[HN Gopher] Show HN: Record voice memo, receive transcription in...
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       Show HN: Record voice memo, receive transcription in email
        
       Author : Void_
       Score  : 65 points
       Date   : 2022-10-20 13:49 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (whispermemos.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (whispermemos.com)
        
       | djbusby wrote:
       | On Android one can just use the Microphone input from the
       | keyboard. Just tap and instant transcript, in whatever you like
       | (I use a web-based knowledge thing).
       | 
       | Tap Icon on home screen, tap new, tap Microphone, talk for a few
       | minutes, press save.
       | 
       | Why am app for a built in feature?
        
         | RandomWorker wrote:
         | It going to your email is quite useful for those that have that
         | email be the primary method of collecting work and notes. It's
         | like that old blackberry concept of the universal inbox,
         | everything just goes to one thing, and get's collected there.
         | 
         | For those with that work flow this is really cool app.
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | On iOS you can define a two-step Shortcut that does this
           | (type or dictate text and then send it by email to a
           | predefined address [0]). I imagine there are similar
           | facilities on Android.
           | 
           | [0] "Ask for Input" followed by "Send Email", deactivate
           | "Show Compose Sheet" on the latter. Then use the microphone
           | symbol for speech recognition on the initial text input.
        
       | xenonite wrote:
       | Let me mention Just Press Record, which performs the
       | transcription on iOS and macOS with Apple's speech recognition,
       | which is on-device for several languages.
       | 
       | https://apps.apple.com/app/id1033342465
        
         | petercooper wrote:
         | Seconded - one big win with Just Press Record is you can add it
         | as a complication on an Apple Watch, so you can hit a button
         | anywhere you are, leave a voice memo, and it's transcribed and
         | on all your iCloud devices.
        
       | Void_ wrote:
       | This an iOS wrapper for OpenAI Whisper library.
       | 
       | You can use the lock screen widget to start recording - allowing
       | you to quickly capture what's on your mind.
       | 
       | This comment was the inspiration behind this:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32928118
       | 
       | Pricing is currently somewhat high, until I figure out how much
       | it costs to run Whisper on cloud GPUs. I'll adjust the pricing
       | accordingly, and perhaps switch to per-minute model.
        
         | rexreed wrote:
         | If you're not running it on Cloud GPUs right now and it's not
         | on device, how is it running the Whisper library now?
        
         | alexarena wrote:
         | This is cool! Curious if it would be possible to run the model
         | on device?
        
           | ggerganov wrote:
           | Me too - I recently ported the model to plain C/C++ and I am
           | now planning to run it on device and see if the performance
           | is any good. Will post an update when/if it works out
        
           | Void_ wrote:
           | I suppose the built-in iOS voice recognition would be better
           | for that.
           | 
           | I haven't really compared those two properly. Wonder how much
           | better Whisper is.
        
             | AndrewKemendo wrote:
             | Apple will keep up with anything that SOTA, just with a bit
             | of a lag - so just expect they will be better soon if not
             | already
             | 
             | Word of warning from someone who built an SDK that filled
             | in a processing gap that Apple had (6DOF Monocular SLAM)[1]
             | Apple will eventually make your technology obsolete and
             | their version will be way better. See: ARKit
             | 
             | We open sourced it once ARKit came out because there was no
             | way to monetize it further
             | 
             | [1] https://github.com/Pair3D/PairSDK
        
             | n8cpdx wrote:
             | Whisper is a game changer in terms of accuracy. It makes
             | Zoom, YouTube, Zoom, Office/Azure, Descript, and Otter.ai
             | transcription look like jokes in comparison.
             | 
             | The step change in transcription accuracy here is
             | significant enough to cross an important threshold for
             | usefulness.
        
           | n8cpdx wrote:
           | Probably not realistic. On an M1 Pro MBP, Whisper runs far
           | slower than real time. Think on the order of days for a 2
           | hour recording.
           | 
           | I've been doing transcription work for public meetings.
           | Whisper is truly incredible in terms of error rate even in
           | extremely challenging circumstances (obscure acronyms,
           | unusual terms, unusual names, poor recording quality). I was
           | seeing only a few errors per hour; most things that look like
           | errors are in fact accurate representation of humans saying
           | weird things. But I have to run it on my desktop with CUDA
           | enabled. With the medium model it is iirc barely faster than
           | real time. I only have a 1070 so maybe it is better with more
           | modern hardware.
           | 
           | Whisper does also have some slightly strange behavior with
           | silence and very long recordings. I might do a blog post once
           | I've got more experience.
        
             | Multicomp wrote:
             | I just transcribed a 32 minute audio recording of someone
             | doing a speech that someone recorded using their phone mic.
             | 
             | I used default settings of "import audio file" with the
             | Buzz application, and it was transcribed in less than 10
             | minutes. 24KB text file or so.
             | 
             | I'm on a windows PC with AMD ryzen 3
        
             | ggerganov wrote:
             | On M1 Pro, with Greedy decoder and medium model, I can
             | transcribe 1 hour audio in just 10 minutes (~x6 real-time)
             | [0].
             | 
             | [0] https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp
        
             | tobr wrote:
             | There were at least two errors in the video demo, and that
             | was just 15 seconds of audio. "I can take some notes from a
             | meeting" was transcribed as "I can take some notes from
             | meeting", and "I click stop [recording]" ended up as "And
             | click the stop".
        
