Simon – speech activated user interface for KDE

“Simon is a speech recognition subsystem that can be tied into
X11 or Windows and, using a plugin-based architecture, can be used
to control the user interface. The name simon is a derived from the
children’s game, ‘Simon Says’, but in this case, ‘Simon Listens’.
The application is intentionally lowercased while the financial
support organization is called SIMON listens. It is also apparently
a back acronym for Speech Interaction MONitor. Peter Grasch writes
on the project’s origin:

“The school [I was attending in 2006] has a subject called
“project development” where students group to develop smaller
projects with external companies. During the search for a project
we were approached by Franz Stieger, a teacher for special needs
children who in his day-to-day work was confronted with children
who suffer from spasticity. Because their limited motor control
they are not able to write clearly with a pen nor are they
comfortable writing texts on a keyboard. Franz wanted to know, if
it would be possible to use speech recognition software to help
them participate in the classroom.”

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