Multilingual Dictation App based on OpenAI Whisper

Multilingual dictation app based on the powerful OpenAI Whisper ASR model(s) to provide accurate and efficient speech-to-text conversion in any application. The app runs in the background and is triggered through a keyboard shortcut. This app uses Groq. It allows users to set up their own keyboard combinations and choose from different languages.

The script is adapted from whisper-dictation not to use local models.

Prerequisites

The sox library is required for this app to work. You can install it on macOS using the following command:

brew install sox

Permissions

The app requires accessibility permissions to register global hotkeys and permission to access your microphone for speech recognition. I'm not sure if that's the desired behavior

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/asjir/mac-dictation.git
cd mac-dictation

Create a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

Install the required packages:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Insert the Groq key (transcription is available on the free tier):

echo "GROQ_API_KEY=your_key_here" > .env

Usage

Run the application:

python mac-dictation.py

The key combination to toggle dictation is cmd+option on macOS and ctrl+alt on other platforms. You can change the key combination using command-line arguments. For example:

python mac-dictation.py -k cmd_r+shift -l en

The models are multilingual, and you can specify a two-letter language code (e.g., "no" for Norwegian) with the -l or --language option. Specifying the language can improve recognition accuracy and latency.

You can specifiy multiple languages:

python mac-dictation.py -l en,es

which will give you an option to switch between languages by clicking the status app.

Replace macOS default dictation trigger key

You can use this app to replace macOS built-in dictation. Trigger to begin recording with a double click of Right Command key and stop recording with a single click of Right Command key.

python mac-dictation.py --k_double_cmd -l en

To use this trigger, go to System Settings -> Keyboard, disable Dictation. If you double click Right Command key on any text field, macOS will ask whether you want to enable Dictation, so select Don't Ask Again.

Setting the App as a Startup Item

To have the app run automatically when your computer starts, follow these steps:

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Go to Users & Groups.
3. Click on your username, then select the Login Items tab.
4. Click the + button and add the run.sh script from the mac-dictation folder.