Rob's Rhapsody : Speech Recognition

Microsoft Exchange 2010 Buzz -- Speech is 1 of 5 key features, according to Mary-Jo Foley from ZDNet

robch — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:01:05 GMT

Mary-Jo Foley posted an article on her blog on ZDNet yesterday talking about how the RTM buzz for Microsoft Exchange 2010 is growing louder. It's an interesting read.

The Speech team has been busy at work supporting the Exchange team for quite a while, with a new feature for Exchange that allows users to see a text preview of voice mails that arrive in their inbox.

I've been using it personally for almost 2 years, in one form or another. I recently set my own Exchange server up, and redirected my wife's cell phone voice mails to it too. She now never listens to her voice mails directly. This is a milestone for me, because this is one of the best examples of my work life impacting my personal life, and vice versa. She does give me constructive advice on how to make the system better ... :-)

In most reviews I've read on Exchange 2010 since the public announcement earlier this year, text preview of voice mails is very often listed in the short list of key new features. That's true in Mary-Jo's article also. Here's what she says about Exchange 2010:

The Exchange 2010 release includes new, integrated e-mail archive functionality; the ability to see text previews of voice mail; a new “Conversation View” feature; customizable call-routing menus; and a “MailTips” feature designed to help stamp out e-mail “faux pas.”

Let us know, once you're using Exchange 2010, how you like the voice mail text preview feature. We like hearing from our customers directly. Both what you like, and what you don't like.

Controlling your PC via PowerShell and Speech Recognition?

robch — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:52:41 GMT

I just read a pretty cool post by Joel 'Jaykul' Bennett from HuddledMasses.org where he shows his readers how to use a PowerShell script he wrote to invoke other PowerShell scripts using Speech Recognition. Great idea, Joel. I like it!

Check it out here.

Microsoft sponsors the 2009-2010 AVIOS Speech Application Programming Contest

robch — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:52:54 GMT

One of the cooler parts of my jobs is interacting with customers and partners. One such opportunity I have is being on the board of AVIOS, The Applied Voice Input and Output Society. As a member of AVIOS, I've also been involved behind the scenes in the annual Speech Programming Competition.

This year Microsoft is back on the scene as a sponsor, as we have been for the 2 years before. I just posted over on the speech team blog about the contest. You should check it out.

Do you have what it takes to win a free XBOX360, Visual Studio Professional, or a fancy new Zune?

TellMe Rolls Out Better Speech Recognition And An Almost-Sexy New Voice Called Zira

robch — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:19:17 GMT

Last night, as 12:01am, Tellme announced their Spring 09 upgrades to their underlying speech platform. You can read all about it here on Tellme.com.

There have been a ton of news articles about it since the announcement, but I liked what Tech Crunch said about the new Zira voice. They said it’s “almost sexy”. I never really thought about TTS voices sounding sexy, but … It made for a good article title anyway. :-)

And … BTW … My team here at Microsoft is really excited about this announcement, too, because our underlying speech technology is powering the new “better speech recognition” and the “almost-sexy new voice called Zira”.

It’s been a real pleasure working with Tellme since the acquisition. I’ve had the good fortune of going down to the Tellme offices in Mountain View regularly working with them on a variety of projects for a while now, and I’m super impressed with all the people I’ve interacted with.

In fact, I’m sitting inside Tellme’s main building typing this right now wondering where I’ll go eat lunch on Castro Street in Mountain View. Will it be Amici’s pizza, or someplace else today?

Using Windows Speech Recognition to blog?

robch — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:22:17 GMT

I've been reading a lot of blog posts lately about bloggers using Speech Recognition technology themselves to write their blog articles. Because some bloggers get paid per post that they create, and some others even get paid per character that they write, Speech Recognition is an obvious choice since it can allow users to "type" up to 160 WPM (words per minute).

Weeding thru my inbox and RSS feeds this morning (there's a lot to read thru since I've been on vacation for a couple weeks) I found this article where Jeff Meundel says on PracticalCommerce.com that Windows Speech Recognition is "perhaps the best and coolest part of [...] Vista."

Thanks Jeff. We like it too. :-)

Are you using Windows Speech Recognition to write blog posts?

Cannon camera + EOS Utility + ShutterVoice = Hands-free photography?

robch — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:50:16 GMT

This morning I read a blog entry on Wired about a new application coming out from a guy named Scott Forman called ShutterVoice. It sounds pretty cool! Basically, ShutterVoice promises to bring hands-free photography to photographers that are using Cannon DLSRs along with a utility from Cannon called the EOS Utility.

If you have all three, you can do wireless hands-free photography.

Check out the video here.

Macro of the Day: Disable Cap [textInDocument]

robch — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:20:47 GMT

A reader recently wrote to us here at Microsoft, and asked us if there was a way to disable the built in command for "Cap [textInDocument]".

Sometimes, for some people, this command can be recognized a little too easily if you're actually trying to insert text that already exists in the document. So ... I thought ... Time for another Macro of the Day!

