Out Loud for Outlook - Voice Enabling Outlook

MSDN Code Gallery - Out Loud for Outlook

"Out Loud for Outlook is an add-in for Outlook 2007 created using the Visual Studio 2008 Tools for the Microsoft Office System.

The sample demonstrates:

• Basic integration with Outlook 2007.
• Consuming Outlook's events.
• Accessing e-mail's.
• Creating a Custom Action for Outlook rules.
• Using Speech Synthesis.
• Using Speech Recognition.

..." [Project description leached in full]

Visual Studio 2008: Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office - Out Loud for Outlook: Speech Recognition & Synthesis

"...

Out Loud for Outlook allows you to create a new Outlook rule that reads your designated email out loud when it triggers.   You can also use voice commands with a good microphone to open and navigate through your emails.

Nathan recently updated the solution to run on the release version of Visual Studio 2008.  The Out Loud for Outlook source code is available for download on the new Code Gallery site

..."

From the readme.htm in the download:

"...

Choosing Emails to be read:

Emails are chosen to be read through Outlook's Rules and Alerts dialogue.

Simply:

1. Create a new rule.
   1. Select "Rules and Alerts..." from the Tools menu
   2. Click the "New Rule..." Button
2. Choose your conditions and click Next.
3. Choose "perform a custom action".
4. In the bottom pane click "a custom action".
5. Choose "Read With Out Loud for Outlook" as the action to be performed and click ok.
6. Click Next.
7. Choose any exceptions and click Next.
8. Click Finish.
9. You will get a warning that the rule is client side only. This is desired behavior.

Using Speech Commands:

Out Loud for Outlook uses spoken commands for most of its functionality.
The available commands are:

• Pause: pauses speech.
• Resume: resumes paused speech.
• Open: opens the current email.
• Read More: read the full text of the current email.
• Previous: read the previous email.
• Next: reads the next email.
• Repeat: repeats the current email.
• Volume Up: increases the volume of speech.
• Volume Down: decreases the volume of speech.
• Speak Faster: increases the rate of speech.
• Speak Slower: decreases the rate of speech.
• Go Back {0} Sentences: Goes back {0} sentences in the current speech.

..."

This seems like a pretty interesting project...

I'm playing with it a little and I can see some cool potential (and a chance to tweak it to make it work the way I want it to work... Added to my To Do list..  ;)