========================================================== WARNING: This repository is no longer maintained :warning:

This repository will not be updated. The repository will be kept available in read-only mode.

========================================= Watson Streaming Speech to Text Example

The following is an example of using Watson to real time transcribe from Speech to Text using the websockets streaming API.

Installation

This code is designed to run under python3 in a virtualenv. In order to get started you need to run the following:

::

virtualenv -p python3 .venv source .venv/bin/activate pip install -r requirements.txt

That will build you a clean environment and install the required pyaudio and websockets libraries for it's use.

Getting Started

This uses the pyaudio interface to abstract talking to audio interfaces. On the upside, this smooths over a lot of platform differences.

However, on Linux audio remains a "hard problem". The "default" audio device that is picked up by pyaudio by default is going to be what your sound mixer is set to. In Ubuntu, you will need to go to the Sound settings and set the input to what you want to record from there.

.. image:: docs/images/input_audio.png

Credentials

You'll need to sign up for the Watson STT service_. As of Sept 2018, IBM Cloud accounts get 100 minutes / month free.

In order to connect to the Watson streaming server you need an API Key, and to specify which region your speech to text service was provisioned in (there are different gateways per region). You can find these on your IBM Cloud console for the service you have added.

Copy speech.cfg.example to speech.cfg to ensure that's valid.

Expected Output

Once you run transcribe.py with a timeout value (-t) you'll get both incremental output as data comes back, as well as a final stitching of things together. The output will look something like this.

::

./transcribe.py -t 20 ALSA lib pcm_dsnoop.c:618:(snd_pcm_dsnoop_open) unable to open slave ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1041:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave ALSA lib pcm.c:2450:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear ALSA lib pcm.c:2450:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe ALSA lib pcm.c:2450:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1041:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave

• recording we twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle twinkle that twinkle twinkle little twinkle twinkle little twinkle twinkle little star twinkle twinkle little star twinkle twinkle little star twinkle twinkle little star I know twinkle twinkle little star I know when twinkle twinkle little star I know when you're twinkle twinkle little star I know when you're twinkle twinkle little star I know when you're what you twinkle twinkle little star I know when you're what you are twinkle twinkle little star I know when you're what you are I I hi herb high above high above the high above them high above them we're high up above the world so high up above the world so high up above the world so %HESITATION high up above the world so I high up above the world so I like high up above the world so I like high up above the world so I like high up above the world so I like die high up above the world so I like time and high up above the world so I like time and in high up above the world so I like time and in those high up above the world so I like diamond in the sky high up above the world so I like diamond in the sky high up above the world so I like diamond in the sky high up above the world so I like diamond in the sky
• done recording twinkle twinkle little star I know when you're what you are high up above the world so I like diamond in the sky

Transcription is far from perfect, but you get to see an example here of chunking the stream as we go and how it corrects with context.

Note: nursery rhymes / poetry probably really push the context fixing in terrible directions, but it's the thing that I can repeat over and over again as a parent of a young child.

.. _Watson STT service: https://console.ng.bluemix.net/catalog/services/speech-to-text/