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Congratulations on your purchase of Interact-AS. Interact-AS is a powerful tool for enabling
communications for everyone, everywhere and anytime. There are many features included
in your system. In this video, I’ll be giving a quick introduction on how to get started
on using Interact-AS. This video is focused on individuals that are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
that are using Interact-AS’s closed captioning features. There are additional videos available
that are focused on individuals using Interact-AS for voice synthesis, or for reading text,
or for learning a new language, or one of the many other applications that Interact-AS
supports. These videos can be found by going to our website, which is www.auditorysciences.com.
Let’s get started by looking at how you navigate Interact-AS’s interface.
Interact-AS has five main pages that are accessed through the icons at the top of your screen.
The User Page is where all of your User Accounts are stored. The Translate Page is where you’ll
see the closed-captioning and be able to use other features such as voice synthesis.
Use the Configure Page in order to customize Interact-AS specifically for your needs.
The Visualize Page allows you to use things like pictures and maps and videos clips and
any other sort of imagery in order to augment your communications.
And in the Help Page you’ll find the User Guide and additional instructional videos
to tell you more about all the features contained in Interact-AS.
Let’s go over and start with the User Page. The User Page is where all your User Accounts
are located. Each User Account stores all of your preferred settings. You can have as
many User Accounts as you like. Typically you will have one for each person that will
be using your system. For example, if you will be using Interact-AS to communicate with
a co-worker named Chris, then you should create a User Account called “Chris”. You should
do this for all the individuals that will be using Interact-AS. When you create these
accounts, it is best if the other person, in this case Chris, is with you when you do
this. The reason is that you will want this other person to create their own voice profile,
which takes around six or seven minutes to do. I’ll show you how this is done in a
moment. To open up a User Account, just double click
on the icon, and all of your settings are automatically loaded and you’re ready to
start “Interacting”. I set up this account so it automatically
loads the Dutch Language Module. /// Dutch translation is being spoken aloud
/// So that’s an example of a language module
being used with Interact-AS. To create a new User Account, simply click
on the Add button. Each step of the process is described for you. When you’re finished
with each step, click on the next button to continue.
This is where you enter the name of the new User Account. You can use any name you want,
usually this is your name or initials plus another description like the name of the person
you will be communicating with. In this third step you select the languages
that you will be using. If you have purchased any of Interact-AS’s language modules, then
these languages will be shown in the drop down boxes. In this case, I’m going to set
up this User Account where both people in the conversation will be using English.
Interact-AS automatically makes a voice profile for each person and continues to make adjustments
as the person is speaking. The more the person talks, the better Interact-AS will become
at closed-captioning what they are saying. If you’re using Interact-AS in a situation
where the person speaking does not have time to create a voice profile, then select the
Untrained Voice Profile option. However, the best practice suggestion is that if a person
is going to be using Interact-AS several times, such as a co-worker or a teacher in your school,
then they should create their own personal voice profile. You do this by clicking on
the Add button. Enter a name for the voice profile, something
like the person’s initials. and then click on the Next button to continue.
In this step, Interact-AS checks to make sure that your computer’s microphone is working.
Go ahead and click on the Setup icon to continue. Interact-AS checks to see what microphones
are available and asks which one you want to use. Note that in most situations, that
is everything except a quiet office environment, you’ll need to use an external microphone.
If you do not already have such a microphone, then please visit www.auditorysciences.com
for help in selecting one that meets your needs. From the shown list, go ahead and select
the microphone that you’ll be using and click on the Next button to continue.
Interact-AS continually monitors the volume level of your microphone and automatically
makes adjustments for optimal speech recognition. It’s still a good idea though whenever you’re
using Interact-AS to try to hold your microphone in the same position each time. Ideally this
is about one-inch from the corner of your mouth.
In this step Interact-AS is checking to see if your microphone is turned on. When you’re
ready, click on the “Start Volume Check” button and start reading the text that is
displayed in the box. In this step the computer listens to the sound of your voice and adjusts
the volume setting of your microphone. When the computer has finished adjusting the volume,
it beeps to signal that the process is complete. If you reach the end of this text but you
have not heard a beep. The “beep” let’s you know that the volume
has been successfully adjusted and that you’re ready to move on to the next step. Go ahead
and click the Next button to continue. Having a high quality microphone helps improve
the accuracy of your closed captioning. In this step Interact-AS measures the quality
of your microphone to let you know if it is okay. Click the Start Quality Check button
and then start talking. In this step the computer checks the audio
input from your sound system. Having high quality audio input is very important for
good speech recognition. Poor audio input will make it difficult or impossible for the
program to recognize your speech accurately. When the computer has finished checking the
audio quality it beeps to signal that the process is complete.
Your microphone’s rating is shown here. Ideally, this number should be 20 or above.
Now that we’ve verified that our microphone is working, we’re ready to move on to the
next step of creating the voice profile. The person who will be speaking, in this case
our co-worker Chris, will need to do this next step. This takes about five minutes to
complete. Click on the Train button to get started.
Interact displays a sentence for you to read. The arrow points to the words that should
be read out loud. I’ll go ahead and do this right now.
Welcome to General Training Training is about to begin
Now that you’ve gotten the hang of it by reading the first two sentences, you’re
ready to select a story to read. You can choose any of these stories, in this case I’ll
select the first one and start reading. Congratulations on your purchase of Interact.
