Highlights
- Runs on your PC in parallel with Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications such as Skype™, Second Life®, Elluminate®, etc.
- "Listens" to your voice through the microphone and generates the text equivalent of your speech using Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR).
- Interfaces with multiple ASR engines such as Nuance™ Dragon NaturallySpeaking™ or Windows® speech recognition
- Collates the transcriptions from multiple participants into a conversation with names properly attributed to speakers.
- Offers a real-time correction capability.
- Allows users to type their contributions to the conversation.
- Enables users to access the saved transcription for later viewing as notes or keyword searching.
- Privacy features allow control of who may view the transcript and participate in the session.
- The ongoing transcription is viewable both locally and over the Internet through a Web browser as the conversation happens.
The voice of a whole new world – but not everyone can hear you
Many collaborative workplace and social networking applications are incorporating integrated voice chat that allows users to communicate verbally. This facilitates natural conversation, contributes to the business and social value of the applications, and enhances the immersive quality of the collaborative experience. If you are deaf or hard of hearing you may not be able to participate in these conversations without assistance. The typical accommodation requires a human interpreter to listen to the conversation and create a text transcription or a sign language translation.
Seeing is believing
The IBM® AbilityLab™ Voice Transcription Manager project addresses this accessibility problem. It allows voice chat participants to join a ‘transcription session,’ initiate transcription using an automatic speech recognition (ASR) application, and display the text equivalent of the verbal conversation in real time with each speaker’s name correctly attributed to his words. Deaf users can read the text of the verbal conversations taking place and participate in them—either by speaking or by using an integrated text chat feature.
System Requirements
There are several ways to run VTM, each with its own set of requirements. For information on system requirements, please open the section below that corresponds to the way you will most likely use VTM.
Using VTM from your desktop with Windows speech recognition
Recommended System Requirements:
- CPU: Intel® Pentium® 4 / 2.4 GHz (1.6 GHz dual core) or equivalent AMD processor (SSE2 instruction set required)
- Memory: 2 GB RAM for Windows 7 32-bit, 4 GB RAM for Windows 7 64-bit
- L2 Cache: 1 MB
Supported Operating Systems:
- Microsoft® Windows Vista or Vista SP1, (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer® 6 or higher or Mozilla® Firefox® 3.6 or higher
- Sound accessories: USB noise-canceling headset microphone, Creative Labs Sound Blaster® 16 or equivalent sound card supporting 16-bit recording
- Other: Connection to the Internet
- Using VTM from your desktop with Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Recommended System Requirements:
- CPU: Intel Pentium 4 / 2.4 GHz (1.6 GHz dual core) or equivalent AMD processor (SSE2 instruction set required)
- Memory: 1.5 GB RAM (2.5 GB RAM for Windows 7 32-bit , and 4.5 GB RAM for Windows 7 64-bit)
- L2 Cache: 1 MB
Supported Operating Systems:
- Microsoft Windows Server 2000, 2003, Windows XP SP2 or higher, (32-bit), 2000 SP4 or higher, Vista or Vista SP1 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Other hardware: DVD-ROM drive (required for installation of ASR)
- Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher or Mozilla Firefox 3.6 or higher
- Sound accessories: Nuance-approved noise-canceling headset microphone (included, except for upgrades), Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 or equivalent sound card supporting 16-bit recording
- Other: Connection to the Internet
- Using VTM from a Web page
Windows
Operating Systems supported:
- Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, Windows Server 2003, Vista, or Windows 7
Recommended hardware:
- Intel Pentium 500 MHz or greater
- 128 MB RAM or greater
- 52 MB hard drive space
Mac
Operating Systems supported:
- Mac® OS® X 10.4 and later
Recommended hardware:
- Mac computer with an Intel x86 or PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
- 256 MB RAM or greater
- 200 MB hard drive space
Linux
Software requirements:
Please note that Linux® distributors may provide packages for your distribution which have different requirements.Required libraries or packages:
- GTK+ 2.10 or higher
- GLib 2.12 or higher
- Pango 1.14 or higher
- X.Org 1.0 or higher
Recommended libraries or packages:
- NetworkManager 0.7 or higher
- DBus 1.0 or higher
- HAL 0.5.8 or higher
- GNOME 2.16 or higher
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2010
Produced in the United States of America 11-10, All Rights Reserved
IBM and the IBM logo are registered trademarks, and AbilityLab is a trademark, of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
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References in this publication to IBM products and services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates.
IBM reserves the right to alter specifications and other product information without prior notice.