You can disable the built-in command once this macro is in place by saying "Disable Cap [textInDocument]". You can re-enable it by saying "Enable Cap [textInDocument]".

You can download it here in our macro code gallery, or just take a look at it here:

<speechMacros>



<command>
<listenFor>Disable cap text in document</listenFor>
<setState name="disableCapTextInDocument" value="1"/>
</command>

<command>
<listenFor>Enable cap text in document</listenFor>
<setState name="disableCapTextInDocument" />
</command>

<command priority="100">
<stateIsSet name="disableCapTextInDocument" value="1"/>
<listenFor>cap [textInDocument]</listenFor>
<setTextFeedback>Inserting text. Say Enable "Cap [textInDocument]" to re-enable...</setTextFeedback>
<insertText>{[textInDocument]}</insertText>
</command>

</speechMacros>

Macro of the Day: Microphone Control

robch — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:36:21 GMT

I've got two microphones that I use most of the time.

An Andrea SoundMAX SuperBeam 2 element array-microphone from Andrea Electronics
An xTag wireless microphone from RevoLabs

I really love both of them, and I use them interchangeably throughout the day.

If I'm doing quick command and control stuff while I'm typing, I prefer to use the Andrea microphone. That way, I can just mash the <ctrl-windows> key, say what I want (like "Insert my public signature") and wishes come true.

However, if I'm a more relaxed position, doing dictation, or not sitting near my PC (I have a couch in my office :-)), I'll use my wireless xTag microphone.

But ... Having two different microphones causes me a bit of a problem sometimes. I have to actually switch back and forth between the two microphones. That's certainly possible in Vista with Windows Speech Recognition, but it's not as easy as I wanted it to be.

Thus ... A new "Macro of the day!" was born.

Today's macro allows you to say one of the following things:

Microphone
Switch microphone

[microphone] microphone
Switch to [microphone]
Switch to [microphone] microphone

The first two commands will simply bring up a dialog and let you pick which microphone you want to use. The 2nd group of commands will automatically switch to the microphone you want by simply by saying "Andrea microphone", or "xTag microphone".

Now... I till have to use one of the microphones to switch to the other one, but now it's a seamless transfer.

Here's the macro both in copy/paste form, as well as a direct link to my macro library on MSDN here:

<!--

Author: Rob Chambers [MSFT]
Contact: listen@microsoft.com

================
What can I say?
================

Microphone
Switch microphone

    [microphone] microphone
    Switch to [microphone]
    Switch to [microphone] microphone

================
How does it work
================
This macro demonstrates how to build a dynamic rule based on
the audio inputs that the Speech API (SAPI) knows to exist
on the PC.

Upon recognition, it will disambiguate the microphone name
if it's ambiguous (or not included in the phrase), and then
ultimately set the current microphone to use.

-->

<command priority="100">
<listenFor>Microphone</listenFor>
<listenFor>*+ microphone</listenFor>
<listenFor>[microphone] microphone</listenFor>
<listenFor>Switch microphone</listenFor>
<listenFor>Switch to *+ microphone</listenFor>
<listenFor>Switch to [microphone] ?microphone</listenFor>
<disambiguate title="Which microphone do you want to use?" prompt="Choose a Microphone" timeout="15" propname="TokenId"/>
<script language="VBScript">
<![CDATA[

      ' Get the token id that was stored as a semantic property in the populated by script below,
      ' as well as the text that was spoken in this utterance that generated the token id semantic property
      strMicrophoneTokenId = "{[TokenId]}"
      strMicrophoneName = "{[*TokenId]}"

' If there was no matching microphone spoken (e.g. if the user just said, "Microphone")
If (strMicrophoneTokenId = "") Then

' Find the rule generator script below, and tell it to update the list of microhpones on teh system
Set audioInputs = CommandSet.RuleGenerators("microphone").Script.UpdateMicrophones()

        ' Loop thru each of those inputs, and prepare to ask the user which to use with a ChooseForList object
        For i = 0 to audioInputs.Count - 1
          Call ChooseFromList.Items.AddItem(audioInputs(i).Phrase, audioInputs(i).Property)
        Next
        ' Go ahead and ask the user which microhpone to use
        audioInputIndex = ChooseFromList.Choose("Change the default audio input from " + Result.RecoContext.Recognizer.AudioInput.GetDescription() + " to:", "Change audio input")

        ' If the user made a selection, update the token id and what the text for that token is
        If (audioInputIndex >= 0) Then
          strMicrophoneName = audioInputs(audioInputIndex).Phrase
          strMicrophoneTokenId = audioInputs(audioInputIndex).Property
        End If

End If

' If we know what microhone to switch to now...
If (strMicrophoneTokenId <> "") Then

' Tell the speech ux to go to off mode (273 is WM_COMMAND, and 102 is "Off" for the speech ux in Vista)
Call Application.SendMessage("MS:SpeechTopLevel", "", 273, 102, 0)

