Audio / Speech to text (with free tiers)

Prior to Covid I was never far from my Livescribe pen and notebook. The Livescribe pen enables me to take notes while it records the audio in the room. Following the meeting at the tap of the nib on a word the audio is played back from the moment the tapped word was written. My written notes were digitised and converted into text I then copy and paste the text into a google doc. On the occasion I needed the full transcription I’d export the audio file from the pen and import it to Otter. 

Otter was also an app I’d run on my phone and with permission of the room, I’d capture full transcripts while using my Livescribe pen for notes.

Then came Covid. My pen was rendered useless as I wore headphones for video calls. Early on as I familiarised myself with Zoom and its settings I discovered Zoom could connect to Otter for live transcription and in turn provided in a side by side browser window captions for deaf, hard of hearing and those ‘listening’ with audio off or turned right down.

Over the course of the Lockdown Otter evolved to provide on-screen subtitles. For me, its major use has been to provide a record and transcribe my meetings.
It’s pretty accurate. However, I have discovered we are not! Transcription for presentations with intended even partly rehearsed, structured speech renders full sentences. Free thought discussions and conversations I have found flip mid-sentence between future and present tenses. People frequently do not complete sentences or infer a list and then fail to fulfil the points.

My solution within my workflow which facilitates closed captions as a service in my work uses Otter’s business tier. The tiers are Basic (free) Pro and Business. The free tier does not connect to Zoom and importing audio for transcription is limited to 3 before an upgrade is required.

 

 

You can use the Basic free plan of Otter as long as you'd like, but there are a few usage limits to keep in mind.

• Transcription limit - Up to 600 minutes per month
• Transcription duration- Up to 40 minutes per transcription
• File imports- Import up to three audio or video files

Best #voicenote tool EVER. IMHO (in my humble opinion), 600 free #transcription minutes a month! https://otter.ai/referrals/O598JJY5

Here is the CC Otter.ai 1 month free trial code - “OTTER_TRIAL”

https://otter.ai/pricing

Here are alternative options.

If you are a Microsoft 360 user Word has a speech to text and audio import for transcription built-in.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/transcribe-your-recordings-7fc2efec-245e-45f0-b053-

https://www.freetranscriptions.com/pricing/

FREE - 300 minutes (5 hours) of audio per month

Just a note about how awesome Otter’s customer support is. In the early days of covid when I first used Otter to provide CC in Zoom Webinar, an Otter support rep joined my webinar rehearsal and actually talked me through the set up when I was struggling. They are fast to respond to support requests and meticulously follow up.

Let me know your solution. Any further question please comment below.

 

Livescribe - Lonely in Lockdown

Prior to Covid my most trusty and assistive piece of technology was my Livescribe Pen. I have an eBay search running looking for pens on sale I buy for colleagues and clients when compiling essential tech and media making kit boxes.

During lockdown along with my mobile power packs my livescribe pens have sat idol.

In lockdown I have spent all my working from my desktop computer. My magic notebook has been set aside. 

Analogue pen and pen, digital transcription with audio accompanying. Searchable digital version. Handwriting to text. But it needs sound in the room to capture.

During lockdown for most of my meetings I have worn headphones. So I’d have a lot of one sided conversations! A year or so ago I discovered Otter. It was for its dictation but it really blossomed when it’s Zoom integration emerged. I was looking into closed captions and top of the list popped Otter.

The connection transcribes my Zoom calls to text as well as storing a copy of the audio without having to remember to hit record.

It’s dyslexic peace of mind. The big bonus is that is affords me the concentration of future recall without having to take full notes.

Plus Otter augments into Zoom’s CC api. I’ve been so impressed by Otters development during Covid. Accessibility has become priority with the events and productions I have supported.

Providing remote access can now be fully accessible too.

The digital pen I use and swear by - Livescribe

I love a Notebook and Pen. I love stationery. I love technology. Livescribe is a nexus of gadgetry where productivity is in analogue and digital equilibrium!

Here is my LIVESCRIBE amazon list

 

If you buy from this carousel PCM will get a commission.

Stop Gap Solution - Livescribe Display. (update 2019 at end)

Livescribe's dimming display.

