The Future of Human Interface for Emacs

When I'm "on the road," Vakana¹ becomes my human interface to Emacs.

I use Vakana because its presence on my Android device affords me these three conveniences:

• Portability
• Speech recognition
• Export options that include:
  • Org
  • Markdown
  • HTML
  • PDF
  • Slides

My computer is portable, and it does have a microphone. But its ability to recognize speech is poor despite multiple training sessions.² As a workaround, I'd dictate an email message on my cellphone, save it as a draft, and then access it from my computer.

As speech interfaces, my Android email clients are clunky. But the real issue with them is that they distract me with unread messages. It's like working in the office on a Monday morning where chatty coworkers talk about how well their team played, or the latest attempt at a ceasefire, or the ever-increasing price of … everything. I needed a tool devoted to ideation. So I tried Vakana.

After a one-time setup with a "blog notes" thread, I simply create a new note and start dictating right away. It's like working late on a Friday evening with only unobtrusive air handlers as coworkers.

Dictation isn't perfect -- I resist the urge to edit except in cases where I misspeak and want to choose a different word or phrase. I focus primarily on capturing ideas; creating content is secondary.

When I'm ready, I'll export either to HTML or Org. Either way, all the thread's notes are combined into a single file. The HTML export produces a single HTML file with bead images included with an SVG tag. The Org export creates a ZIP file with several Org files, one for each note, plus SVG files. Then I'll attach the file to an email message, which I save as draft and open on my computer.

With the exception of Org export, this has nothing to do with Emacs.

When I wonder how I might operate Emacs with voice, I vaguely envision "voice-bindings" -- a software layer that converts a spoken command such as "Visit File" into its associated function. The subsequent input at the Find file prompt would be managed with a voice-controlled dired package, perhaps called diredv. And, by-the-way, it doesn't need to be a monotonic voice; it can be a melody where pitch might fill in for the value of a prefix argument. Rhythm might denote yet another aspect of a command or input. I laugh when I think of what might happen to someone with hiccups.³

Pursuit of this is not on my agenda.

I imagine that evolution of enhanced Emacs input would be driven by our community's most brilliant contributors. I'm thinking of the ones who use elaborate hardware devices tailored to their anatomy and workflow. Their devices resemble split keyboards. Sometimes modifier keys are positioned under the thumbs to minimize pinkie strain. You might've seen examples if you read r/emacs.⁴ The evolution from that might be gloves used in conjunction with a virtual keyboard.

Personally, I distrust specialized hardware. I've had many peripherals become obsolete due to the lack of an OS-compatible driver. As well, I don't over-customize Emacs. I think it's important that I can use an Emacs -Q invocation if necessary.

I'm sure that the FOSS community would ensure that drivers for a specialized Emacs input device would be free, even if only as source code. However, the real impediment would be getting employers to allow such specialized and low-level code to be installed on their systems. And I can't imagine anyone investing in a solution that can't be used for most of the day.

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¹ Learn about Vakana here.

² The speech recognition training probably requires a registered, logged in account, which I refuse to create.

³ This reminds me of the motion-activated radio on board the Heart of Gold. You don't need to get up to change the channels or mute it. On the other hand, you have to sit awfully still if you don't want to change it inadvertently. Obviously the engineer who came up with that idea wasn't too fond of dancing.

⁴ The Emacs subreddit can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/

• This is my contribution to the October 2026 Emacs Carnival.

• One might jokingly refer to "The Future of Human Interface for Emacs" with the acronym "FUHIE," self-deprecatingly pronounced "Phooey."