Posts written by Rhodri Buttrick

Guest blog - Computers find male voices ‘harder to recognise’ - Oh dear

By Rhodri Buttrick on 9 March 2010

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On 4 March, I came across an article on the BBC News web site reporting that some researchers at Stamford University and at Edinburgh University found, Computers find male voices ‘harder to recognise’. Now I am male and as I cannot hand write, I have been using voice recognition technology (VRT) since I was 10 years old. So, I “screen read” the article to see what insights it had for me.

When I started using VRT, I could barely read but had to read “training text” for the computer to learn my voice. My mother had to sit behind me, whispering the text into my ear in short phrases, which I repeated into the microphone. I was using Dragon Naturally Speaking version 5. It was hard work, but I persevered as this was the last chance saloon for me as I was unable to write and typing was painfully (literally!) slow. I adopted the “good practices” recommended by the software supplier, such as correcting any recognition errors as I went along using the “Correct That” function, rather than overtyping. The result was I achieved a recognition level of over 98%, talking in a natural way, at normal talking speed.

So, what about the Edinburgh and Stamford Universities’ research?  The BBC report says:

Computers failed to understand men’s speech because they make “umm” and “err” sounds more frequently.

Comment: I could have told them this ten years ago! Of course sloppy speech makes recognition levels bad and perhaps men umm and err more than women! People with speech ticks such as saying “y’know” in every sentence also have problems. Isn’t there and old computing saying of “trash in, trash out”?

Computers made mistakes with words which sound similar and can occur in similar contexts, such as “I saw him” or “I saw them”.

Comment: This is a good point. They ought to try “I scream” and “ice cream”. In one of my Religious Studies essays I had “cheeses of Nazareth” leading his disciples. I have however got round this now and I’ll tell you how in a later blog.

Variations in pitch, tone and speed can also cause the system to misunderstand voices.

Comment: Not for me; even though my voice broke, my good practices carried me through and I can talk as fast I want to.

It then said the research was to “improve the accuracy of automated ticket booking lines.” Ah!!! This research was not for people like me after all. It was all about replacing call centre staff with machines; this software would have to deal with any voice without the benefit of any training! Perhaps, if they crack this problem, it will eventually benefit people who cannot hand write or maybe it will be so expensive, it will remain the preserve of the major corporates.

Only the future will tell; until then, I’ll keep using my Dragon Naturally Speaking software coupled with some common sense good practices.

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Guest blog - Student loans, another online form!

By Rhodri Buttrick on 2 March 2010

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An email came into my inbox and I stared at it with trepidation. It was a reminder to apply for my student loan for my second year at university. I remembered last year: it took ages; I couldn’t find the information and then it timed out as I was too slow.  Next I thought, where did I put the record of last year’s application? What did I say? What if I am not consistent? Is any of the information here (at Uni) or is it at home?  I put it off applying as long as I could but felt that if I didn’t tackle it soon, I wouldn’t get a loan. So, I set aside a whole afternoon and logged in. But, what was this I saw? All last year’s data was already entered! All I had to do was go through each page confirming that is was correct: place of study, course, course code, address (term time) and so on. The only additional data I needed had been sent to me by the university in plenty of time – that was the annual course fee.

After half an hour, the whole application was done. The only tricky part was when the form had an ambiguous question on “Did I want to apply for disability allowance?”  Contrary to my instincts, the right answer was “No” as I had already applied the previous year and disability allowance is for the full 3 years and doesn’t have to be reapplied for.  So, 9 out 10 for the people who designed that form, making it easier for people like me and, as a wider benefit, easier for everyone else as well.

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Guest blog - Things can only get worse

By Rhodri Buttrick on 3 February 2010

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The day following my disaster day, I was in the library struggling to find a book for my philosophy essay. Thankfully, there is a “disability coordinator” in the library who is extremely helpful and helps me find the books I need. I can even e-mail him in advance and he will find the books for me so all I have to do is collect them. After he had helped me find the book I needed, I went to the desk to take the book out. This was going to be a better day!

But, reaching into my wallet, I found I had lost my access card! A university access card is possibly the most important thin piece of plastic you will ever own, except perhaps your credit card. Without this, a student turns into a second-class citizen. Not only are you are unable to take books out of the library, you can’t get back into your hall of residence as all the gates are electronic. Officially, you can’t even get food from the canteen, as need to show the card to the kitchen staff.