I can't deny my Livescribe pen revolutionised how I deal with and cope with text. With Livescribe, I am able to take notes and notate the audio taking place around me. This took away a lot of anxiety I often experience where I need to note down relevant elements but equally, pay attention and be present in a room. Where there is a pressure to produce minutes or notes for circulation, striking a balance between documentation and participation came with a disorientation that prevented me doing either satisfactorily. Then....

I was introduced to Livescribe. I remember it well. The iPad had just launched and a colleague bought hers to a meeting where I bemoaned not being able to justify to myself a very expensive pdf reader! She did then show me her Livescribe pen. I immediately bought one! And now I have an iPad (still 2nd generation) I wouldn't be without either.

Recently however my Livescribe pen has faulted in securing its initial and valued purpose in providing confidence to enable me to 'keep up' with the world as I see it. It's a Dyslexic thing.

The Livescribe display screen is rapidly fading into blankness.

At first, I thought it was due to the brightness in the rooms my meetings were taking place in. After some research, I discover it's a 'known' issue
one which Livescribe seem to have addressed with new pens bought after January 2015 having an extended 3 yrs warranty but that doesn't help me. Anyone reading this far and experiencing this display failure I have a 'keep it going a while longer' fix/fudge. 

It takes a small leap of faith! It takes the settings you had when you last configured the pen with the screen visible.

Rocketbook - Dyslexics & Scribblers, you need one of these.

Potentially, the only notebook you will ever need to buy, ever again. I kid you not. You don't need a special tech pen, but you do need to use Pilot Frixion pens. I can't wait to get mine. 

"Rocketbook allows people to enjoy the pleasure of writing in a traditional paper and pen notebook, while digitizing all notes and sending them to the cloud, without introducing any special electronics." says the campaign page.

 Cool or what?

Go check it out

The way I see it - part 2

Industry blogging, as a practitoner of social media it all gets a bit kalidascopic, inward looking.

I read about products, tools, services, platforms, people talking about those products, tools etc. Its the people talking about people I'm missing. I am not getting enough people stories, I'm interesting in personal practice. How do you used technology. When did technology stop being a tool to mastered but an entity to be absorbed? 'I know kunfoo' We know this brain dump matrix programimg of the brain is film fiction territory, But when did technology or items designated tech ie computers, games, phones enter your conscience and how did you assimilate that in to your world?

I found a photo recently of a time when 'tech' was not in my consciousness. I had an electric typewriter with floppy disc storage, the plastic square kind any how. Even then 'floppy 'disc' was a legacy word for a media type. There was Viynl, tape cassette, CD compact disc, dat tapes, minidisc and in the early 90's I still operated reel to reel tape! One thing in common, they are all storage mediums.

My working life was since graduation in 1994 with a degree in Theatre, Design & Technology, full off Technology it wasn't realy thought off as tech'nology' it was technical equipment. When did that spark ignite, when was the alchemical moment when the technical equipment became tech 'nology'? Is it connected with awe?

Was it when everything became computerised? Was when switches stopped being flicked, perhaps? Button pressing, fade sliders, the triggering of a direct mechanical response or verbal actions. Noting has changed cues are stil being acted upon.

Now a computer button is so removed from the action ultimately executed metaphysically is wide, yet the digital process is tiny, so fast but for some reason that matters to me, to my brain. As a multi-tasker I think I have processing power envy!

The way I see it - part 1

l find blogging a frustrating experience.

It's a transfer mechanisms, a cross posting method. Getting the content out of my thought buffer / memory cache on to / in to a blog post in text form hurts my head.

I like my notebooks. I like writing.

Here is why.

When I type I have to think of the keys I hit, the letters, line forms, the symbols that placed together form words, those words are the code that when interpreted by you the reader will decode, translate in your brain as a representation of the content, my idea that I encoded in to the text based storage media.

The stored media becomes a collective archive. We can all reference the same meterial. How do we translate / decode the data and store / remember stuff? That cross reference with previous archived material dictates the knowledge and recall quality.

Now that was a revelation to me and fingers crossed, it is a pivotal moment for my social media practice. I don't want to struggle to express myself. It's a frustration experienced by many dyslexics.

I use Livescribe. This post was written in a digitally enabled notebook using a computerised pen. The written text was uploaded to my Mac and passed through a convert to text programme providing me with the editable text that formed the foundation of this blog post.