        ' Update the default for the input category to the new microphone token id
        Result.RecoContext.Recognizer.GetAudioInputs()(0).Category.Default = strMicrophoneTokenId
        ' Let the user know what we did, but automatically time out after 1 second
        Call Application.Alert("Switched to " & strMicrophoneName , "Microphone", 1)

End If

]]>
</script>
</command>
<ruleScript name="microphone" propname="TokenId" language="VBScript">
<![CDATA[

' Update the list of Microphones right now
Call UpdateMicrophones()

Function UpdateMicrophones()

' Clear all the items in case we're updating the list
Call Rule.Items.RemoveAll

      ' Create a shared recognizer, get the audio inputs that recognizer can use
      ' and add each of the inputs as a phrase to the rule (using the token id as the property)
      Set recognizer = CreateObject("SAPI.SpSharedRecognizer")
      Set audioInputs = recognizer.GetAudioInputs()
      For i = 0 to audioInputs.Count - 1
        Call Rule.Items.AddItem(audioInputs(i).GetDescription(), audioInputs.Item(i).Id, True)
      Next

      ' Commit the changes to the rule now, and return the items to the caller. This enables
      ' us the command's script to use this function to update the list and return the list
      ' in a single call/function.
      Call Rule.Commit
      Set UpdateMicrophones = Rule.Items
    End Function

]]>
</ruleScript>

</speechMacros>

A user authored guide to macros: WSRMacros: The User Guide

robch — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:23:39 GMT

Many of you know that we've been working on our Windows Speech Recognition Macros utility for a while now.

We released the first technical preview in April, a refresh in August/September, and we're continuing to refine the technology that will ultimately lead to a full release sometime soon.

One of the difficulties users have faced is good documentation for WSR Macros. We're working on completing our documentation and will include it with the product in the future, but we're not quite done yet.

But ... A macro enthusiast in the community has come to rescue for WSR Macros users.

Enter Brad Trott (from Marty Markoe's mymsspeech.com web site) and his latest efforts: WSRMacros: The User Guide.

WSRMacros: The User Guide is a 70 page electronic book chock full of insightful thoughts and ideas on how to use Windows Speech Recognition Macros.

If you're curious how to build powerful macros, and you have $9.95 to spare, it's likely well worth it to purchase your very own copy here.

You can also see other products mymsspeech.com offers for Windows Speech Recognition (including instructional videos, toolkits, voice recorders, and some of the best microphones you can find on the web) here.

Google Chrome doesn't support Speech Recognition in Vista? IE and Firefox do... Hmmm...

robch — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:56:00 GMT

I haven't tried it out personally, but over on the Habitually Good blog, Vaibhav says that Google's new Chrome browser doesn't work with Windows Speech Recognition in Windows Vista. That's too bad... Both IE7, IE8 Beta 2, and Firefox work great with it.

Hey Google: What's up? If any Google Devs want to learn more about how to add support for SR, let me know. I'll point you to the documented interfaces for doing that.

Macro of the Day: Math Test!

robch — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:33:26 GMT

One of the joys of being a parent is helping them learn. I'm very lucky, in that regard, because my kids love learning. In fact, my son Zac really loves Math. He gets that from both his Mom and his Dad.

So, when he was a little guy, I made a Word Macro to make math work sheets. At first this was just for Addition. I'd load Word up, tell the macro that I wanted the work sheet to be for +1, it'd create 50 random +1 math problems, I'd print it out, give it to Zac, and he'd do it. We'd do that over and over until he was really good at +1. Then, we'd move on to +2. Etc. Etc. Once he'd mastered addition, I changed the math test to do a +1 through +9 review work sheets. He'd do that until he was really good at it. This progressed thru subtraction, then multiplication, and then division. Around the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade, he had all his math facts squarely mastered.

All along, one of the challenges for him was actually writing the answers down on paper. It was certainly important that he get better at his dexterity, but it also skewed how well he knew the math facts.

So ... Being the speech guy that I am, I always thought, "Hmm... Wouldn't it be cool if I wrote a Math Test program for him?" Then, a few years ago when we started developing the Windows Speech Recognition Macro system, I always had in the back of my mind, "Yeah... I should make a Math Test macro someday."

Last weekend, I finally decided to give that a go. About an hour later I had the basic macro done. You can download it here.

It's self documenting, but if you're a bit skeptic about reading XML, here's the gist of what you can say to start the math test (the rest of the math test should be self-explanatory):

Math Test

Math Test [Plus/Minus/Times/Divided by] [0to9]
Math Test [Plus/Minus/Times/Divided by] [0to9] to [0to9]

[0to99] problem [Addition/Subtraction/Multiplication/Division] Math Test
[0to99] problem [Addition/Subtraction/Multiplication/Division] Math Test [0to9] to [0to9]

[0to99] problem Math Test [Plus/Minus/Times/Divided by] [0to9]
[0to99] problem Math Test [Plus/Minus/Times/Divided by] [0to9] to [0to9]

Let me know what you think!

