Win Dictation Dev
116 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
116 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
# Win Dictation - AI Voice to Text for Windows
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A push-to-talk speech-to-text utility for Windows using OpenAI's Whisper model. Record, transcribe, and paste with a single hotkey.
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## Quick Download
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**[Download Latest Release (WinDictation.zip)](release/WinDictation.zip)**
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Extract the ZIP file and run `win-dictation.exe`. The release includes all required DLLs and a Whisper model.
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---
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## Features
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### Performance
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- **Physical-core threading**: Uses one thread per physical core for efficient batch transcription
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- **CPU-only**: Optimised for the target Intel i5-7th-gen 2-core/4-thread machine
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- **Smart model selection**: Auto-selects tiny.en for CPU-only, base.en when GPU is present
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- **Self-calibrating progress**: Learns transcription speed per model and machine, delivering a smooth countdown
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### User Interface
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- **Single-surface rendering**: No inter-window seams or hairlines — the entire UI is one painted surface
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- **Dark theme**: Calm, elevated card design with hover/press feedback
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- **Per-monitor DPI awareness**: Looks sharp at any display scale
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- **System tray**: Minimise to tray, global hotkey to record
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### Audio Processing
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- **Push-to-talk**: Press Ctrl+Shift+Space, speak, press again to transcribe
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- **500ms auto-end**: Stops recording after 500ms of silence
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- **Multiple microphones**: Select from all available input devices
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- **16kHz sample rate**: Optimised for Whisper
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## Usage
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### Controls
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- **Record**: Click the Record pill or press `Ctrl+Shift+Space`
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- **Pin**: Keep window always-on-top
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- **Copy / Paste / Clear**: Text actions
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- **Model / Mic**: Select from popup menus
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- **Hide**: `Ctrl+Shift+H` hides the window
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### Indicators
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- **Level**: Live audio energy during recording
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- **Progress bar**: Smooth, counting-down estimate during transcription
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- **Status**: Thread count at idle, elapsed time during recording
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## Building from Source
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### Prerequisites
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- **Windows 10/11**
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- **CMake** 3.5+
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- **Visual Studio 2022/2026** with C++ workload
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- **SDL2** (included in deps/)
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### Build Steps
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```powershell
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cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 18 2026" \
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-DSDL2_DIR="deps/SDL2-2.28.5/cmake"
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cmake --build build --config Release
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```
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The executable will be at `build\bin\Release\win-dictation.exe`.
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## Technical Details
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### Architecture
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```
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Hotkey → SDL Capture → Stop → Batch whisper_full → Text → Auto-paste
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```
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1. **SDL audio capture**: 16kHz mono recording into memory
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2. **Stop-and-transcribe**: Press stop or hit max length (600s), then one `whisper_full` call
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3. **Progress estimation**: Linear model fitted per machine/model, fused with whisper's chunk progress
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4. **Text output**: Appended to transcript, copied to clipboard, optionally auto-pasted
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### Model
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Place `.bin` files in `models/` next to the executable. The app auto-detects available models:
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| Model | Size | Params | Best for |
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|-------|------|--------|----------|
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| tiny.en | 75 MB | 39M | CPU-only systems |
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| base.en | 140 MB | 74M | GPU-accelerated systems |
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## Project Structure
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```
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win-dictation/
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├── src/ # Application source
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│ ├── main.cpp # UI and message handling
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│ ├── transcriber.* # Recording and transcription
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│ ├── timing.h # Progress estimation engine
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│ ├── settings.h # INI persistence
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│ ├── text_util.h # Transcript helpers
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│ └── logging.h # Log utilities
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├── whisper/ # Whisper.cpp library
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├── ggml/ # GGML tensor library
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├── models/ # Whisper model files
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├── release/ # Pre-built package
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└── CMakeLists.txt # Build configuration
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```
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## License
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MIT — follows [whisper.cpp](https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp).
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## Resources
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- [Whisper.cpp](https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp)
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- [Model Download](https://huggingface.co/ggerganov/whisper.cpp)
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