Speech Recognition Instructions  (English only)

Absolute Backgammon has the ability to use the Speech Recognition built into OS X. This feature allows you to play the game using just your voice.

Note: As of OS 10.2.6, the speech recognition built into OS X has some problems that have nothing to do with how well it recognizes your voice or with Absolute Backgammon. If you are having problems, please read the note at the bottom of this document. You might experience these problems. It has to do with the System Preferences for Speech Recognition.

If you have success or not in using this, I would like to hear about your experience so that it might be helpful to others and in improving it in the future. 

You will need a microphone. If you have a mac with a microphone built-in, you are set to go. iMacs have a microphone built-in. Look just above the screen. The little hole is the microphone. Some other macs have microphones built-in also.

Turn on speech recognition in Preferences.../Sound tab. A small window should appear in the center of the board. This displays recognized commands and move information.

You can toggle listening off and on by pressing the T key. This does not turn speech recognition off or on. It just stops it from listening and interpreting commands.

At least at first, it is recommended that the "Click After Your Move" option be selected (Preferences.../Move tab). This will cause the game to wait after you make your move until you either click somewhere in board or press the "Done" button (or say "Done"). 

Unless you have a headset to hear the game sounds, it is recommended that you turn the sound to low or turn the dice and piece sounds off. These can cause unpredictable results since the microphone can hear them.

Any other noises, such as a TV, can interfere with recognition. The quieter the better.

Since speech recognition takes a lot of computer power, you might need to increase the piece speed to compensate.

Commands

Many of the commands are the same as the buttons displayed below the board or in dialog windows. When a command is recognized, it is displayed in the top part of the small window. 

Only the commands that are different than the buttons are explained below.

Command        	Result

numbers 1 - 24 	specifies a row to move a piece from and the die/distance to use
Bar (or 25)	use for the from row if on the bar
Tray		use to put a piece in the tray
Clear		if the from row is not correct, use clear to clear the from row
Move one	moves the first suggested move
Move two	moves the second suggested move
Move three	moves the third suggested move
Again		move another piece from the same row
Quit program	use this to quit the game. Close any dialog windows first
Concede game  	Concede the game
Status		Same as button, but the "a" needs to be a long a, like in say.

If you don't know what to say, look at the buttons. Just say what is on them to get the same result as pushing the button.

Also, you can say "What can I say" to bring up the possible things to say at that point. When you give a command, the dialog, with the possible commands, will close automatically.

With my iMac, speech is recognized very accurately as far as several feet away.

Example:

At the start of your turn say "Roll"

After you roll the dice, "Move from row" will be displayed

You roll 5-3. If you want to move a piece from the 13 roll using the 5, you would say 13.

If the 13 is recognized, "Thirteen" will be displayed as the command and  "Move from row 13" will be displayed below it.

Then say 5 (for the distance). The piece should move from the 13 row to the 8 row, providing it is a valid move.

If you now want to move a piece from the 24 row, you just need to say "Twenty four". Since there is only one die(3) left, the computer knows to use it. The piece should move from the 24 row to the 21 row.

If the move data shows the incorrect from row, you can say "Clear" to clear the from row.

When you first start using speech recognition, the computer might have difficulty recognizing your commands. After awhile, after it has trained you to speak the way it wants, accuracy should increase to almost 100%.

Speech Recognition won't start

If it won't start, try quitting and starting the game. If that still doesn't allow it to start, try  logging out then logging in again to your user name/account.

Note:

As of OS 10.2.6, the speech recognition built into OS X has some problems that have nothing to do with how well it recognizes your voice or with Absolute Backgammon. You might experience these problems. They have to do with the System Preferences for Speech Recognition.

For example, on my machine, it wasn't recognizing speech even when I was in the area for adjusting the microphone volume, even though it was set to use the internal microphone. It didn't think it was and wasn't listening. I set it to use something else, then set it back to the internal microphone setting. It was now listening. I then clicked on Volume... to adjust the microphone level. It locked up anything to do with System Preferences. Force quitting System Preferences didn't solve the problem. At this point, logging out then logging in again helped.

I suggest that you stay away from the System Preferences/Speech/Speech Recognition tab unless you are having problems and want to see if speech recognition is working. Then, I would only select the Listening tab, then press the Volume... button, then perform the test to see if it is recognizing okay. If you can't get it to recognize any of the phrases, you might try selecting something other than the Internal Microphone, then setting it back.

Changing words/phrase

As of version 2.1, the words and phrases, that are used to play the game, are located in a STR# resources. If you know how to use ResEdit or Resorcerer, you can change them to your liking. For example, you could change "Roll" to "Roll the dice". Note, however, you can not add words or phases, just change them.