JetBlue chooses Microsoft speech recognition technology over Nuance

robch — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:30:54 GMT

Here's an interesting article on JetBlue's choice of using Microsoft's speech technology over that of Nuance. I especially like this tag line:

"Redmond shakes up the voice-recognition space by offering more reliable software for less"

The author of the article also has the following to say about Windows Speech Recognition that's baked into every copy of Windows Vista:

"Personally, I've worked with the new speech-recognition tools and I thought they were amazing. Easy to use and, best of all, it understood my New York accent without a problem."

Thanks, Mr. Bruzzese. Glad you like it.

Macro of the Day: Search Tivo for That!

robch — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:35:14 GMT

Every year in the Fall it's time for me to check out what's new on TV, and decide what, if anything, I'm going to start watching. This year's no different...

Ah... Well ... It was actually different. This year, just a couple weeks ago, my Tivo completely died. I'd only had it for about 7 months, but it died. Oh well. It was under warranty.

After a couple back-and-forths with Tivo customer service, I was the proud owner of a brand new Tivo HD. But ... It didn't have any of my old recorded shows on it, nor did it have any of my programming on it. Sigh.

If you've ever tried to setup a Tivo with your full schedule of what you watch, you'll probably already know, it's a lot of work to set it up. Especially from the remote control. But ... Tivo does have that fancy Tivo Central Online, that allows you to use your web browser to find shows, and schedule them for recording.

Cool! But ... that's still a lot of typing and going back and forth with my web browser.

Or ... Is it?

Nope! Not if you're using Windows Speech Recognition Macros!

I just whipped up a quick macro that let's me say:

"Search Tivo for that", or
"Search Tivo for [...]"

I can say anything I want for the [...] part, too.

Yeah!!! Now, I can set up my Tivo as easily as saying "Search Tivo for House", or "Search Tivo for Prison Break". Neat, eh?

You too can set up your Tivo this fall, just as easily, by downloading today's Macro of the Day: Search Tivo for That!

WSRMacros - A new MSDN Code Gallery for Speech Macros

robch — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:07:25 GMT

I've always wanted a good place to upload all my speech macros that I talk about on my Macro of the Day posts. And now ... Finally. I have a home for them.

Check it out here. Neat...

Speech Macro of the Day: Speech Dictionary

robch — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 01:06:47 GMT

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 to record the pronunciation, not specify it yourself.

So ... What do I do when I have request like this? I make a new macro of the day. Thus, today's speech macro of the day: Speech Dictionary.wsrMac

First, if we're going to be messing around with the speech dictionary, it might be nice to see what's already in it... To do that, I made a command where I can say "Export the speech dictionary", and it'll export all the words/phrases that have been customized into a text file, and then launch that text file for me to take a look at. Here's the command:

<command>
    <listenFor>Export ?the speech dictionary</listenFor>
    <script language="VBScript">
      <![CDATA[
        fileName = "dictionary.txt"
        Set lexToken = CreateObject("SAPI.SpObjectToken")
        lexToken.SetId("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\CurrentUserLexicon")
        Set lex = lexToken.CreateInstance()
        Set words = lex.GetWords(1)
        Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
        Set file = fso.CreateTextFile(fileName, 1)

        For Each word in words
          If (word.LangId = 1033) Then

            Set prons = word.Pronunciations
            If prons.Count = 0 Then
              file.Write word.Word & vbCrLf
            Else
              For Each pron in prons
                file.Write word.Word & "/"
                If pron.PartOfSpeech = 61440 Then
                  file.Write "BLOCKED" & vbCrLf
                Else
                  file.Write pron.Symbolic & vbCrLf
                End If
              Next
            End If

          End If
        Next
        file.Close
        Application.Run(fileName)
      ]]>
    </script>
</command>

As you can see, it uses a bunch of speech APIs that are already in Vista, that any application can take advantage of. The first 7 lines opens up the speech dictionary (aka User Lexicon), and also opens up a file (dictionary.txt) to stick the words in in a more human readable format.

Then, for each word that it finds, it checks the language, and if it's 1033 (which means US English), it'll output the word into the file. But to do that, it needs to see how many pronunciations are available for each word. If there are zero, it'll just output the word. If there are more than one, it'll output one line per pronunciation.

There's also a special case, where if the part of speech is "61440", it outputs the word "BLOCKED". "61440" is a special kind of part of speech that the underlying speech platform uses to tell the underlying speech engine, this word should be blocked and not recognized at any time. The "BLOCKED" convention is just one I made up for this macro.

After looping thru all the words, it'll close the file, and launch the text file that was created.

Here's a sample of what my speech dictionary looks like when I say "Export the speech dictionary":

Ima/BLOCKED
im/BLOCKED
Visual Studio/v ih zh uw l s t uw d iy ow
antidisestablishmentarianism/ae n t ay d ih s ih s t ae b l ih sh m ax n t eh r iy ax n ih z ax m
Rob Chambers
Itamar/ih d ae m aa r
Itamar/ih t ae m aa r
Zac Chambers
Nic Chambers
Bec Chambers
Jac Chambers

The first few I've pasted here are words that the system has learned thru adaptation that I don't actually want it to use. Sometimes when I say "I am a GPM at Microsoft", it thinks I'm saying Ima or im. Thus... The first time I saw that happen, I selected Ima, and blocked it from my dictionary. More on that in a second...

