A few years back, Janie and I ordered some voice recognition software. She can only type with one hand, and this made it hard for her to use e-mail, write journals, and a host of other necessary daily activities. She could still do these things, but it was hard.
We did our research, and articles on the subject of voice recognition software almost all recommended Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Thrifty folks that we are, we went on eBay and bought an older version of the software and were thoroughly disappointed. We gave it up for a while.Recently we bit the bullet and got the newest version of the software, and we couldn't be more delighted. It works so well that in what I've written above, there was only one mistake. The first time I said "Janie" the software spelled it out as Cheney. I said "select Cheney" and he gave me a list of possible options among which was "Janie". It was a third option. I said simply "choose three". And you were Janie replaced Cheney.
With also been delighted to learn that voice recognition software not only works within itself, but also within almost any other software you have open at the time, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and the Internet -- including this article, which is a mentioned before, and speaking and not type.
I started a group on gather for voice recognition software. I hope it will become a place where people using voice recognition software will write with their spoken voice. It would also be a great place for people to go and learn more about voice recognition software and see how it might work for them. It really is quite amazing.
Except for a couple obvious changes I made above when I saw them, I've made no corrections at all. If there are mistakes in their you'll see them and you will like you know that this technology is not perfect. But it's pretty darn close.
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Comments: 15
My guess from having just read the above is that it's not much worse than the typos most of us include in posts -- albeit different in kind.
I spent a fair bit of time investigating voice technology several years ago and was favorably impressed then.
Yes, Carol. You picked up on my excitement maybe?
Michael, I invited a great many persons to join the group. Anyone can benefit from it, but I didn't know who might be interested so I invited many.
Nancy, the prospect of being married to Cheney will probably keep me up tonight.
Kevin, the typos are tricky, since they are all words. With the slightest bit of effort, I could have cleaned them up.
Faith, your boss might start using it, but if he used it carelessly it could develop problems of another sort.
Dolphi, yes it does learn an individual's speech. The software has some short stories you read back to it and it learns the peculiarities of your speech that way. If you want a coma, you say "coma", period / "period", next line / "next line", etc.
Candida, it is pretty good at screening out background noise and usually ignores you clearing your throat, coughing etc. It works much better in a semi-quiet environment though.
Clare, I forget where we bought our newest version, but it was on line. If I remember correctly we went to their website where we found a coupon, and then we went to Amazon (or some place like that)and found it on sale. It costs about $120, but with a little creativity you can get it for closer to $40.
My husband was the product custodian for Dragon Naturally Speaking for Eastman Kodak Company. He actually had input into the product design and met with company reps over a period of several years. He has no physical reason to use the product, but he continues to use it regularly and even dictated most of his school work when he went back to college.
Glad you and your wife found it to be so useful! It is a godsend for anyone who has physical limitations that make typing difficult or impossible.
It's easy to dwell on the limitations of the software, or any frustrations, Nancy. We computer users are as quick to find fault with software as Democratic voters were to slam their own candidates (up until just recently thank God). It's a wonderful thing to be able to talk and watch the words appear in print, just wonderful.