(Above, The elegant interface of Dragon Naturally Speaking)
Voice Recognition that works
By: Kurt von Behrmann
The idea of being able to talk to a computer that can turn your spoken words into editable text has been a hit or miss proposition. Sometimes it might work, other times it might stall, more often than not one wound up with a program that was difficult to use, impossible to configure and just plain problematic.
When I began to use the built in Windows Vista Voice Recognition, problems started immediately. The program would work, my microphone wouldn’t work, in short the whole thing was a disaster.
Out of frustration I decided to try Dragon Naturally Speaking version 9.6. I had a copy of the application sitting on my desk, but never bothered to install it on my Windows Vista machine. The reason for my reticence stems from the fact that I had such difficulty with voice recognition programs in the past.
I decided to give it a try on Windows Vista, Ultimate Edition just to see if it would work. To my amazement, the program not only installed easily, it worked.
Following a very easy to follow instructional video that came with the package, I was able to install the program and set it up to understand my voice in less than an hour.
While I can’t base my assessment on actual hard-core data, I can say that the program does function accurately if you speak clearly and distinctly and have no sound distractions. Nuance, the programs makers, claim an accuracy rate of 99%. More than likely you are going to have about a good 90% accuracy rate. A great deal depends on how well you train the program and how long you use it. The greater your frequency of use, the greater the accuracy.
In working with the program, I found that it operated seamlessly with Microsoft office 2007 and it worked effectively with WordPerfect X4. For the most part, most programs will function properly, even those applications not specifically designed to do so. I found that graphics programs like Quark and CorelDraw had no problem working with Dragon.
Naturally Speaking has the capacity to allow you to direct your computer via voice. To move to a new paragraph, all one has to say is "new paragraph." Some of the commands take time to master, however if you do work with them, time savings while typing can be significant.
Working on a desktop with Windows Vista ultimate with two gigs of memory and a dual core processor, operation was very smooth. Much to my surprise, the program does work on older systems. I was running it on a laptop using Windows XP with 512 megs of memory and a Celeron processor. Granted it was not the most up-to-date system, but it could handle the demands of this application.
For those that have difficulty using a standard computer, or simply don’t like typing, this may seem like a blessing from above. For writers that are tired of typing, or don’t want to risk carpal tunnel, again this is a very effective solution. Included with the professional package is a head set. I do highly recommend a head set for use with the program.
The rendition I was using was the pro version, which is in the eight hundred dollar neighborhood –they also have medical professional versions and yet another high end version. However, there is a $99 version that is available, and for slightly more, an upgrade package.
While this is not an inexpensive program, it is an effective one. Having used other programs, Dragon Naturally speaking is easily the best. For most users, the standard $99 program may be sufficient.
If you wondered if voice recognition technology is ready for prime time, it certainly is with this version of Dragon Naturally speaking. An example of how effective the program is, many institutions of higher learning use it to assist those with difficulty operating standard personal computers.
System Requirements:
Windows XP Service Pack One and up and Windows Vista All versions
At least 512 megs of ram
1 Gig of hard drive space
Process Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent or higher
Soundcard to hear playback
Web connection for product activation
Noise cancelling headset