Then, you can see for Visual Studio, I've actually got a full pronunciation listed. I probably don't have to, but it's here to show you that you can either have pronunciations listed, or not. Having it added as a single unit, ensures that when I say it, it'll always be cased properly.

The next word, "antidisestablishmentarianism", is one of the longest words in the English language, but it's not included in the speech dictionary by default. My son, Zac, loves this word, so of course I have to have it in my speech dictionary.

Next, you can see my name is listed with no pronunciation. Since both my first and last name are also common words, I've added my name here as a single unit, so when I say "Rob Chambers", I again get the proper casing.

Next up, is Itamar, pronounced two different ways. One with a "d" sound and one with a "t" sound. This way, no matter how I end up saying it in a hurry, I can speak Itamar's name properly in email communication with Itamar. BTW ... If you don't know Itamar, you should check out his ms-speech forum on Yahoo! Groups. It's a great place to learn more about Microsoft Speech and speech recognition in general.

Next up are the names of my kids. I have 4 boys, and they have short forms of more traditional names for their first names, so that their initials actually are the same as their first names. I played a bit too many video games as a kid, and RLC wasn't that cool for initials, compared with other kids in my neighborhood. My kids initials are the same as their names. It throws their teachers for a loop at first, but ... Well ... What can I say... I like it. So do they.

OK, now that I've described the lines, let's talk about the format of the pronunciations for a minute. These pronunciations are an attempt at human readable form, but using the exact same form as the underlying speech platform. That brings me to the next command, "Show phonemes":

<command>
<listenFor>Show phonemes</listenFor>
<run command="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms717239(VS.85).aspx"/>
</command>

Say it, and it'll take you to the page on MSDN that describes what the American English Phoneme Representation is for the Speech API.

OK, now we're getting to the fun part. Now, let's say you wanted to add a new word. The command I'm about to show you, will let you say "Add that to the speech dictionary", and it'll copy whatever word is selected in your document (using the Windows clipboard), and add it to the speech dictionary with no specific pronunciation.

When I originally wrote this set of commands, I had 4 different commands. One for adding words, one for removing words, one for blocking them, and one for unblocking them. I quickly saw that they were all identical, so I made one command that can do any one of those 4 operations. Here's what it looks like with it's helper listenForList:

<command>
<listenFor>[operationPhrase] ?for that ?from ?to the speech dictionary</listenFor>
<setTextFeedback>Speech Dictionary: {[operationPhrase]}</setTextFeedback>
<script language="VBScript">
    <![CDATA[
      ' Get the "that" text from the curent application...
      Application.SendKeys("{250 WAIT}{{CTRL}}c{250 WAIT}")
      that = Application.clipboardData.GetData("text")

      ' Determine if we're adding prons, adding phrases, remove phrases, or blocking phrases
      operation = "{[operation]}"
      ' If we're adding a pron, we'll need to use the recognizer, otherwise we'll just need the lexicon
      If operation = "addpron" Then
        Set recognizer = CreateObject("SAPI.SpSharedRecognizer")
      Else
        Set lexToken = CreateObject("SAPI.SpObjectToken")
        lexToken.SetId("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\CurrentUserLexicon")

        Set lex = lexToken.CreateInstance()
      End If
      ' Keep track of how many words/phrases we added, and loop thru the lines in the "that"...
      cWords = 0
      lineStartPos = 1
      Do

        ' Find the next line break
        lineSeperatorPos = InStr(lineStartPos, that, Chr(10))
        if (lineSeperatorPos = 0) Then lineSeperatorPos = Len(that)

        ' Find the text for that line
        thisLine = Mid(that, lineStartPos, lineSeperatorPos - lineStartPos + 1)
        lineStartPos = lineStartPos + Len(thisLine)

        ' Trim off the CR/LF
        if (Right(thisLine, 1) = Chr(10)) Then thisLine = Left(thisLine, Len(thisLine) - 1)
        if (Right(thisLine, 1) = Chr(13)) Then thisLine = Left(thisLine, Len(thisLine) - 1)

