Using mote STEM mode – Mote

If you are math or chemistry teacher and would appreciate any equations or compounds in your mote transcriptions to appear nicely formatted, help is now at hand; we call it STEM Mode.

Just enable the Enable STEM Mode and transcription sliders in the mote popup so all your new motes enjoy this feature. To access the mote popup, click on the extension icon in the upper right of your browser window.

Like this:

Now start talking like you do, and see motes appear with notation. Just like magic. For example, saying “C 10 H 16 N 2 O 3 S” will appear in your mote as:

Screen_Shot_2020-10-28_at_11.56.26_AM.png

If we don’t quite understand what you said, but are close enough, you can always tweak the output in the editor view by clicking on the equation or compound, eg:

Screen_Shot_2020-10-28_at_9.51.36_AM.png

If you change your mind for this mote only, and want to revert to standard appearance of motes, just uncheck the STEM Mode box.

If you are wondering about the syntax for equations and compounds is, it's a standard known as AsciiMath. Here are some examples:

Scientific notation editor	Formatted Expression
C_10 H_16 N_2 O_3 S
(sin x + x ^2) * sqrt pi
Sigma sigma + theta - alpha

As you can see, common math operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are straightforward, only requiring you to type the corresponding symbol. If you’d like to add exponents/superscripts or subscripts, simply use the “^” or “_” keys respectively. Finally, other symbols used in math such as pi or alpha must have their name typed out in full, with a capitalized first letter yielding the uppercase version. If you find yourself stuck on finishing a particularly complicated STEM expression, you can always refer to the full AsciiMath documentation.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that there are a few ways you can improve STEM mode performance without having to dive into the scientific notation editor. For best results using STEM Mode for Math statements, we recommend reading out equations exactly as they are written. For Chemistry statements, try to say each letter separately, rather than pronouncing compounds like “NaCl” as a single word. You can also give our STEM detection a boost in detecting Chemical compounds by using Chemistry words such as 'molecule' within your voice note.

We hope that you enjoy trying out this new feature! Be sure to let us know what you think of STEM Mode and how we can improve it!

Related articles