Sunday, September 15, 2024

Learning Voice Little by Little

Back in July, I have my annual dentist appointment. Everything looked good, except for my two front teeth which he said were showing signs of wear due to my mouth stick. Ever since then I've been trying to use voice control on my computer. I am far from using it exclusively, but I have learned a few things.

One of the hardest things on my teeth is using the mouse. Therefore, this is where I try to decrease using my stick and use voice instead. Sometimes, it is just an easy task by saying to open a menu or click on a certain button. Other times it can save several clicks by saying to open or close a program. These areas do help, but doing other mouse actions can take a lot more work.

If it is not something that I can specifically say, then I need to go through a grid system saying which numbers or close to what I want selected until the mouse is it the correct object. Frequently, I will take a faster route and just use my stick to click. Dictation is also an item I have used somewhat, such as writing this entry, but accuracy isn't very good. Such as when I said "I have used somewhat," it turned into "I don't know I have your sandwich." It is better if I speak slowly and in short phrases, but that doesn't always do it either.

Programs using memory
I have also noticed that the longer I use the system, the more bogged down my computer seems to get. Doing some investigation, I found that it used a large portion my computer's memory. At one point, it was using as little as 45MB, and after a few days it had gone up to 16GB (1024 megabytes, MB is one gigabyte, GB). I'm not real sure the reason, by shutting down the system and turning it on again fixes the issue. I have started to get in the habit of turning it off when I play some games and then resume it after I'm finished.

For now, it is still a tool I only use occasionally and frequently get frustrated with. Trying to use it for this entry has likely taken longer then if I just typed it. At least it is an option that is available to help living the quad life.

1 comment:

  1. It seems like you have to make an effort to speak more clearly.

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