How I built it

A private voice-typing app

Hold two keys, speak, and it types into any app. It runs on the computer itself, so nothing goes to the cloud, and it learns the names it gets wrong.

controloptionheld down

Can you send the quote over to Sue by Friday?

The problem

The paid dictation app I used sent my voice to the cloud and kept mangling the names I say every day. Its dictionary only fixed exact phrases, so every new mishearing slipped through.

What I built

My own voice-typing app for the Mac. Hold two keys, speak, let go, and the words are typed into whatever app you're in, about a second later. The speech is turned into text on the Mac itself, and it learns the names it gets wrong.

How it works

1
It knows your names before you speak
Your list of names and odd words is handed to the speech model as a hint, so it's listening out for them.
2
Speech becomes text on the Mac
A compact version of Whisper runs on the computer itself. Nothing goes to the cloud, and it works offline.
3
A name fixer tidies up
Four checks catch near misses, from past corrections to a sound-alike match that only touches words that aren't in the dictionary, so real words are safe.
4
Fix it once, fixed for good
Correct the last dictation and it compares the before and after, remembers the new name and adds it to the hint.