computer, listen up!

[nikos]

I was momentarily excited about this "speech recognition" feature apparently built in windows since vista
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... ecognition

now it's either my heavy accent or this thing doesn't work at all... does it for you?
now say bollocks

[Kilmatead]

It rather depends on whether you expect to get high quality condoms or high quality microphones.

I have witnessed more popular solutions like Dragon Naturally Speaking used in the wild - and, if trained properly, it can be rather impressive. But the caveat is in the training.

I think there's one built into the online Google Docs as well...you might try your "Russian" accent on that one, just for laughs, to see if you have better luck. MS only really designs these gimmicks for Yanks and Brits, whereas Google tend to at least try for a wider outlook.

[nikos]

I spent some time "training" the system to understand "Russian" English, and it did get markedly better at understanding text narrated to notepad, but still it isn't a viable alternative to just typing things

does it understand you without training? most people wouldn't understand a word of the irish accent

[Kilmatead]

Not having a microphone, I can't speak to that (no pun intended). My accent is all over the place anyway... the simple rule of the Irish is to just speak faster and swear more than everyone else and you'll fit right in (at least for Dublinesque). I wonder if MS put in a child-friendly filter to block swearing... which would definitely take all the fun out of it.

I remember as a child picking up the cassette recorder from mum and da's closet floor and recording lots of colourful language on it... as kids will... may have been grounded for it once or twice too... I mean, what else were those contraptions meant for? (That, and sticking them in the microwave to see what happens... and to conveniently hide the evidence...)

Incidentally, not much happens to a cassette tape in the microwave. I was most disappointed. So I moved on to batteries in a fire... which is similarly disappointing... they just sizzle... I had a very disappointing childhood...