Bug 69039 - ACCESSIBILITY: Support Windows Speech Recognition
Summary: ACCESSIBILITY: Support Windows Speech Recognition
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
3.3.0 release
Hardware: Other Windows (All)
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: BSA
Keywords: accessibility
: 108271 133305 138849 147886 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: a11y-Windows
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2013-09-06 14:21 UTC by JMBouchard
Modified: 2024-05-16 11:22 UTC (History)
12 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screencast with working dictation (2.24 MB, video/webm)
2023-09-07 08:46 UTC, Michael Weghorn
Details

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Description JMBouchard 2013-09-06 14:21:37 UTC
Problem description: 
Windows Speech Recognition (WSR) (Vista, 7 or 8)does not allow dictation into Libre Office. 
Steps to reproduce:
1. Run WSR with Libre Office....
2. Try to Dictate ....
3. Will receive a what was that? Message....

Current behavior:
Does not work
Expected behavior:

 Should be able to dictate into LibreOffice using Windows Speech REcognition             
Operating System: All
Version: unspecified
Comment 1 tommy27 2013-09-07 11:36:47 UTC
Are you talking about this software, right?
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windowsvista/speech.aspx

I assume that it works in MS Office, Internet Explorer, MS Outlook Express etc. etc.

basically you say that WSR cannot dictate into LibO... what about Firefox and Thunderbird?

I'm not sure they made it compatibile with non-MS products.
Comment 2 JMBouchard 2013-09-07 14:16:54 UTC
According to Marty Makoe at MyMSSpeech.com "WSR works well in any application that follows Microsoft’s TSF (text services framework). Ask the developers of LibreOffice if they’ve incorporated TSF in their software. If it is not TSF compliant you will need to dictate into Word or Wordpad or Notepad and copy/transfer to LibreOffice."

He wrote that back to me when I asked him a few days ago if he any thoughts. Is it possible to add the TSF framework into Libreoffice? Thank you very much.
Comment 3 tommy27 2013-09-07 14:26:01 UTC
adding Writer expert developers to CC List. They probably know that.
Comment 4 JMBouchard 2013-09-09 17:53:27 UTC
Just wanted to add that Dragon works fine when you click install accessibility tools. Wish WSR was that easy. 

On a side note, I would love to be able to help out in anyway I can by beta testing new releases etc. Hopefully, one with WSR functionality can come soon. Any ideas on how I can become a beta tester or otherwise help in other ways? Thank you very much.
Comment 5 V Stuart Foote 2013-09-18 03:01:17 UTC
As a cross platform program supporting Linux, OS X and Windows environments--the UNO Accessibility API will remain the basis of support for AT. 

It remains for external projects to implement AT for mobility impaired users who would benefit from speech recognition.

Microsoft TSF is in "legacy" status. And currently no agreed "standard" exists for Speach recognition. Microsoft has gone its own way with UI and MSSR. And Nuance, with its current Dragon NS 12--Full Text Control function--looks to again have omitted Apache OpenOffice and TDF LibreOffice support for UNO API, and only supporting Microsoft productivity products.

In the not too distant future, a full implementation of a native IAccessible2 (v1.3) standard based bridge for Windows OS will provide the AT hooks needed to implement Windows speech recognition to both Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice.

That might be a Nuance DNS commercial module, or I'd lean more to an Extension for AOO/LibreOffice useing the Python based Dragonfly speech recognition framework and a AOO/LibreOffice specific command-module for Microsoft WSR. Perhaps a cross over from the NVDA community.
Comment 6 Cédric Bosdonnat 2014-01-20 08:57:31 UTC Comment hidden (noise)
Comment 7 V Stuart Foote 2020-05-23 14:58:48 UTC
*** Bug 108271 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 8 V Stuart Foote 2020-05-23 15:26:33 UTC
*** Bug 133305 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 9 V Stuart Foote 2020-12-12 15:48:52 UTC
*** Bug 138849 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 10 Adolfo Jayme Barrientos 2022-03-13 12:37:42 UTC
*** Bug 147886 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 11 Brad 2023-09-07 02:33:38 UTC
OS Name:                   Microsoft Windows 10 Education
OS Version:                10.0.19045 N/A Build 19045

if I even attempt to use windows speech to text and it actually engages the Libra office program crashes every single time without fail.

Could you please improve this as people like myself have injuries and can't necessarily type through traditional methods & can't afford some other speech to text program either? Thank you, very kindly.

It looks like the solution would be to implement Microsoft's tech services framework within the application which should allow speech to text Microsoft application to function without crashing the program 100% of the time.

Could any of the contributors give some guidelines on how this problem would be approached and solved?
Comment 12 Brad 2023-09-07 02:34:31 UTC
srry I forgot to add 

Version: 7.4.7.2 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 723314e595e8007d3cf785c16538505a1c878ca5
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 13 Michael Weghorn 2023-09-07 08:46:00 UTC
Created attachment 189409 [details]
Screencast with working dictation
Comment 14 Michael Weghorn 2023-09-07 08:49:35 UTC
(In reply to Brad from comment #11)
> if I even attempt to use windows speech to text and it actually engages the
> Libra office program crashes every single time without fail.

I just tried with a current LibreOffice development version and the version available via chocolatey.

Dictating e.g. "Hello world" as shown in the attached screencast attachment 189409 [details] worked fine for me.

Is the tool/Windows feature shown in the screencast the one that this bug is about or is that something else?

(In reply to Brad from comment #12)
> srry I forgot to add 
> 
> Version: 7.4.7.2 (x64) / LibreOffice Community
> Build ID: 723314e595e8007d3cf785c16538505a1c878ca5
> CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL:
> win
> Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
> Calc: threaded

Can you please retest with a current LO version?

Version: 7.5.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 9f56dff12ba03b9acd7730a5a481eea045e468f3
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_DE); UI: en-GB
Calc: threaded

Version: 24.2.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 21af3e5b5df02747691f08c453407d0abfc91242
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_DE); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 15 QA Administrators 2024-04-15 03:15:34 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 16 QA Administrators 2024-05-16 03:16:41 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 17 V Stuart Foote 2024-05-16 11:22:05 UTC
WSR performs keyboard entry for menu and TB button controls.

But actual text entry onto LO document canvas with by spoken word dictation fails. Cursor positioning, selections, or by letter actions (e.g. "goto start of document", "select all", "backspace", "return", "escape") were fine.
But found text entry limited to "press" of individual keys to spell out.

WSR well trained, and good quality microphone.

Have not yet checked the WSR replacement framework 'Voice Access' on a Windows 11 instance.

At Version: 24.2.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 433d9c2ded56988e8a90e6b2e771ee4e6a5ab2ba
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: CL threaded