Comments on: Speech to Text, the Next Step

By: Partners in Grime

Partners in Grime — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:18:10 +0000

Looking forward to speech to text and everything else to interact with the computer.

By: Arvin

Arvin — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:44:51 +0000

Obviously a lecturer can podcast material just as easily, in fact most schools seem to be adopting this form of lecture. Even wiki for a rough session breakdown or class info works well. I understand that there are better methods of managing data, but I’m simply trying to compare handwriting vs. voice recording. I just felt tablets seem less productive or innovate then using voice to text.

Ideally, if I’m in a lecture, I’ll either be typing my notes out or using some form of student collaboration to work with other students. But for those that would rather do less work, or physically write on a tablet, I was just posing the idea of using more voice technology.

It was also brought up earlier the idea of the artist or designer and their role in the tablet. I can very much see that need and use, but then I’d argue Gesture based computing would be far more effective. Things like Microsofts Surface’s ability to use different input materials (different brushes, hands, etc) would work even better then a tablet PC. So between physical motion and voice, I think those were the two driving factors behind this article.

By: Goobimama

Goobimama — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:44:05 +0000

Or, instead of going through all of this, the lecturer can himself give out digital copies or link up to a google docs page to what he has talked about.

By: 007

007 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:33:23 +0000

The lecture example given above works very well for a humanities or social science subject matter — machine transcription is well within reach because most of the content is in the spoken word of the lecturer. On the other hand, take a mathematics or physics lecture for example. Very little content is in the spoken word, most of it is in the equations shown in the blackboard, projector, etc., and in the process of arriving at them, i.e., the derivation. That can be best captured by handwriting.

Leaving the lecture hall, the scenario painted by the article works well only for a very limited range of human endeavor. There is very little there for communicating ideas that are bigger than words.

By: Arvin

Arvin — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:38:55 +0000

@That Guy: That’s probably the most valid point. I can see how beneficial it would be for artists or designers. Out of curiosity do you work more with digital graphics or physical paint and paper first? I’m just wondering if it seems more valid that artists would rely on paper first then scan and digitally edit their materials later.

By: That Guy

That Guy — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:40:30 +0000

The field EVERYONE forgets about when downplaying tablets (and thus becoming, in my opinion, apologists for Apple), is art.

I would glomp on a MacBook Pro with the ability to flip the screen around and draw directly on it in 2 seconds.

By: Vanapagan

Vanapagan — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:23:54 +0000

Or you use something like this - http://www.anoto.com