Boston Voice Users

Boston Voice Users is an organization for those using or interested in speech recognition software. We are an entirely member-run organization. With monthly meetings we are continuing a process of exploring the developments, available tools and products, and best use of personal computer-based speech-recognition. As part of this process we invite both commercial and noncommercial entities to present at our meetings. We are providing an opportunity for a forum and a demo. The Boston Voice Users Group does not however endorse products. Our members of course are free to express their opinions. Users and potential users of speech-recognition are encouraged to come to our meetings to seek help and advice, network or make presentations.

Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about the organization or our meetings. Ideas for future meetings are welcome. Contact Boston Voice Users. Please see our list of Recent Meetings.

We meet at MIT from 7:30 p.m. until approximately 9:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month.

We have a low-volume mailing list (http://lists.harvee.org/listinfo/boston-voice-users) for meeting announcements and queries for assistance from local voice users.

Speech-recognition Resources

Resources Available on the Web
Speech-recognition community has put together a great deal of information on the Web concerning how to use the software, ergonomics, how to properly use your voice, etc. Go to this page to see a listing of resource links compiled by Boston Voice Users Group members.

Dealing with Software Compatibility Issues
Speech-recognition won't gracefully replace the mouse and keyboard with every program's user interface. The reality of the computer programming world is that programmers don't cooperate and follow the same standards. In March and April 2007, we presented 10 strategies for coping with user interface compatibility problems.

Upcoming meetings:

The Boston Voice Users Group meets regularly on the second Tuesday of every month, even if the listings below are not up-to-date. To receive notification of meeting topics, time, date, and place subscribe to our mailing list above. We also post meeting notices at Speech Computing .

Tuesday, February 9, 2010: Speech-recognition – General Topics
This month we will have an open meeting. While the meeting will be moderated, if someone wants to lead the group in a discussion of a specific speech recognition topic of their choice, please let us know. Bring your news, bring your questions, bring your solutions. Anything related to speech recognition is fair game in this informal session.

Meeting Room:

is 2-135, but that may change depending on the state of the video projectors, so watch for signs on the door or notes on the blackboard if you show up and don't see anyone.

For wheelchair access, there is a ramp and door to the left of the stairs at 77 Mass. Ave. (behind the bus stop) This entrance gives you basement level access to the elevator in Lobby 7 (the lobby at 77 Mass. Ave).

Directions to room 2-135: Go in the main door of MIT, at 77 Mass. Ave. Go three quarters of the way down the infinite corridor. Turn right at Building 4 and follow the main corridor of building 4 all the way to the end. Turn left, follow this corridor to the intersection of buildings 6, 2 and the corridor to the library (the corridor decorated with murals of jungle animals), and stairs on your right. Turn right and follow the corridor to room 2-135. You can also get in from the building 14 library and Building 8.

For Directions to MIT and a map of the campus, see http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg.