So this was not just inconvenient, it was a total disaster - I was potentially homeless, hungry and late in starting my essay. What’s more, if I didn’t find the card I would have to pay £10 for a replacement. With the exception of not being able to rent out library books there were ways around the other problems. I had to phone a friend every time I wanted to get that into my hall and the office wrote me a note so I could get food.

With dyslexia, is the best way not to lose things, such as access cards, is to get into a good routine of where to put things. I think I know how I lost the access card. When you enter the dining room you have to show your card so I must have left it on my tray and after finishing my meal, left the dining room and forgotten about it. Usually, one of the kitchen staff notice and rescue the cards but on this particular lunchtime, we had fish and chips wrapped in paper! So a lot of things went in the bin rather than the dishwasher and the odds are, my poor card is languishing in a rubbish dump somewhere.

After about a week of searching and trying to survive without the card, I stumped up the cash and bought a new one. I was determined not to lose this one and figured out a new system. Instead of putting my access card on my tray at lunch, I would put my wallet with my access card in it on the tray. This might sound like a risky strategy as doesn’t this mean I will simply lose my wallet? It is bigger, however, and far more noticeable than a card therefore I’m more likely to remember to put my wallet back in my pocket.

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Guest blog - Disaster day

By Rhodri Buttrick on 18 January 2010

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Organisation for a dyslexic can often be a major issue. I make a super effort to keep myself organised. I use an online task management system, (rememberthemilk.com) which syncs with my PDA. Inevitably, however, “the best laid plans of mice and men” go completely wrong, everything falls apart and I end up in a complete mess!

My day of disasters started off early, right after breakfast. I logged in to my e-mail account to find a lovely £5 fine from the library! This was most perplexing, as the night before I had borrowed a book on a six-hour loan. It was due back in at midnight and I returned it at 9:30pm. This really made me start to doubt my sanity, did I really return the book? Or had I just had a dream about it? Unfortunately I hadn’t realised this book belongs to a magical realm of the library called the ‘course collection’. While I just put it in the usual return bin I had previously used when returning books. So, I rushed off to the library, and luckily upon explaining they let me off the fine. Phew!

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Guest blog - Gizmos galore

By Rhodri Buttrick on 14 December 2009

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In my last post, I wrote about some of the equipment and software I had received through my Disabled Students Allowance.  Now I thought I’d explain how I use it during a normal day at university.

After breakfast, I rush off to lectures with my PDA and Dictaphone in my pocket. I also have my laptop with me. Once in the lecture, I wake my laptop from hibernation and some mornings it’s worse at waking up than I am! I open a Word document and open ClaroRead, which is the software primarily designed for reading text, whether it be from a Word document or on the web browser. It also has a very handy predictive tracking tool, very much like predictive text on a mobile phone.

My normal method of working is speech recognition but as this would be an annoyance to everyone in a lecture, using predictive typing is a good way to help me keep up with what the lecturer is saying. Although, I do have to be careful to make sure the sound is off on the laptop to prevent the text reader from yelling out various words during the lecture. In some lectures, I use my Dictaphone to record the lecturer. I then use software called Audio Note Taker to organise and listen to my recorded lectures.

After a lecture, I might go to the library to get some books for my essays. The library is a bewildering  maze of books, I will tell you about this in another post, but let’s assume for now I was able to find  the book I needed. I take it back to my room and find the relevant chapter. I then plug my scanner into my laptop and scan the chapter into my computer, using a utility in ClaroRead. It converts the image from the scanner into text in a Word document. I can then use ClaroRead to read it back to me.

Without this there is no way I would be able to keep up with the reading I need to do. If the books are in high demand, you can usually only borrow them from the library for six hours and I would not be able to do the reading in that time. With the scanner, I can simply scan the parts I need and return the book in less than an hour.

My final, and possibly the most useful gizmo of all, is my PDA. On this I have useful things such as my timetable. I hate carrying around these sorts of things in paper as they just get crumpled up in my pocket and then put in the washing machine. Before my PDA arrived, I actually had to get my laptop out to look at my timetable. As I am unable to handwrite, the PDA has been very liberating.

There are so many instances in the past where it would have been very useful to be able to make a quick note of something, for example, if someone tells you the room of your seminar has changed or you need to remember the title of a book to find in a library. Overall the PDA has helped me to stay organised. It also means I do not waste quite so much time being lost while trying to remember where my seminar is.

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