        ' If we have something to operate on
        If (Len(Trim(thisLine)) > 0) Then

          ' Determine if there's a pronuncation included
          pronSeperatorPos = InStr(thisLine, "/")
          If (pronSeperatorPos = 0) Then
            ' Perform the operation with no pronuncation
            If operation = "addpron" Then Call recognizer.DisplayUI(65552, thisLine, "AddRemoveWord", thisLine)
            If operation = "add" Then Call lex.AddPronunciation(thisLine, 1033, 0)
            If operation = "remove" Then Call lex.RemovePronunciation(thisLine, 1033, 0)
            If operation = "block" Then Call lex.AddPronunciation(thisLine, 1033, 61440)
          Else
            ' Find the pronuncation and collapse it
            word = Left(thisLine, pronSeperatorPos - 1)
            pron = Right(thisLine, Len(thisLine) - pronSeperatorPos)
            pron = CollapsePron(pron)
            ' Special case the "BLOCKED" pronuncation
            partOfSpeech = 0
            If pron="BLOCKED" Then
              partOfSpeech = 61440
              pron = ""
            End If
            ' Perform the operation with the pronuncation (and just continue if there's an error)
            On Error Resume Next
            If operation = "addpron" Then Call recognizer.DisplayUI(65552, word, "AddRemoveWord", word)
            If operation = "add" Then Call lex.AddPronunciation(word, 1033, partOfSpeech, pron)
            If operation = "remove" Then Call lex.RemovePronunciation(word, 1033, partOfSpeech, pron)
            If operation = "block" Then Call lex.AddPronunciation(word, 1033, 61440, pron)
            On Error Goto 0
          End If

          cWords = cWords + 1

        End If

      Loop while lineStartPos < Len(that)

      ' Tell the user what we did...
      If (cWords = 1) Then
        If operation = "addpron" Then Call Application.Alert("Added pronunciation for " & Chr(34) & thisLine & Chr(34) & "!", "Speech Dictionary", 2)
        If operation = "add" Then Call Application.Alert("Added " & Chr(34) & thisLine & Chr(34) & "!", "Speech Dictionary", 2)
        If operation = "remove" Then Call Application.Alert("Removed " & Chr(34) & thisLine & Chr(34) & "!", "Speech Dictionary", 2)
        If operation = "block" Then Call Application.Alert("Blocked " & Chr(34) & thisLine & Chr(34) & "!", "Speech Dictionary", 2)
      Else
        If operation = "addpron" Then Call Application.Alert("Added pronunciations for " & cWords & " words/phrases!", "Speech Dictionary", 1)
        If operation = "add" Then Call Application.Alert("Added " & cWords & " words/phrases!", "Speech Dictionary", 1)
        If operation = "remove" Then Call Application.Alert("Removed " & cWords & " words/phrases!", "Speech Dictionary", 1)
        If operation = "block" Then Call Application.Alert("Blocked " & cWords & " words/phrases!", "Speech Dictionary", 1)
      End If

      Function CollapsePron(pron)

        ret = ""
        insideBrackets = vbFalse
        For i = 1 to Len(pron)
          If (Not insideBrackets) Then
            If (Mid(pron, i, 1) = "[") Then
              insideBrackets = vbTrue
            ElseIf (Mid(pron, i, 1) <> "/") Then
              ret = ret & Mid(pron, i, 1)
            End If
          ElseIf (Mid(pron, i, 1) = "]") Then
            insideBrackets = vbFalse
          End If
        Next
        CollapsePron = ret
      End Function
    ]]>
</script>
</command>

and:

<listenForList name="operationPhrase" propname="operation">
<item propval="addpron">Add ?a pronunciation</item>
<item propval="addpron">Add ?a pron</item>
<item propval="add">Add</item>
<item propval="remove">Remove</item>
<item propval="block">Block</item>
<item propval="remove">Unblock</item>
</listenForList>

I'll leave the details on the specifics for an exercise for the readers. As a user of the macro, though, you can now say things like:

"Add a pronunciation for that from the speech dictionary",
"Add that to the speech dictionary",
"Remove that from the speech dictionary",
"Block that from the speech dictionary", and
"Unblock that from the speech dictionary"

Your selection will have to be a single word/phrase, or multiple words/phrases separated by line breaks. The word/phrases can also have a trailing pronunciation, similar in form to what you see in the output from "Export the speech dictionary".

"OK, but how can I generate those pronunciations myself?" Good question!

Use this command:

<command>
<listenFor>Sounds like [...]</listenFor>
<listenFor>Insert sounds like [...]</listenFor>
<script language="VBScript">
    <![CDATA[

      Application.SetTextFeedback("Sounds like...")
      Set pc = CreateObject("SAPI.SpPhoneConverter")
      pc.LanguageId = 1033

      pron = "/"
      firstElement = Result.PhraseInfo.Properties.Item(0).FirstElement
      numberOfElements = Result.PhraseInfo.Properties.Item(0).NumberOfElements

      For i = 1 To numberOfElements
        Set elem = Result.PhraseInfo.Elements.Item(firstElement + i - 1)
        pron = pron & "[" & elem.LexicalForm & "]" & "/" & pc.IdToPhone(elem.Pronunciation) & " "
      Next
      Application.Wait(0.25)
      Application.SetTextFeedback("Sounds like: " & pron)
      Application.InsertText(pron)

    ]]>
</script>
</command>

This will use dictation to allow you to say "Sounds like Visual Studio", and it'll output /[visual]/v ih zh uw l /[studio]/s t uw d iy ow. So, if you have a word that you're trying to add, you can use the built in pronunciations of other words that WSR already knows about, to cut and paste together your own pronunciation.