Interact is one of SpeechGear’s many products that remove the language barrier…
I’ll pause here to point out a few quick items. If you get stuck on a word, just click
on the Skip button, and if you’d like to take a break while reading, click on the Pause
button. I’ll go ahead and finish reading this voice profile, but I’ll stop the recording
while I’m doing that, or otherwise you’d just be watching me read some text for the
next three minutes or so. Well, it took me a little over three minutes
to finish reading the paragraphs. Once you’ve done that, Interact will show you this message.
Go ahead and click okay to continue. Congratulations, you’ve just finished creating
your first User Account. Go ahead and click on the Finish button, and this new account
will be automatically loaded for you. Well, that completes our overview of the User
Page and the instructions on how to set up a new User Account. As a quick review, the
User Page is where all your User Accounts are stored. Each account remembers all of
your preferred settings. Just double-click on the account you want to use, your settings
are then automatically loaded, and you’re ready to start “Interacting”.
Remember that you can have as many User Accounts as you like. Go ahead and set up an account
for each person that will be using your Interact-AS system, plus one for different situations
such as “Conference Room meetings” or “Seminars”.
Now that we covered the User Page and setting up new User Accounts, let’s move on to the
Translate Page. The Translate page is where you can see the
closed-captioning of what people are saying. There are three boxes, the top, middle and
bottom. The person that is speaking will use the middle box, and the person that is reading
the closed captioning will be using the top and bottom boxes. Let me repeat that, again,
the person that is speaking will use the middle box, and the person that is reading the closed
captioning will be using the top and bottom boxes. Let me show you how this works.
I can turn the microphone on by clicking on the icon, and when I do that, now everything
that I am saying is going to be instantly closed captioned. Note that the sound meter
shows me that my microphone is working. Again, if you are a person that is Deaf or Hard of
Hearing, you’ll want to watch either the top or bottom box, not the middle box.
The most recent phrase that I’ve said appears in the top box, and the entire transcript
appears in the bottom box. Many people that are Deaf or Hard of Hearing use lip reading
and facial gestures to understand what a person is saying. With Interact, go ahead and continue
doing this. If you miss a phrase that someone has said, then you can shift your eye focus
from looking at the person to glance at your computer – specifically, this top box. That
is where the most recent phrase is displayed. We put this box right at the top so it is
very easy for you to find. You can read that most recent phrase, and then shift your eye
focus back to looking at the person that is speaking.
The bottom box keeps an entire transcript of the conversation, which you can save for
future reference by clicking on these icons. Plus the transcript also includes a synchronized
voice recording of the person that was speaking. Let me go ahead and show that to you.
To play this, simply select the phrases that you want
and then select your right mouse button. The bottom box keeps an entire transcript
of the conversation. Note that you can increase the size of these
text boxes by either clicking on the maximum size button located at the top here, or by
clicking on the edge of the boxes and simply expanding them to whatever size you prefer.
Interact-AS also includes a voice synthesis feature. If you do not have the ability to
speak, then you can use this feature to voice aloud whatever you type or write. To do this,
click in the top box. In this case, I’ll type a phrase, but if I had a Tablet PC, I
could also write. When you’re done, simply click the Translate button and everything
that you’ve typed or written will be voiced out loud.
“Interact voices aloud whatever I type or write”
Remember, the middle box is for the person who is speaking. So in addition to voicing
out loud whatever you write or type, we also display that here in this middle box. For
individuals that are Deaf, in the next release of our software there will be a sound meter
located here that lets you know that Interact-AS is speaking aloud what you have just typed.
The right edge of the interface has icons that control each text box. The “loud speaker”
button voices aloud any text that is contained in the box,
“Interact voices aloud whatever I type or write”
And the “Trashcan” deletes any displayed text. This is true for both the top and middle
boxes. For the Bottom box, which is the transcription
log, there are three buttons. The middle one is for saving the transcript log. This can
be saved as a Word file or an Interact-AS log file. When you save it as an Interact-AS
log file, then later you can reload that file back into Interact-AS by clicking on the “Open
Log” button. For example, if you used Interact-AS to transcribe a meeting or a classroom lecture,
you can save the transcription and synchronized voice recording, and later that evening review
the notes and if you’d like, listen to portions of the meetings that you would like repeated.
Right in the center of the interface you have some additional buttons. Let me enter some
text to show you how this works. “Here is an example sentence.”
These two buttons increase and decrease the font size. Click on this button to make the
font size larger, and click on this one to make it smaller.
This large button is used whenever you are typing or writing text, and it is also used
when you are closed-captioning speech but the “Auto Translate” feature is turned
off. Click this button for the translation or voice synthesis to occur. Again, after
you’ve entered the text that you want to be spoken aloud, click on this button
“Here is an example sentence” and whatever you’ve typed will be spoken
aloud. Clicking on this button will connect you to
a live interpreter for instant translation of over 190 spoken languages, and soon this
button will also support ASL and LSM sign languages. When you click on the button, you’ll
see a number pad where you can enter your user account. Please note, you need to have
purchased Interact-AS’s Live Interpreter module for this feature to work.
Well that concludes our rather quick tour of the Translate page.