at least 32 megabytes of RAM.
If you have problems using other applications
A few applications may interfere with Speech Recognition. For example, Speech Recognition may not work with programs that use the microphone themselves, such as software that lets you record and edit sound. Turn off Speakable Items (see above) and any other Speech Recognition applications that you may be running when using these programs.
If the computer isn't recognizing your commands correctly
- If you are using your computer's built-in microphone, it may not have sufficient audio quality to work well with Apple's Speech Recognition software. This is most likely to happen on computers where the monitor, microphone, and computer are combined, and is more problematic on the iMac because of the noise coming from the internal fan. If you are experiencing problems with the accuracy of Speech Recognition, you should connect an Apple PlainTalk microphone to your computer.
- If you consistently experience problems in recognizing a particular Speakable Item (in the Speakable Items folder), try renaming the item. The way in which individuals pronounce and emphasize certain words can affect recognition accuracy.