Communication: Humans Talk. Computers Talk - Smart Home Automation with Linux and Raspberry Pi - page 158

The commercial offerings have the problem of scarcity, with few to none of the supposedly available
software sporting a “buy here” page. This absence even includes ViaVoice from IBM, which was once free but
withdrawn in 2002. Even older software that once existed as commercial Linux software has transformed into
Windows-only packages.
It is indeed a strange state of affairs when the easiest method of processing vocal commands under Linux is
through Windows! This can either take the approach of running a virtual machine (through either Wine or VMware
Server) or using a native Windows machine.
The virtualization approach has a few problems because of incongruities between the virtual and real sound
cards, but software such as ViaVoice or Dragon Naturally Speaking can often be coaxed into working after a while. If
the software is to be run on your server, which it usually is, then you are also adding the dependency of X Windows to
it, increasing its processing load.
Consequently, the most efficient way is to employ a separate Windows machine running the previously mentioned
software. Or, as you've already paid the “Windows tax,” use the software built in to Vista, and download the Windows
Speech Recognition Macros module. With tablet machines and subnotebooks beginning to include voice recognition
software in their later versions, it may be soon possible to find a (closed source) library in a Linux machine in the near
future.
Although it's important to have a good recognition algorithm, it is more important to have access to its
results. In most Windows software, this is never a high priority. It is more usual for them to adopt the “We'll give
you all the functionality we think you'll need in one package,” whereas Linux uses the “Here are lots of tools we
think you'll need; you can work out how to produce the functionality ” method. Consequently, you will need to
experiment with the software before purchase. The solution given here covers the use of the software built into
Windows Vista.
Begin by training the speech recognition system in Vista; then work through the tutorial, and install Windows
Speech Recognition Macros, downloadable from the Microsoft web site ( www.microsoft.com/downloads/
details.aspx?FamilyID=fad62198-220c-4717-b044-829ae4f7c125&displaylang=en ). You next need to program
a series of macros for the commands you want to use, such as “lights on” and “lights off.” Each macro will trigger a
command; in our case, this will be wget to trick Apache into running the necessary code on our server. Figure 5-1
shows the macro configuration panel.