           | Multicomp wrote:
           | For PCs there is the buzz application
           | https://github.com/chidiwilliams/buzz/tree/main.
        
         | O__________O wrote:
         | How did you select your GPU provider?
        
       | mighty_donkey wrote:
       | Is there a limit on how much I can record? Is this just for quick
       | notes or could i record a 30mins meeting? Thanks and congrats on
       | the launch.
        
         | Void_ wrote:
         | Currently 10m limit, but I'll be testing more.
        
       | swah wrote:
       | I do something similar with a Telegram bot... but the quality is
       | only good enough to let me know if I should listen to that audio
       | again.
        
       | mellosouls wrote:
       | This looks cool but I think we need a tech equivalent of "...IN
       | MICE" warning for Apple-only products on this site.
       | 
       | btw there are cross-platform apps which have some similar
       | functionality, eg voiceliner
       | 
       | https://a9.io/voiceliner/
        
       | mtVessel wrote:
       | It'd be nice if you linked to a privacy policy on that page. The
       | policy linked to on the app store page isn't very specific,
       | either.
        
       | happyllama wrote:
       | This seems great! I'm excited to try it out. It reminds me of
       | Voiceliner which I've been using for a while now. Voiceliner does
       | on device transcription & allows for creating hierarchy to notes
       | / ideas with export functions too
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29726787
        
         | giantg2 wrote:
         | Damn, I wish I knew about Vosk (which Voiceliner uses) a few
         | months ago. I was struggling with Sphinx and couldn't get it to
         | have any accuracy. I will definitely check this out.
        
       | sriram_malhar wrote:
       | Very nice indeed. Thanks for sharing.
       | 
       | You mention that you use whisper on the cloud. I was wondering
       | what you think of on-device decoding using the base.en model and
       | tflite.
       | 
       | Something along the lines of:
       | 
       | https://colab.research.google.com/github/usefulsensors/opena...
        
       | topicseed wrote:
       | https://recorder.google.com/ is pretty amazing to me and is
       | accessible from mobile and web. Not sure if it's Pixel-specific
       | or not.
        
         | notRobot wrote:
         | It is pixel exclusive.
         | 
         | > _Recordings backed up from the Recorder app on your Google
         | Pixel will appear here._
         | 
         | Visited on a non-pixel Android device.
        
       | sattoshi wrote:
       | What are the "in-app purchases"?
        
         | Void_ wrote:
         | There's a subscription to use it beyond 20 free memos. Running
         | these models is pretty expensive!
        
           | j45 wrote:
           | I am aware of voice memo apps running a library like vosk
           | transcribing just fine on device instead of in cloud and
           | without cost.
        
             | Void_ wrote:
             | Send a link, would love to try it.
        
       | mritchie712 wrote:
       | perfect. signed up.
       | 
       | nice job!
        
       | trafnar wrote:
       | I like that this is so focused on quickly initiating the
       | recording, then just emailing the transcript, rather than trying
       | to keep me in the app. That's exactly how I'd like this type of
       | app to function.
        
         | barbazoo wrote:
         | That's how they all start. Wait until there's VC money
         | involved.
        
           | Void_ wrote:
           | Haha this is just a side project - I'm co-founder of Reflect
           | (https://reflect.app) and more likely we'll be integrating
           | this functionality into our note-taking app.
        
             | barbazoo wrote:
             | Cool, yeah that sounds like a logical thing to do. Good
             | luck.
             | 
             | I wish whispermemos was available for Android. I have to
             | look into what's available and what the privacy
             | implications are. Would love to use something like that. A
             | Joplin plugin would be awesome.
        
       | pwinnski wrote:
       | I'm trying to resist a "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad.
       | Lame." response, but iOS already does voice-to-text, so it's hard
       | to see what value-add this offers. I think the comment which
       | inspired you was from an Android user? Or at least not an iOS16
       | user, where the voice-dictation is much improved.
       | 
       | Single-click launch from the lock screen? That's neat, I don't
       | think I can get there with bare iOS.
       | 
       | No real-time feedback as I speak, so that seems like a point to
       | iOS.
       | 
       | The email is a nice touch, but the trade-off is that you have a
       | copy of all of my recordings now.
       | 
       | Finally, it could be that OpenAI Whisper does a much better job
       | than iOS. I have no idea!
        
         | Void_ wrote:
         | Haha, you are totally right. I was mainly trying to have fun
         | with a new technology.
         | 
         | The email thing makes a lot of difference for me - I don't
         | wanna fiddle with my phone any more than just pressing one
         | button.
         | 
         | I'll do the rest on my computer. (Copying to Reflect.app,
         | creating a todo, etc.)
        
       | markozivanovic wrote:
       | Great job! I love that you only need to press the record and stop
       | on the phone and the rest is done automagically in the
       | background.
       | 
       | I wonder if there's a thing for Android that's as accurate as
       | Whisper!?
        
         | Void_ wrote:
         | Somebody could build an Android frontend - and use the same
         | OpenAI Whisper library on the server.
         | 
         | I didn't bother with React Native thinking audio recording
         | would be pain in the butt.
        
       | jcbages wrote:
       | It looks so cool! I'd love to have the transcript send to places
       | other than email. I'm thinking of either a chat app like WhatsApp
       | and Telegram or a productivity app like Notion to keep a more
       | organized journal.
        
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       (page generated 2022-10-20 23:02 UTC)