Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Diane Bédard
I've had modest success with "MacSpeech Dictate". It uses the same engine as
Dragon Naturally Speaking, but has none of the canned read-back training
that Dragon requires.

I've been testing it with good quality recordings of our local
veterans.(already in digital format on CD)

The process I've had most success with is to let MacSpeech Dictate take a
run of about 10 minutes, then go back and correct the resulting transcript.
 Next I re-assign the transcript  as the "learning" text that MacSpeech
Dictate uses as it re-listens to the same 10 minute segment of the veteran
recording. 

After this initial run, the accuraccy climbs from the starting 50-60%, up to
about 80-85% ...
 still not perfect, but *good enough* to generate text for indexing and
keyword searching.

If the transcript is going to be exposed/public facing rather than just
machine use, then my next step would be to assign the audio file and
MacSpeech Dictate transcript to a volunteer/student for final edits...  but
at least the starting transcript for human editing would be well along the way.


Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Hagedon, Mike
It's not great. In my experience, it gets some words right.

Mike

-Original Message-
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Joel 
Marchesoni
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 11:49 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

Google Voice transcribes voicemails, but I don't think there is any api to use 
it outside of their system.  I also haven't used it much so I don't know how 
accurate it is.

Joel

-Original Message-
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Eric 
Lease Morgan
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 2:30 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

On May 12, 2010, at 2:24 PM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:

> Do you mean software to aid a human transcriber, or do you mean software 
> that can actually use voice recognition to turn audio to text all 
> automated?


I am interested in the later -- software that converts audio files in to text 
files.

-- 
Eric Lease Morgan


Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Rees, John (NIH/NLM) [E]
I'm embarking on exactly the same thing, and for films as well. Depending on 
the fidelity of your recording you will get different results using Premier Pro 
in the Adobe Creative Suite 4/5. For modern (2009 recordings) high-fidelity 
audio we only got 80% accuracy.

Dragon still does not work in Keith's scenario. Dragon works ok if you are 
echoing recorded speech, that is if you repeat the recording using your voice. 
The production rate is a little bit better than that of a novice typer, so if 
you have an army of students you might make some headway. I vowed never to 
attempt this again after echoing a 60 minute film.

In the end we are outsourcing the bulk of our transcriptioning.

John


-Original Message-
From: Keith Jenkins [mailto:k...@cornell.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 2:47 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

I tried Dragon Naturally Speaking a couple of years ago.  (After
breaking a wrist in a cycling accident, I figured it might be easier
than one-hand typing, which wasn't true in the case of typing
programming code with lots of curly brackets, indentation, etc.)

Speech-to-text software works best after a training session, in which
the software asks the speaker to read a known text, to calibrate the
software.  I'm not sure how it might work to calibrate for voices on
recordings, but it may be that the software can learn during a
proof-reading process.  Your success for oral history recordings may
depend on the uniqueness of each speakers voice, and the length of
each recording.  (Lots of short recordings of many different speakers
would tend to be harder.)

Keith


On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 2:18 PM, Eric Lease Morgan  wrote:
> Does anybody here use or know of any audio transcription software?
>
> We have a growing number of projects here at Notre Dame that include oral 
> histories. How can these digital files be converted into plain text? Audio 
> transcription software may be the answer?
>
> --
> Eric Lease Morgan
> University of Notre Dame
>


Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Kyle Banerjee
On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 11:46 AM, Keith Jenkins  wrote:

> I tried Dragon Naturally Speaking a couple of years ago.  (After
> breaking a wrist in a cycling accident, I figured it might be easier
> than one-hand typing, which wasn't true in the case of typing
> programming code with lots of curly brackets, indentation, etc.)
>

Funny you should mention that. About a week ago, I stuck my hand between two
with large grouchy dogs rendering my hand and wrist useless. So I downloaded
 the free voice recognition software that can be downloaded for Windows XP
and is built into Windows 7 since my hand and wrist still hurt like heck.

I spent about an hour training it, and my conclusion is that it sucks but it
is better than typing one handed, so I am still using it (including to type
this message). Download SpeechSDK51.exe  from the Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1
if you're interested. It's totally free and worth every penny.

kyle


Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Ryan Eby
depending on your budget there are quite a few services available to
do it for you. some include time-code information depending on what
interfaces you want to build.

came across this list in someone's delicious feed on here:

http://www.uiaccess.com/transcripts/transcript_services.html

eby

On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 2:18 PM, Eric Lease Morgan  wrote:
> Does anybody here use or know of any audio transcription software?
>
> We have a growing number of projects here at Notre Dame that include oral 
> histories. How can these digital files be converted into plain text? Audio 
> transcription software may be the answer?
>
> --
> Eric Lease Morgan
> University of Notre Dame
>


Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Rosalyn Metz
youtube actually does this automatically (but only in english).  but
i'm not going to lie, it sucks.  however maybe that's just my voice
since i'm always stuffed up.