Another way to do it would be to select the word of phrase you wanted to build a pronunciation for, and saying "What's that sound like?", which is the final command we'll put into this macro:

<command>
<listenFor>What's that sound like</listenFor>
<listenFor>What does that sound like</listenFor>
<script language="VBScript">
    <![CDATA[

      Application.SendKeys("{250 WAIT}{{CTRL}}c{250 WAIT}")
      that = Application.clipboardData.GetData("text")

      Application.EmulateRecognition("Go after that")
      Application.EmulateRecognition("Insert sounds like " & that)

    ]]>
</script>
</command>

That will copy the selection, move right after it, and then pretend you actually said it. For many words/phrases, this will work even if Windows Speech Recognition doesn't really know how to pronounce the word/phrase, because the system will make it's best guess on how to pronounce it just like it would if you were trying to click on that word on a web page with your voice.

OK ... Now here's another command that will make your phrases a little shorter if you're actually using the commands inside Notepad.exe with the dictionary.txt file open:

<command>
<appIsInForeground processName="notepad.exe" windowTitleContains="dictionary.txt"/>
<listenFor>[operationPhrase] ?for that</listenFor>
<emulateRecognition>{[operationPhrase]} that the speech dictionary</emulateRecognition>
</command>

This basically only works when notepad is in focus, and it's editing dictionary.txt (as it would be when you've just said "Export the speech dictionary". This will enable you to say simpler commands like:

"Add a pronunciation for that",
"Add that",
"Remove that",
"Block that", and
"Unblock that"

Here's the macro in complete form:

<speechMacros>


<command>
    <listenFor>[operationPhrase] ?for that ?from ?to the speech dictionary</listenFor>
    <setTextFeedback>Speech Dictionary: {[operationPhrase]}</setTextFeedback>
    <script language="VBScript">
      <![CDATA[
        ' Get the "that" text from the curent application...
        Application.SendKeys("{250 WAIT}{{CTRL}}c{250 WAIT}")
        that = Application.clipboardData.GetData("text")

        ' Determine if we're adding prons, adding phrases, remove phrases, or blocking phrases
        operation = "{[operation]}"
        ' If we're adding a pron, we'll need to use the recognizer, otherwise we'll just need the lexicon
        If operation = "addpron" Then
          Set recognizer = CreateObject("SAPI.SpSharedRecognizer")
        Else
          Set lexToken = CreateObject("SAPI.SpObjectToken")
          lexToken.SetId("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\CurrentUserLexicon")

          Set lex = lexToken.CreateInstance()
        End If
        ' Keep track of how many words/phrases we added, and loop thru the lines in the "that"...
        cWords = 0
        lineStartPos = 1
        Do

          ' Find the next line break
          lineSeperatorPos = InStr(lineStartPos, that, Chr(10))
          if (lineSeperatorPos = 0) Then lineSeperatorPos = Len(that)

          ' Find the text for that line
          thisLine = Mid(that, lineStartPos, lineSeperatorPos - lineStartPos + 1)
          lineStartPos = lineStartPos + Len(thisLine)

          ' Trim off the CR/LF
          if (Right(thisLine, 1) = Chr(10)) Then thisLine = Left(thisLine, Len(thisLine) - 1)
          if (Right(thisLine, 1) = Chr(13)) Then thisLine = Left(thisLine, Len(thisLine) - 1)

          ' If we have something to operate on
          If (Len(Trim(thisLine)) > 0) Then

            ' Determine if there's a pronuncation included
            pronSeperatorPos = InStr(thisLine, "/")
            If (pronSeperatorPos = 0) Then
              ' Perform the operation with no pronuncation
              If operation = "addpron" Then Call recognizer.DisplayUI(65552, thisLine, "AddRemoveWord", thisLine)
              If operation = "add" Then Call lex.AddPronunciation(thisLine, 1033, 0)
              If operation = "remove" Then Call lex.RemovePronunciation(thisLine, 1033, 0)
              If operation = "block" Then Call lex.AddPronunciation(thisLine, 1033, 61440)
            Else
              ' Find the pronuncation and collapse it
              word = Left(thisLine, pronSeperatorPos - 1)
              pron = Right(thisLine, Len(thisLine) - pronSeperatorPos)
              pron = CollapsePron(pron)
              ' Special case the "BLOCKED" pronuncation
              partOfSpeech = 0
              If pron="BLOCKED" Then
                partOfSpeech = 61440
                pron = ""
              End If
              ' Perform the operation with the pronuncation (and just continue if there's an error)
              On Error Resume Next
              If operation = "addpron" Then Call recognizer.DisplayUI(65552, word, "AddRemoveWord", word)
              If operation = "add" Then Call lex.AddPronunciation(word, 1033, partOfSpeech, pron)
              If operation = "remove" Then Call lex.RemovePronunciation(word, 1033, partOfSpeech, pron)
              If operation = "block" Then Call lex.AddPronunciation(word, 1033, 61440, pron)
              On Error Goto 0
            End If

            cWords = cWords + 1

          End If

        Loop while lineStartPos < Len(that)

