'Texting While Driving' Solution
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
When I was working in the Telecoms DA sector the best you could hope for with voice recognition was about 40% - 45% accuracy and this was with a full rack of lovely tech. I don't know how well it would work on a Smartphone... On the flip side there are loads of add-ons for text - voice (well suited for the visually impaired)...
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I've heard great things about Google Voice Actions[^] for Android, not tried it myself, and I certainly wouldn't consider attempting it while driving, hands free or otherwise.
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.
My Android phone has voice to text for sms. It is reasonable, although it does sensor swear words, either changing them to something less offensive or replacing them with ****. I have, however, never found myself desperately needing to send a text message whilst driving although I can imagine plenty of people with a desperate need to set their Facebook status or have a quick tweet whilst driving along.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
Some providers here have text to speech, if you send an SMS to a non-mobile phone, you get a call with a machine reading the SMS to you. Especially funny if the message contains smileys.
Agh! Reality! My Archnemesis![^]
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My Android phone has voice to text for sms. It is reasonable, although it does sensor swear words, either changing them to something less offensive or replacing them with ****. I have, however, never found myself desperately needing to send a text message whilst driving although I can imagine plenty of people with a desperate need to set their Facebook status or have a quick tweet whilst driving along.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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Some providers here have text to speech, if you send an SMS to a non-mobile phone, you get a call with a machine reading the SMS to you. Especially funny if the message contains smileys.
Agh! Reality! My Archnemesis![^]
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
The only S2T instances that I see are those in upmarket cars. Even these I only see via the Haunted Fishtank. Given that the programs I see them on are more entertainment than factual they tend to show the failures rather than the successes. So purely from my perspective these applications still have a loooong way to go before they hit the mainstream.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
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Stupid ducking voice recognition!
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.
:) Should also say that the Android stuff doesn't have voice recognition on the phone, it records your speach, sends it off to Google on the internet where it gets translated into text and sent back to you, so can be a bit laggy.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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When I was working in the Telecoms DA sector the best you could hope for with voice recognition was about 40% - 45% accuracy and this was with a full rack of lovely tech. I don't know how well it would work on a Smartphone... On the flip side there are loads of add-ons for text - voice (well suited for the visually impaired)...
Software like Dragon Naturally Speaking claims >> 90% accuracy however having tried this many times in the past it certainly has its problems. These things are very inaccurate with small words like a, an or the but really good with words like constitution, mammography, federation. That is as long as you speak in mono tone into a microphone.
John
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
It doesn't have to be made illegal in the UK, because doing anything other than driving, while driving, is illegal. The simple, obvious laws are often the best.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Software like Dragon Naturally Speaking claims >> 90% accuracy however having tried this many times in the past it certainly has its problems. These things are very inaccurate with small words like a, an or the but really good with words like constitution, mammography, federation. That is as long as you speak in mono tone into a microphone.
John
That's probably in an idealised environment, which a moving car certainly isn't. My car has "voice control" for things like the CD selection, cabin temperature and so on. It works fine, but then it only has to deal with a very limited vocabulary. Even then, it gets things wrong sometimes.
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It doesn't have to be made illegal in the UK, because doing anything other than driving, while driving, is illegal. The simple, obvious laws are often the best.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
It's not illegal to use a hands-free phone, assuming it's all properly installed. Bizarrely, it's not illegal to smoke! Lighting a cigarette while driving must be dangerous (I don't smoke, so have no personal experience of trying it)
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It doesn't have to be made illegal in the UK, because doing anything other than driving, while driving, is illegal. The simple, obvious laws are often the best.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Except it was made illegal, quite a few years ago now. They had the catch-all of failing to be in control or whatever it was called but there is a new law that doubled the phone and gave three penalty points. You are not allowed to use a mobile communication device that is not fixed to the car whilst the engine is turned on - or something like that. Not sure it has made much difference, except to increase the number of people with points on their licence.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
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It's not illegal to use a hands-free phone, assuming it's all properly installed. Bizarrely, it's not illegal to smoke! Lighting a cigarette while driving must be dangerous (I don't smoke, so have no personal experience of trying it)
The smoker whilst driving thing has always amazed me, even back when I was a smoker. Lighting a cigarette, trying to get the end out of the window to flick off ash, throwing the damn butt away (littering too) has to distract you from what you are doing. They can still use the failing to be in proper control thing for that of course, as they can if you have an accident whilst using a hands free phone.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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It's not illegal to use a hands-free phone, assuming it's all properly installed. Bizarrely, it's not illegal to smoke! Lighting a cigarette while driving must be dangerous (I don't smoke, so have no personal experience of trying it)
The smoking one gets me too! You read stories of drivers being given tickets for eating sausage rolls[^] or blowing their noses[^] even when stopped at traffic lights, because an over-officious officer believes that they are not in full control of their vehicle, but you never see smokers being stopped for the same reason.
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
How about this? http://gizmodo.com/5638161/gm-will-shove-facebook-and-voice-texting-into-your-onstar+equipped-car[^]
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
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It's not illegal to use a hands-free phone, assuming it's all properly installed. Bizarrely, it's not illegal to smoke! Lighting a cigarette while driving must be dangerous (I don't smoke, so have no personal experience of trying it)
Electron Shepherd wrote:
Bizarrely, it's not illegal to smoke!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Electron Shepherd wrote:
Bizarrely, it's not illegal to smoke!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
'Fraid it isn't. "Lighting-up at the wheel has been added to the list of "distractions" which police and lawyers can cite in court when seeking a conviction for a traffic offence. " "A major change is the inclusion of smoking at the wheel as behaviour that police may interpret as a distraction and failure to be in proper control of the vehicle." So, in summary, smoking while driving is not, in itself, illegal.
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Wouldn't that be about the same as just calling the person on the phone and actually talking to them? Last time I checked, every phone has that capability built into it already. ;)
-NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.
Heh, not really... Think of the difference: Calling: "Call Bob" "Calling Bob... ring ring... ring ring..." "Hell- No, I don't want fries with that- Hello?" "Hey Bob, it's Joe, I was just-" "Hey Joe, caught me in the middle of something... One sec- I said a CHEESEburger, you idiot!" and so on... Voice Texting: "Text Bob." "New text message to Bob. Begin dictation" "Hey Bob, was just wondering if you wanted to go out for drinks after work. Get back to me... Send message" "Message sent." Then you just have to incorporate the inevitable jokes when it screws up the voice dictation... But my brain isn't powered up enough to think of a good one right now :)
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Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)