On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 3:24 PM, Brad Rhoads  wrote:
> A great quality service is http://on-sitemedia.com/. I have no idea what she
> charges.
>
> Google for
> open source speech recognition
>
> On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 1:05 PM, Sean Hannan  wrote:
>
>> Not software, exactly, but this seems like an ideal thing to set up in
>> Mechanical Turk.
>>
>> This guy did it with an audio interview:
>> http://waxy.org/2008/09/audio_transcription_with_mechanical_turk/
>>
>> -Sean
>>
>>
>> On 5/12/10 2:18 PM, "Eric Lease Morgan"  wrote:
>>
>> > Does anybody here use or know of any audio transcription software?
>> >
>> > We have a growing number of projects here at Notre Dame that include oral
>> > histories. How can these digital files be converted into plain text?
>> Audio
>> > transcription software may be the answer?
>>
>
>
>
> --
> ---
> www.maf.org/rhoads
> www.ontherhoads.org
>


Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Brad Rhoads
A great quality service is http://on-sitemedia.com/. I have no idea what she
charges.

Google for
open source speech recognition

On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 1:05 PM, Sean Hannan  wrote:

> Not software, exactly, but this seems like an ideal thing to set up in
> Mechanical Turk.
>
> This guy did it with an audio interview:
> http://waxy.org/2008/09/audio_transcription_with_mechanical_turk/
>
> -Sean
>
>
> On 5/12/10 2:18 PM, "Eric Lease Morgan"  wrote:
>
> > Does anybody here use or know of any audio transcription software?
> >
> > We have a growing number of projects here at Notre Dame that include oral
> > histories. How can these digital files be converted into plain text?
> Audio
> > transcription software may be the answer?
>



-- 
---
www.maf.org/rhoads
www.ontherhoads.org


Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Sean Hannan
Not software, exactly, but this seems like an ideal thing to set up in
Mechanical Turk.

This guy did it with an audio interview:
http://waxy.org/2008/09/audio_transcription_with_mechanical_turk/

-Sean


On 5/12/10 2:18 PM, "Eric Lease Morgan"  wrote:

> Does anybody here use or know of any audio transcription software?
> 
> We have a growing number of projects here at Notre Dame that include oral
> histories. How can these digital files be converted into plain text? Audio
> transcription software may be the answer?


Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Joel Marchesoni
Google Voice transcribes voicemails, but I don't think there is any api to use 
it outside of their system.  I also haven't used it much so I don't know how 
accurate it is.

Joel

-Original Message-
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:code4...@listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Eric 
Lease Morgan
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 2:30 PM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

On May 12, 2010, at 2:24 PM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:

> Do you mean software to aid a human transcriber, or do you mean software 
> that can actually use voice recognition to turn audio to text all 
> automated?


I am interested in the later -- software that converts audio files in to text 
files.

-- 
Eric Lease Morgan


Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Keith Jenkins
I tried Dragon Naturally Speaking a couple of years ago.  (After
breaking a wrist in a cycling accident, I figured it might be easier
than one-hand typing, which wasn't true in the case of typing
programming code with lots of curly brackets, indentation, etc.)

Speech-to-text software works best after a training session, in which
the software asks the speaker to read a known text, to calibrate the
software.  I'm not sure how it might work to calibrate for voices on
recordings, but it may be that the software can learn during a
proof-reading process.  Your success for oral history recordings may
depend on the uniqueness of each speakers voice, and the length of
each recording.  (Lots of short recordings of many different speakers
would tend to be harder.)

Keith


On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 2:18 PM, Eric Lease Morgan  wrote:
> Does anybody here use or know of any audio transcription software?
>
> We have a growing number of projects here at Notre Dame that include oral 
> histories. How can these digital files be converted into plain text? Audio 
> transcription software may be the answer?
>
> --
> Eric Lease Morgan
> University of Notre Dame
>


Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Eric Lease Morgan
On May 12, 2010, at 2:24 PM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:

> Do you mean software to aid a human transcriber, or do you mean software 
> that can actually use voice recognition to turn audio to text all 
> automated?


I am interested in the later -- software that converts audio files in to text 
files.

-- 
Eric Lease Morgan


Re: [CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Jonathan Rochkind
Do you mean software to aid a human transcriber, or do you mean software 
that can actually use voice recognition to turn audio to text all 
automated?  I am curious if there's anything in the latter quality 
actually good enough for "oral histories" with their possibly various 
voices and qualities.  Last I looked there was not, but technology 
advances.


Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
Does anybody here use or know of any audio transcription software? 


We have a growing number of projects here at Notre Dame that include oral 
histories. How can these digital files be converted into plain text? Audio 
transcription software may be the answer?

  


[CODE4LIB] audio transcription software

2010-05-12 Thread Eric Lease Morgan
Does anybody here use or know of any audio transcription software? 

We have a growing number of projects here at Notre Dame that include oral 
histories. How can these digital files be converted into plain text? Audio 
transcription software may be the answer?

-- 
Eric Lease Morgan
University of Notre Dame