Recent Meetings

December 8, 2009: The Utter Command Approach To Making the Web the Easier
November 10, 2009: Speech-Recognition General Topics
October 13, 2009: General Topics
September 8, 2009: ADA/ADAAA
August 11, 2009: General Topics
June 9, 2009: General Topics
May 12, 2009: Alexander Technique
April 14, 2009: General Topics
March 10, 2009: General Topics
February 10, 2009: Dragon NaturallySpeaking Senior Director of Development
January 13, 2009: General Topics
December 9, 2008: General Topics
November 11, 2008: Linux-Capable Speech Recognition Update
October 14, 2008: General Topics
September 9, 2008: Putting Utter Command to the Test
August 12, 2008: Organizational Meeting
July 8, 2008: General Topics
June 10, 2008: E-Mail Demonstration
May 13, 2008: Vocola for Vista
April 8, 2008: E-Mail Demonstration Preparation
March 11, 2008: Repeat Brainstorming Session
February 12, 2008: Brainstorming Session
January 8, 2008: General Topics
December 11, 2007: Linux-Capable Speech Recognition Update
November 13, 2007: Adapting Speech Recognition to the Hospital Environment
October 9, 2007: Meeting Canceled
September 11, 2007: Organizational Meeting
August 14, 2007: Dragon Recognition Accuracy / System Performance
July 10, 2007: General Speech Recognition Topics
June 12, 2007: Utter Command Update; Demos posted here
May 8, 2007: Nuance Directors of Engineering And Language Modeling for Dragon
April 10, 2007: Mastering Windows with Your Voice Part 2.; Presentation in HTML format
March 13, 2007: Mastering Windows with Your Voice
Tuesday, February 13, 2007: Organizational Meeting
January 9, 2007: Computer Macros by Voice
December 12, 2006: MS Excel Productivity Meeting; download example workbook sales.xls
November 14, 2006: MS Word Productivity Meeting; Download: bullets.doc - practice Word document (35KB)
October 10, 2006: Portable Recorders for Speech Recognition
September 12, 2006: Using Speech Recognition at Work
August 8, 2006: General Topics
July 11, 2006: Organizational Meeting
June 13, 2006: Using Dragon with Web Browsers
May 9, 2006: MS Word Productivity Meeting
April 11, 2006: VoicePower Demonstration; (http://www.voiceteach.com/)
March 14, 2006: Streamline Work with DNS Macros & VBA; Download presentation slides in PDF (866 Kb); Download presentation transcript in PDF (93 Kb)
February 14, 2006: Organizational Meeting
January 10, 2006: Linux-Capable Speech Recognition, Current Efforts
December 13, 2005: Speech-recognition demo in Windows Vista
November 8, 2005: Tips and tricks
October 11, 2005: Organizational Meeting
September 13, 2005: Voice Recognition Software and Its Effect on Vocal Function
August 9, 2005: Dragon NaturallySpeaking Q&A
July 12, 2005: Utter Command: Human- Machine Linguistics, Renji Grammar, And A New Interface; View presentations at redstartsystems.com
June 14, 2005: Alexander Technique Demonstration
May 10, 2005: Speech Recognition Use in the Workplace and the ADA
April 12, 2005: General Speech Recognition
March 8, 2005: Organizational Meeting and discussion of Assistive Technology
February 8, 2005: Crib sheets and other tricks for remembering commands
January 11, 2005: Introduction to speech recognition
December 14, 2004: NaturallySpeaking 8 demo
November 9, 2004: Organizational Meeting
Sept 14, 2004: Informal question and answer session
June 8 , 2004: Organizational Meeting
May 11 , 2004: Introduction to NaturallySpeaking. An experienced user will walk a new user of NaturallySpeaking through the program, and give tips on making NaturallySpeaking easier to use and more accurate. New users and those considering using speech recognition are particularly encouraged to attend, but even experienced users may learn a few new things.
April 13 , 2004: Questions and Answers about NaturallySpeaking
March 9 , 2004: QPointer demonstration Ramy Metzger, CEO of Commodio, gave a demonstration of their QPointer software for hands-free computer use. QPointer uses image processing technology to detect the locations and names of text, graphics, images and controls on the screen, allowing it to voice-enable programs with which other speech software has difficulty.
Feb. 10 , 2004: Macros I Can Recall, An intentionally modest proposal for a speech recognition command grammar, Kim Patch
Jan. 13 , 2004: Alexander Technique and the Voice, Raewyn Haywood (alexanderteacher@yahoo.com), an instructor of Alexander Technique, discussed the principles of the Alexander Technique, what is involved in learning it, and how the work can be beneficial to those suffering voice problems.
Dec. 9 , 2003: Top 10 List for Speech Recognition
Nov. 11 , 2003: Organizational Meeting
Oct. 14 , 2003: Tips and Tricks for Better Speech Recognition
Sept. 9 , 2003: Introduction to NaturallySpeaking
August 12 , 2003: David Fox gave a demo previewing the upcoming release of VoiceCode, a system for programming by voice.
July 8 , 2003: Organizational Meeting
June 10 , 2003: Vocola, a simplified voice command language for NaturallySpeaking, demo by its auther Rick Mohr
May 13 , 2003: NaturallySpeaking 7 demo by Peter Cohen, of Peter Cohen Associates
April 8 , 2003: Getting Started with Speech Recognition
March 11 , 2003: Healthy voice use
February 11 , 2003: Voice-friendly software: Applications which work (and don't work) well with speech recognition
January 14 , 2003: Organizational Meeting
December 10 , 2002: Speech recognition in the workplace
November 12 , 2002: New user demo
October 8 , 2002: Organizational Meeting
September 10 , 2002: A Comparison of NaturallySpeaking and ViaVoice: The basic capabilities of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 5 and IBM ViaVoice release 8 were be demonstrated in a video. The demonstration was designed to give both new and experienced users a sense of how one can use the products and how they differ.
August 13 , 2002: MacSpeech: Andrew Taylor from MacSpeech gave a demo of the latest version of iListen (1.5) for Mac OS 9 and OS X.

This page last modified 2/4/2010.

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