Speakable items is part of the speech recognition feature in the
classic Mac OS
Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. The ...
and
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
s. It allows the user to control their computer with natural speech, without having to train the computer beforehand. The commands must be present in the Speakable items folder though but can be created with something as simple as a shortcut,
AppleScript
AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. that facilitates automated control over scriptable Mac applications. First introduced in System 7, it is currently included in all versions of macOS as part of a package of system automa ...
, keyboard command, or
Automator workflows.
History
Speakable items was first introduced as part of Apple's speech recognition software
PlainTalk
PlainTalk is the collective name for several speech synthesis (MacinTalk) and speech recognition technologies developed by Apple Inc. In 1990, Apple invested a lot of work and money in speech recognition technology, hiring many researchers in the ...
in 1993. Originally available only on
Quadra AV models, it was later integrated with the
System 7.1.2 release of the Macintosh system software.
With the release of
Mac OS X v10.4
Mac OS X Tiger (version 10.4) is the 5th major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Mac computers. Tiger was released to the public on April 29, 2005 for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Som ...
it was featured as #12 on their list of features. In
OS X Mountain Lion
OS X Mountain Lion (version 10.8) is the ninth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. OS X Mountain Lion was released on July 25, 2012, for purchase and download through Apple's Mac Ap ...
, Speakable Items has been relocated to the Accessibility panel in
System Preferences.
Automation
Mac OS X v10.4 added
Automator workflows which can also be used as Speakable items.
If a workflow is saved as an application and put in the Speakable items folder it becomes available to the speech recognition software. The words the computer will recognize to execute the command will be the name of the saved Automator application. Some words might have to be misspelt for the computer to know the proper pronunciation. (For example, the computer best recognizes "
Les Misérables
''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century.
In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...
" as ''Lay Mizzer Ob'').
Because Automator is made to comply with
AppleScript
AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. that facilitates automated control over scriptable Mac applications. First introduced in System 7, it is currently included in all versions of macOS as part of a package of system automa ...
applications only, most third party or non AppleScript applications, such as
Limewire
LimeWire was a free software, free peer-to-peer file sharing client for Microsoft Windows, Windows, MacOS, Linux and Solaris OS, Solaris. Created by Mark Gorton in 2000, it was most prominently a tool used for the download and distribution of O ...
or
Final Cut Studio
Final Cut Studio is a discontinued professional video and audio production suite for Mac OS X from Apple Inc., and a direct competitor to Avid Media Composer in the high-end movie production industry. It was developed from 2005 to 2011. Three ...
apps will not work with speakable items, unless you configure commands only with "define a keyboard command": in which you'll just select "this application only" after making a keyboard command.
Problems
While Speakable Items is useful, as well as innovative, recognition gets hard and distorted some times.
# In Macs without dual beamforming microphones (pre-2012), background noise interferes with recognition, and limits the usefulness of the "listening continuously" option.
# Sometimes the pronunciation the computer understands varies from the proper pronunciation. This usually happens with custom commands.
# The Speakable items folder also has the abilities to open applications that are blocked by Parental Controls without an administrators permission. This is achieved by copying and application and placing within the folder and opening it from there. However this does not bypass applications from an unidentified developer, if the Applications Downloaded From: App Store or App Store and Identified Developers setting is checked.
See also
*
Speech recognition
Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the m ...
*
List of speech recognition software
Speech recognition software is available for many computing platforms, operating systems, use models, and software licenses. Here is a listing of such, grouped in various useful ways.
Acoustic models and speech corpus (compilation)
The following l ...
References
External links
Mac OS X: Speech - How to add items to Speakable ItemsOS X Mountain Lion: Create spoken commands
{{DEFAULTSORT:Speakable Items
MacOS
mr:स्पीकेबल आयटेम्स