Speech Recognition Bug in Snow Leopard?

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Speech Recognition Bug in Snow Leopard?

Hi all! I just today upgraded to Snow Leopard and I seem to be having trouble with Speech Recognition, which I use heavily. When Snow Leopard booted, it was working fine, but now I find that the audio doesn't seem to be reaching Speech Recognition. I tried calibrating my internal mic, and read down the list of commands, and it understood me, but when I go to give a command, the speech feedback window does not animate with the sound of my voice, suggesting that the audio isn't reaching Speech Recognition. I haven't made any changes to the settings from leopard, nor am I using any new hardware. I'm kinda perplexed by this. I've heard about issues about I/O switching and audio problems, could my speech recog be anther victim of these bugs? Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I am disabled and rely heavily on my speech recog. Thanks!!

iMac 24" (early 2009) 3.06 Ghz 4GB, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Sep 10, 2009 12:42 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 22, 2009 6:11 PM in response to SephirothDHG

I remember being blown-away by speech recognition using 10.4. I never used it with 10.5.

Now I have students with disabilities and I'm playing with it under 10.6 and it doesn't work a majority of the time. Very disappointing. I went from being impressed as heck to feeling like I'm using Windows software.

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Answer 2

d60pmp

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Sep 23, 2009 9:28 AM in response to SephirothDHG

Hi!
I've also noticed a bug with speech recognition since I upgraded, it's behaving very strangely now.
I have an applescript which calls the speech recognition server to listen for an answer. This works fine. However, the next time it's called it does nothing, the prompt doesn't show, it doesn't listen, nothing. The weird thing is the third time it's called it works again, it works consistently on every other attempt, but only on every other attempt. Odd.

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Answer 3

Bram D

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Oct 9, 2009 8:11 AM in response to d60pmp

Same here. Apple, any news about when this will be fixed?

Bram

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Answer 4

SephirothDHG Author

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Oct 12, 2009 8:57 PM in response to sixpantsmaloney

Speech Recog in Leopard was very good. Now with SL, it hangs and simply does not work 😟
I miss talking to my Mac ^_^

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Answer 5

Oct 12, 2009 11:43 PM in response to SephirothDHG

A general question to everybody having trouble with speech recognition:

Did you do an upgrade or a clean install when you went to Snow Leopard (unless your machine came with Snow already installed)?

I've come across various issues with Snow Leopard, a large fraction of which have been fixed by doing a clean install from the SL DVD.

Remember that the Installer no longer offers the choice of erasing your internal HD; after backing up your data and restarting from the DVD, you have to use Disc Utility to wipe your drive before continuing with the installation process. Subsequently you can reload everything from a Time Machine, Carbon Copy or other backup.

Is it worth a try?

Keep us posted!

Archie

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Answer 6

Oct 20, 2009 9:57 PM in response to SephirothDHG

Brand new MacBook Pro 17" with Snow Leopard pre-installed. Speech Recognition does not work. Can't even "Switch to Finder" much less make it through a Knock Knock joke. Very sad.

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Answer 7

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,464 points

Oct 21, 2009 11:27 AM in response to Bram D

+Apple, any news about when this will be fixed?+

user-to-user forum here !

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

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Answer 8

SephirothDHG Author

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Oct 21, 2009 3:13 PM in response to Jolly Giant

I have actually heard that the bug has been fixed in beta versions of 10.6.2. Keep an eye on Software Update, as 10.6.2 should be released soon. I really hope this fixes everything and makes Speech like it was in Leopard.

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Answer 9

Nov 20, 2009 9:23 PM in response to SephirothDHG

So I've got 10.6.2 and it still hasn't been corrected. Try this simple script and let me know what you think:

set a to listen for {"New Finder Window", "New Folder"}
tell application "SpeechRecognitionServer"
if a is "New Finder Window" then
tell application "Finder"
make new Finder window
end tell
else if a is "New Folder" then
tell application "Finder"
make new folder
end tell
end if
end tell

It doesn't recognize the "listen" command anymore. Is anyone else experiencing this problem? Or does anyone know when this is going to be fix?

I have a Mac so I don't have to deal with these problems. Don't tell me Mac is turning into the new windows.

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Answer 10

Nov 21, 2009 10:43 AM in response to SephirothDHG

So i got the "listen for" command to recognize it, by scripting this:

tell application "SpeechRecognitionServer"
listen for {"New Finder Window", "New Folder"}
if "New Finder Window" then
tell application "Finder"
make new Finder window
end tell
else if "New Folder" then
tell application "Finder"
make new folder
end tell
end if
end tell

I haven't tested it to see if it works though. I'll post again when I'm able to test it.

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Answer 11

pming

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Dec 10, 2009 9:55 PM in response to the fruit of knowledge

This seems to be a major unresolved issue that Apple must fix. is there any more news. I've just got a new 27" iMac and the Universal Access features was one of the major reasons for the purchase.

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Answer 12

cjrtools

Level 1

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Dec 22, 2009 7:14 AM in response to pming

Speech recognition is definitely not working in Mac OS X 10.6.2. I just sent feedback to Apple. Others should do the same so Apple can fix this bug in 10.6.3.

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Answer 13

Mar 2, 2010 2:28 PM in response to SephirothDHG

Yeah speech recognition is not working for me either, and Im glad I'm not handicap apple.!
Apple fix this pronto!
the weird thing that speech recognition it works ok form in CHESS.app

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Answer 14

im3ngs

Level 1

15 points

Mar 16, 2010 7:37 PM in response to SephirothDHG

With Applescript, this solution helped me.
http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?pid=125475

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Answer 15

Apr 20, 2010 8:36 AM in response to SephirothDHG

Running 10.6.3 on an Intel 27" and voice recognition is MUCH POORER than on the old PowerPC "basketball" Mac running 10.5. Have tried using a noise canceling mic in case that would help, but it didn't. Hope they get this resolved since my wife uses the voice recognition quite often (her eyesight is very poor and it is easier to use voice commands than trying to follow where the cursor is in many cases).

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