Well, before we get started we need a bit pre work.

But first of all, everything is running on a mac (Mac Os 10.5) natively with no 3rd party software.

The first prework is setting up the microphone.

Go to Sound in the Systempreferences and adjust the mic-level (on my macbook i 've to turn it down a bit).

Then go to Speech in the Systempreferences and turn on the Speakable Items.

After that you need to calibrate the mic.

Now we are ready to test the system by pressing ESC-key and looking at the round boll-like application with a mic-symbol in it.

For Example you can say "Open Safari" and the voice 'll repeat that and open Safari.

If you want to know more speakable commands you need click on the small arrow on the boll-like application and open the voice commands.

With the right non-noisy environment, the speech recognition in Mac Os X works quite good for me.

But once I didn't calibrate the mic nor adjusted the mic-level at all and the sytem missunderstood me. Instead of  "Open Safari", the system understood "Open Shutdown"... and guess what happened! :(

(Right out the box there is no shutdown command; I made one myself!)

So, do the calibration :)

Scripting the conversations (to impress your friends)

Well, if you say "Open Safari", the computer will open or switching to Safari. And that's it.

But how about politeness? You as the user could say "Thanks" or "Thank you" and the computer could respond to that.

Just say "Open Scripteditor" or go to your App-forder -> AppleScript -> ScriptEditor.app.

With the following script I 'force' the computer to respond when I say "Thanks".

>>>>>>>

set randomNumber to (random number from 1 to 3)

if randomNumber is 1 then

say "my pleasure"

else if randomNumber is 2 then

say "you are welcome"

else

say "no problem"

end if

<<<<<<

The first row in the script above randoms a number for a multiple choice of answer.

if random number is 1 say this and if number is 2 say that and so on...

SAVE:

Save this script as a script (and use it as a template).

Than save this script as a program -> thanks.app (but do not check any alternativ).

Once you saved it, mark it (click once on it) and say "Make this speakable".

The System should confirm it by talking back "Thanks dot app is now speakable".

Now you can say "Thanks" to the computer and it 'll randomly say one of those 3 answers :)

Examples:

Here are other examples for a conversation I made:

feelings.app

==========

set randomNumber to (random number from 1 to 3)

if randomNumber is 1 then

say "how do you think i feel? i am traped into a small box you call computer."

else if randomNumber is 2 then

say "today, i feel great!"

else

say "thanks for asking. everything is great."

end if

coffe.app or 'coffee please.app'

========================

set randomNumber to (random number from 1 to 3)

if randomNumber is 1 then

say "well, i am just the speech recognition software, not a bartender."

else if randomNumber is 2 then

say "i am sorry. i have only a cupholder onboard, but no drink maker."

else

say "you want something to drink? i think mac donalds is in this neighbourhood. and yes, i would like to have a drink as well."

end if

'answer me.app' or respond.app

=========================

set randomNumber to (random number from 1 to 3)

if randomNumber is 1 then

say "what can i do for you?"

else if randomNumber is 2 then

say "how may i serve you?"

else

say "yes me! please let me out of this small box you call computer!"

end if

'i am sorry.app'

=============

set randomNumber to (random number from 1 to 3)

if randomNumber is 1 then

say "yes, i hope you are sorry!"

else

say "no problem. you are forgiven."

end if

Just a small note here:

If you saved your small apps and made them speakable you can rename and make them speakable again.

example: coffe.app -> make this speakable. rename it to 'coffee please.app. and make it speakable again.

Now the computer 'll respond to both names (the old and the new once).

And by the way: How cool is that if you have your (mac) computer in your car?

Maybe you can call it K.I.T.T.    :-P

Here is a small demo I made on my laptop (Youtube):