Win Dictation Dev
137 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
137 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
# Win Dictation — Voice to Text for Windows
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A push-to-talk speech-to-text utility for Windows. Press a hotkey, speak, and your words land in whatever app you were just using — fully offline, powered by Whisper.
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## Quick Download
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**[Download Latest Release](https://git.quietidiot.com/michael-treadgold/win-dictate/releases)**
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Go to the Releases page, download `WinDictation.zip`, extract, and run `win-dictation.exe`. The release includes all required DLLs and a Whisper model.
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---
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## Documentation
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- **[User Manual](win-dictation-user-manual.html)** — How to use every feature
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- **[Architecture & Engineering Review](win-dictation-architecture-engineering-review.html)** — Deep dive into the codebase for developers
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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 ordinary laptops — no GPU required
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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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- **Multiple microphones**: Select from all available input devices
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- **16 kHz sample rate**: Optimised for Whisper
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- **Silence trimming**: Leading and trailing silence is trimmed before transcription
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## Quick Start
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1. Launch `win-dictation.exe`
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2. Click into wherever you want text, then press `Ctrl+Shift+Space`
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3. Speak, then press `Ctrl+Shift+Space` again
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4. Your words appear in the app you were using
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Full instructions in the [User Manual](win-dictation-user-manual.html).
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### Controls
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- **Record/Stop**: Click the pill or press `Ctrl+Shift+Space`
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- **Hide window**: `Ctrl+Shift+H`
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- **Pin**: Keep window always-on-top
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- **Copy / Paste / Clear**: Text actions below the transcript
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- **Model / Mic / History**: Select from popup menus
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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** 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 17 2022" ^
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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**: 16 kHz mono recording into memory. CPU stays near idle while recording.
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2. **Stop-and-transcribe**: One `whisper_full` call processes the full clip at once.
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3. **Progress estimation**: Decayed online least-squares model per machine/model, fused with whisper's chunk progress into a strictly monotonic countdown.
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4. **Text output**: Inserted at cursor with smart spacing, copied to clipboard, and optionally auto-pasted into the window you came from.
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### Models
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Place `.bin` files in `models/` next to the executable, or download them from the Settings screen in-app:
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| Model | Size | Best for |
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|-------|------|----------|
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| tiny.en | ~75 MB | Fastest — everyday dictation |
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| tiny.en-q8_0 | ~42 MB | Same speed, smaller file |
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| base.en-q5_1 | ~59 MB | Good accuracy bump for little cost |
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| base.en | ~142 MB | More accurate; still reasonable on two cores |
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| small.en-q5_1 | ~182 MB | Accurate, but slower |
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| small.en | ~466 MB | Most accurate — and slowest |
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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 # Window, painting, interaction, settings, clipboard, popups
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│ ├── transcriber.* # SDL capture, Whisper preload/inference, progress callbacks
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│ ├── timing.h # Learned timing model + live progress estimator
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│ ├── history.h # Session text files, index, pruning
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│ ├── downloader.h # WinHTTP model downloader (background thread)
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│ ├── stats.h # Lifetime usage totals + derived figures
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│ ├── settings.h # INI persistence
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│ ├── text_util.h # Transcript concatenation helpers
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│ ├── logging.h # Timestamped file log
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│ └── tests/ # Unit tests (test-core.exe)
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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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├── history/ # Saved dictation sessions
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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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[GNU General Public License v3.0](LICENSE)
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This project is licensed under GPLv3. It incorporates [whisper.cpp](https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp) (MIT), [ggml](https://github.com/ggerganov/ggml) (MIT), and [SDL2](https://www.libsdl.org/) (zlib).
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## Resources
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- [User Manual](win-dictation-user-manual.html)
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- [Architecture & Engineering Review](win-dictation-architecture-engineering-review.html)
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- [Whisper.cpp](https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp)
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- [Model Downloads](https://huggingface.co/ggerganov/whisper.cpp)
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