Rob's Rhapsody

Since I posted yesterday, I've gotten some questions about the TTS engines that Microsoft includes in the OS itself. Well, here's the deal... Microsoft has shipped TTS engines in the OS before. In the Windows XP time frame, for example, we shipped three...

As I posted yesterday, I got a chance to check out the machine that Shanen used for the Financial Analysts Meeting demo. I confirmed that it was just what I suspected: An audio gain issue. If you watch the video clip on MSN Video you can see in the...

The press release just went live. The web site is online . And the details are all spelled out . Here's what the press release has to say about Live Search: Live Search for Windows Mobile with voice input. The updated Live Search for Windows Mobile ®...

Many people have been wondering what the entire command set is for Speech Recognition in Windows Vista. Short of giving you the source code (which I can't do ... :-)), this is this best way I've come up with sharing that information with you. It's been...

Have you ever wanted to control your media player with your voice? Well now you can! With today’s Macro of the Day, you can say things like “Play Hotel California”, or “Play The Eagles”, or, “Play Genre Rock”, and even “Play something by The Eagles”....

I've been posting macros for a few weeks now, and one question that comes up from time to time is, "Hey Rob, How do I use the macros that you've created? They look really cool, but I'm not sure how to save them onto my PC. Please help!" It's...

Here's a question from a reader about the Dictation Everywhere feature in Windows Speech Recognition in Windows Vista: This feature is thus very important to me and my future as a PC user. I have found that in many form fields (such as the one...

Today's macro let's you say things like "Send email to Rob", or "Send email to Rob Chambers", and as long as I'm a contact in your Outlook Contacts, you can send me mail! It also allows you to say "Send email to Rob Chambers about...

About a year ago I put together a list of every single thing Windows Speech Recognition in Windows Vista is listening for, but that was before all the code was final, and before we reacted to some feedback from users. So... That list is a little stale...

Today's macro of the day is a cool trick involving another free tool from Microsoft called Search Commands. Search Commands helps you find commands, options, wizards and other cool stuff in Office 2007 applications (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). It's...

Have you ever found yourself giving a presentation about speech recognition and wished you could simply advance from slide to slide using speech recognition? Well ... I have. I've been using this really cool microphone I got from eMicrophones, called...

Yesterday I had the day off. I went to the Woodland park Zoo with my son, Nicholas, with his summer camp. It was a blast. There was a bit of downtime around lunchtime, so I thought I'd check out the news. I was shocked when I read this headline on my...

If you're using Windows Speech Recognition in Windows Vista, and you're also using Microsoft Word 2007, you might be wondering... How can I access things that are on different tabs in the new Microsoft Word UI with just one command, instead of two. This...

I saw StreetDeck at CES a week and a half ago, and I was impressed. Since then, I’ve been able to get my hands on a copy from Robert Wray and Chuck Holbrook of StreetDeck.com . I’ve been running it for almost a week now in my carPC. Installation...

As part of the " Every single thing WSR is listening for " series, here's a list of general commands. "Start listening" Tells WSR to start listening to your commands/dictation. "Stop listening" Tells WSR to stop listening for your Speech....

A few followers of my blog have recently asked me: In Office XP, Office 2003, and in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, there are two separate modes for Commanding and for Dictation. Will this still be true in Windows Vista Speech Recognition? I'm...

It's hard to believe, at least for me, that SAPI 5 is 5 years old now. For those of you that don't know, SAPI 5 is the Microsoft Speech API, version 5, that was released to the world on 10/19/2000. SAPI 5 has been the basis for speech application development...

As part of the " Every single thing WSR listens for " series, here's a list of dictation commands: "Select that" "Unselect that" "Clear selection" Selects/unselects the unit(s) nearest the cursor [typically the last item(s) spoken] "Correct"...

I get feedback from people, from time to time, that they'd like a more efficient way to add items to their speech dictionary. Although, there is a facility in Windows Speech Recognition already to do this, it's one word at a time, and it only allows you...

We've received some comments and questions recently from users trying out the new WSR Macros utility we released on http://www.microsoft.com/downloads about keystroke macros. Here's the scoop... We utilize a very similar syntax for sending keys from macros...

A user wrote in to me via my blog the other day and asked: “Is there a way to control volume using WSR? I can't find any command that will do it. Can you point to a WSR Macro that might help me? Thanks for any help you can give.” Great question...

I was reading news the other day on my Windows Mobile phone while I was waiting in line for lunch, and I read a review comparing Microsoft's Vista OS and Apple's latest incarnation of OS X, Leopard. It wasn't focused on any one specific area, just on...

I was meeting with a customer last week talking about all the great new enhancements to Windows Vista, including the new built in Windows Speech Recognition, and unexpectedly I found out another very nice TTS engine made by Loquendo . It's definitely...

Another good request for a macro came in the other day, this time from Brian (Thanks Brian). Here's what he wanted: A macro that can tell him the weather forecast. Once you install this macro, you'll be able to say things like "What is the weather...

Finally, things are settling down a little bit here at work, and I can get back to blogging about features in Windows Vista Speech Recognition. Several readers asked about dictation, and about what commands would be available to facilitate dictating…If...