        ' Tell the user what we did...
        If (cWords = 1) Then
          If operation = "addpron" Then Call Application.Alert("Added pronunciation for " & Chr(34) & thisLine & Chr(34) & "!", "Speech Dictionary", 2)
          If operation = "add" Then Call Application.Alert("Added " & Chr(34) & thisLine & Chr(34) & "!", "Speech Dictionary", 2)
          If operation = "remove" Then Call Application.Alert("Removed " & Chr(34) & thisLine & Chr(34) & "!", "Speech Dictionary", 2)
          If operation = "block" Then Call Application.Alert("Blocked " & Chr(34) & thisLine & Chr(34) & "!", "Speech Dictionary", 2)
        Else
          If operation = "addpron" Then Call Application.Alert("Added pronunciations for " & cWords & " words/phrases!", "Speech Dictionary", 1)
          If operation = "add" Then Call Application.Alert("Added " & cWords & " words/phrases!", "Speech Dictionary", 1)
          If operation = "remove" Then Call Application.Alert("Removed " & cWords & " words/phrases!", "Speech Dictionary", 1)
          If operation = "block" Then Call Application.Alert("Blocked " & cWords & " words/phrases!", "Speech Dictionary", 1)
        End If

        Function CollapsePron(pron)

          ret = ""
          insideBrackets = vbFalse
          For i = 1 to Len(pron)
            If (Not insideBrackets) Then
              If (Mid(pron, i, 1) = "[") Then
                insideBrackets = vbTrue
              ElseIf (Mid(pron, i, 1) <> "/") Then
                ret = ret & Mid(pron, i, 1)
              End If
            ElseIf (Mid(pron, i, 1) = "]") Then
              insideBrackets = vbFalse
            End If
          Next
          CollapsePron = ret
        End Function
      ]]>
    </script>
</command>

<command>
    <listenFor>Export ?the speech dictionary</listenFor>
    <script language="VBScript">
      <![CDATA[
        fileName = "dictionary.txt"
        Set lexToken = CreateObject("SAPI.SpObjectToken")
        lexToken.SetId("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\CurrentUserLexicon")
        Set lex = lexToken.CreateInstance()
        Set words = lex.GetWords(1)
        Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
        Set file = fso.CreateTextFile(fileName, 1)

        For Each word in words
          If (word.LangId = 1033) Then

            Set prons = word.Pronunciations
            If prons.Count = 0 Then
              file.Write word.Word & vbCrLf
            Else
              For Each pron in prons
                file.Write word.Word & "/"
                If pron.PartOfSpeech = 61440 Then
                  file.Write "BLOCKED" & vbCrLf
                Else
                  file.Write pron.Symbolic & vbCrLf
                End If
              Next
            End If

          End If
        Next
        file.Close
        Application.Run(fileName)
      ]]>
    </script>
</command>

<command>
    <listenFor>Sounds like [...]</listenFor>
    <listenFor>Insert sounds like [...]</listenFor>
    <script language="VBScript">
      <![CDATA[

        Application.SetTextFeedback("Sounds like...")
        Set pc = CreateObject("SAPI.SpPhoneConverter")
        pc.LanguageId = 1033

        pron = "/"
        firstElement = Result.PhraseInfo.Properties.Item(0).FirstElement
        numberOfElements = Result.PhraseInfo.Properties.Item(0).NumberOfElements

        For i = 1 To numberOfElements
          Set elem = Result.PhraseInfo.Elements.Item(firstElement + i - 1)
          pron = pron & "[" & elem.LexicalForm & "]" & "/" & pc.IdToPhone(elem.Pronunciation) & " "
        Next
        Application.Wait(0.25)
        Application.SetTextFeedback("Sounds like: " & pron)
        Application.InsertText(pron)

      ]]>
    </script>
</command>

<command>
    <listenFor>What's that sound like</listenFor>
    <listenFor>What does that sound like</listenFor>
    <script language="VBScript">
      <![CDATA[

        Application.SendKeys("{250 WAIT}{{CTRL}}c{250 WAIT}")
        that = Application.clipboardData.GetData("text")

        Application.EmulateRecognition("Go after that")
        Application.EmulateRecognition("Insert sounds like " & that)

      ]]>
    </script>
</command>

<command>
    <listenFor>Show phonemes</listenFor>
    <run command="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms717239(VS.85).aspx"/>
</command>

<command>
    <appIsInForeground processName="notepad.exe" windowTitleContains="dictionary.txt"/>
    <listenFor>[operationPhrase] ?for that</listenFor>
    <emulateRecognition>{[operationPhrase]} that the speech dictionary</emulateRecognition>
</command>

<listenForList name="operationPhrase" propname="operation">
    <item propval="addpron">Add ?a pronunciation</item>
    <item propval="addpron">Add ?a pron</item>
    <item propval="add">Add</item>
    <item propval="remove">Remove</item>
    <item propval="block">Block</item>
    <item propval="remove">Unblock</item>
</listenForList>

</speechMacros>

That's it! I know this is a lot of script to digest, but if you don't really want to, don't! Just use the macro as is. Questions? Comments? Let us know!