Translate voice chat to text chat

Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a translator that will take my voice chat and convert it into text chat? I pastor a church in SL, and it would be nice to offer text of my sermons for those who are deaf in RL or who are unable to use sound during my services, but having an interpreter type the text as I preach would be cumbersome and the interpreter may have a hard time keeping up with nearly every word (especially on days that SL is especially laggy).

If such a translator is available, could you please provide me the URL of the xStreet page or the LM of the in-world store to purchase such a translator. If one does not exist, is anyone interested in creating one? Please let me know the cost.

Thanks so much!

So what you need is
a) voice recognition - something large companies research since years.
b) a translator of this recognized voice sentences.

Why not writing your speeches in advance and use some object to have the speech in chat while you can read this yourself synchroneously.
This is somethin some teacher do with their class material.

Wol,
SL Guided Tours

The gadget that can speak a prepared text in chat, one line at a time, is called "Speakeasy", and it is available as a freebie on XStreetSL.

Hi Grace; I'm Treasure and I am a board member for Virtual Ability. I also manage the Virtual Ability owned Cape Able sim, a sim that caters particularly to D/deaf, but to all disabled. I have lots of things that can help you, most particularly a 'Line by Line' translator, that will basically drop a notecard, line by line, into local chat, as you speak. I and a peer of mine are doing a voice to text transcription of a scary story written by one of our group members for halloween. I will be transcribing off of a notecard, if you'd like to drop by to see how that works/looks. There is a whole voice to text community. I am deaf, by the way, but can hear well enough with equipment to be able to do this. Mostly we use professional transcriptionists, but tomorrow there just aren't any available, so I am doing it, for this short purpose. Anyway look me up inworld anytime. I'd love to have more info about your church functions, and can probably provide most of the information you need regarding the SL D/deaf community. Hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you for trying to include the SL D/deaf community in your endeavors.

Also, it's not cumbersome to transcribe off of a notecard. Free voice transcription, with NO notecard is cumbersome but with a prepared speech on a notecard, provided to the transcriptionist, it's basically a simple matter of cut and paste.

Not sure if this is of help what with SL being the medium - but in case it helps in any other fashion - http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/
I have tried it- it pretty much works.. But you do need to be careful of extraneous noises.

Thank you all very kindly for your helpful responses.

It seems to do what I would like, I would need to write out my sermons verbatim, instead of using an outline and preaching partially "off the cuff," and then put the sermon manuscript in a notecard for my translator to cut and paste into the local chat box. Although I had hoped for something that would allow more spontaneity, I think this will be a solution.

Treasure, I will definetely contact you in-world as soon as I am able, and I will check out the other suggestions you all have given me, as well.

Thank you, once again, for taking the time to provide assistance.

God bless you,
Grace

I sent you the Speakeasy Hud, inworld. I checked it first to make sure it was working right. Yes off the cuff is hard on a transcriptionist, and they will inevitably be behind you, instead of right with you. I have an issue with the group member who I am transcribing for, tonite (just found out that it was an issue, last nite). He did provide the notecard with the story. But in his case, he acts out all the parts as he reads. He has the SL window minimized, and is reading from a Word document up on his screen. So he has no idea where I am, if I am lost, or behind him, or ahead of him. If he's reading fast, I'm going to have a heck of a time keeping up. We finally agreed that he'd check the SL screen occasionally to ascertain where i am in the transcription. I'll do the best I can, it's hard enough doing this with my hearing loss. Hopefully we'll get through it ok but it's not an ideal way to transcribe. Ideally, the speaker and the transcriptionist are working together, both watching the screen to make sure they are together.

Hello, Miss,

I will send you a notecard of information regarding the use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking in SL. Unfortunately, it is far from perfect and SL continues to be less workable with Dragon at every turn. However, this may be useful information in future for you.

Otherwise, reading from a prepared text and then copying and pasting would serve both those who prefer voice and those who prefer text chat.

All the best,
Elric

Hey Elric, it may be 'far from perfect' but it IS good. I have a dyslexic resident on Cape Able who's just gotten it; the change is amazing, it's made his SL so much easier, both for him, and for those reading his text. I'd forgotten about Dragon for this thread, it might be just the thing for Grace.

Oh I agree. Dragon is far better than not at all for many of us. My RSI is extreme and I would not be able to function without Dragon. I just wish it would stop dropping letters directly in text chat bars! LOL

But I also use the Professional version and have made some custom commands that help out, along with using the Dictation Box (for when I can't take the dropped letters any longer).

I'm actually quite delighted to hear that others are using Dragon in a way that improves their experience in SL. Really delighted in fact. Thank you for sharing!

PS: I've set out a notecard giver at my shoppe for any Dragon or would be Dragon users out there. If this information is of assistance, fabulous.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Alkahest/131/136/652

the Radegast text-viewer can do speech-to-text with one of its plugins (written by *cough* me).

Doing speech to text with external tools is very difficult with the Linden viewer because it does not interface with the underlying system in a standard way regarding text and user interfaces. Radegast does not have that problem.

My hope is to add a similar speech/text/speech plugin to the LL viewer once it gains a sufficiently functional plugin expansion facility. Such a facility is on the drawing boards within LL, but do not hold your breath.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/radegastspeech/

This is a work in progress.

Note that speech-to-text, to work at all, requires that you train the recognizer. The one built into Windows is pretty good as such things go. But you really have to speak distinctly.

Am I to presume you've created your own speech recognition program? I'll download it soon to test, but in the meantime:
How did you overcome the LL interfact limitation (i.e. Dragon omits letters and sometimes words when transcribing into chat bars)?
What size is the base vocab?
Can you select and correct previously dictated text?
Can you edit the vocab?
Is there any vocab builder (something Microsoft has finally figured out how to do)?
What accuracy can one expect with a decent system and microphone?

Thank you.

"Speech failed initialization". Likely due to my using Windows 7.

Also, it asks for my logon user name and password. I'm afraid I'm not comfortable using this system as a result.

If you'd like to answer my previous questions, I'd really be keen on pursuing this in the future. If not, good luck.

Cheers.

I have a blind friend who uses the JAWS text reader along with the Radegast viewer. The combination of these two prohibits the use of voice communication for him. It sounds like the voice to text could work for him and others like him, as well. Any input on this?

I am sending you a name of a resident whose wife is active in SL, in Virtual Ability, and is blind. I am not sure what she uses, but am sure they can give you info. Sending the resident's name in private message.

You need to enable 'Private Messages' here in the forum, or, IM me inworld, or, contact Gentle Heron at Virtual Ability, she can also help you with info on this.

Gentle is an absolute font of information and such a delightful lady. She never fails to impress me.