Livescribe is stationary when did technology depart from being stationary and office supplies in the sense of work tools?

The way my mind works the awareness of the barrier between thought and expression has to be encoded by me. Pen to paper is a form of hand coding, freeform lines and swirls revealing as the pen passes across the page like a printer head. Thoughts to expression at the tip and flip of a pen. It doesn't exhaust me.

 

Mist, Rain, Zebra Print, Sharp Light,

Unfiltered reality?

How do your notate your world for recall?

How do you share it with others?

Social Media in practice

As I adventure and explore the web new tools, services and web 2.0 platforms emerge, evolve and disappear. Some platforms become firm favorites while others get superseded. It may be that new services provide better features, new features or more aesthetically pleasing environments to work within. User experience is as important as an audiences. It may be the discovery of a new medium is easier to update or enhances the reach and distribution of content. Take this blog for example. I love the Typepad platform. It is contained and very stable, it is also well established. Since creating my first post back in 2007 it has had a purpose, to document my practice and journey. I want it to be about my practice, a place to share my findings and a place to evaluate my progress. This also means I intend it to be read by a certain audience, those who are interested in what I am doing or want to know what I'm up to as a practitioner. I've never wanted it to be a news feed or a revenue generator. I do however want it to reflect my activity across the entire landscape of social media. I want to aggregate my highs and lows, my challenges and celebrations. This is my showcase. But currently it is rather neglected. This is my reflection.

This blog should

• Report my activities
• Review my progress
• Regale my milestones
• Renew my thinking

This blog should aggregate my activity. As my last post was in August it is at present and resounding failure! Failure is not to be reviled but learnt from and resolved through self discovery. I know I need to formally blog more but I enjoy the adventure, I enjoy the exploration, I love to share.

Where is CJ on the web? The side columns collate some of that activity.

I love AudioBoo. Since getting my iPhone 4 this audio blogging service has released me for my terror of typing text. It has an embeddable widget and can be seen in the column on the right. I can also embed individual 'Boos' in to posts. This is my latest at the time of writing this post.

Audioboo produces excellent quality audio recordings with out having to worry about bad hair days! After recording hit the publish button, take a photo to accompany the post, add a title, some contextual tags even a twitter hashtag before finishing with the save & upload button. AudioBoo autoposts to Twitter so I can share my interviews and personal musings immediately with my Twitter followers. Adding an event hashtag pushes the media to the hashtag stream too. Brilliant. I hope you can see why I love this platform.

AudioBoo also autoposts to Posterous.

I love Posterous. Blogging with nothing more than an email address. It also has a neat iPhone app. The email subject line is the post's title, the body text in the email becomes the blog post content and audio, video and image files can be attached just as you would into an email. Hit send and hey presto you are published. I tend to post event audio and photos there. No great insights just a record of the event for friends who were unable to attend to listen to. Its quick and simple. Posterous content does not feed in to this blog.

Gregg Fraley talks to January's Second Wednesday crowd

The link above is my Posterous post of Photos, Audio captured with LiveScribe and an intoductory sentance to the Second Wednesday event I attended. Posterous has autoposting abilities but I select to cross post manually to Twitter preventing AudioBoo and Posterous making identicle posts. Social Media echos are just so annoying!

Livescribe - old media meet new technology

"Don't add technology to way you do things. Change the way you do things when you know what technology can do" A quote I use throughout my presentations and workshops. Its part of what I refer to as foundation thinking. Thanks go to Marcus Romer, artistic director of Pilot Theatre for this line of genius.

Way back in 2007 at the launch of the newly negotiated Equity ITC contract agreement at Hampstead Theatre I had conversation that ignited my social media journey and restructured by business. It's Marcus's fault that I joined Facebook! The conversation and consequent collaboration took me in to Second Life and entwined my life irrevocably with this social media phenomenon.

I upgrade my technology when I discover features or learn of functions my current tool set or equipment can't provide. This has driven my mobile phone upgrades and it has now inspired my upgrade from paper note book to Live Scribe.

http://www.livescribe.com - cool little pen thing for those that take notes.

I can still write notes and draft blog posts. Now I can transfer the text to my computer, archive and search my notebooks. With the MyScribe app I can covert my written notes in to editable text.