What you say, VAL does!

Last nights viewing included an impromptu test of a new utilitity to control the LX90 - VAL (short for Verbal Astronomical Locator). VAL provides a (limited) hands-off control of the scope by using voice commands alone.

VAL successfully zero'd in on M2, and M7 by voice alone, with each appearing in the centre of the eyepiece. M8 provided VAL with much confusion, not recognising the aussie accent, but successfully slewed to the appropriate location using the graphical interface on the laptop. Spending the 10-15 minutes to complete the voice baseline should resolve that problem.

VAL recognises the Messier and NGC catalogue numbers plus some keyword commands. It is not a complete replacement for the handset, but when using the computer interface does simplify moving around the sky without potentially damaging your night-vision looking at a bright laptop screen.

For Darksyware software (ie donationware), this is very impressive for voice recognition software that functions out of the box with no training or configuration.

VAL can be found at http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/g/a/gag1/valpage/val.htm