Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9.0
Nuance
Communications
Dragon NaturallySpeaking is now owned
by Nuance Communications, and claims significant improvements
in speed and accuracy. My experience is that the improvements
have been incremental, because of the greater system
requirements that accompany each successive release.
Nevertheless, I use DNS every day in my practice, after
having used a transcriptionist for many years, and have
found the accuracy to be comparable and the cost and
convenience unbeatable
--WEB.
Online Demo
Below is a product information summary
from Nuance...
When you use Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Preferred 9.0, it will change the way you
think about PCs. You'll be faster, and have
more fun, as you create letters, reports,
and e-mails all by speaking. Just talk,
and you can surf the web, open and close
applications, even control your mouse and
the entire desktop!
- ACCURATE
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 is up to
99% accurate, and often more accurate
than typing. Dragon NaturallySpeaking
never makes a spelling mistake, and
it actually gets smarter the more you
use it!
- FASTER THAN TYPING
Most people speak over 120 words per
minute, but type less than 40 words
a minute. Dragon NaturallySpeaking lets
you create letters and e-mails about
three times faster than typing by hand!
- EASY TO USE
You’ll be dictating letters, e-mails
and surfing the web by voice right away!
No script reading required to get started.
We even include a full set of on-screen
tutorials, and a Nuance approved free
noise-canceling microphone.
- USE WITH ANY WINDOWS
PROGRAM
Use your voice to dictate, edit and
control applications like Microsoft®
Word, Microsoft® Excel, Microsoft Internet
Explorer, and Corel® WordPerfect®.
- A BEST SELLER
Dragon products have won over 175 major
awards for accuracy and ease of use,
and are used by more people around the
world than any other speech recognition
software.
- BLUETOOTH SUPPORT
Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking with Nuance-approved
Bluetooth headsets.
- MOBILE
Dictate into any Nuance-certified handheld
device for automatic transcription when
you synch with your PC.
|
| System Requirements |
- Intel® Pentium® / 1 GHz
processor (for example, Pentium® M, Pentium®
4), or equivalent AMD® processor - Faster
processors will yield faster performance
- 512 MB RAM
- 1 GB free hard disk space
- Microsoft® Windows® XP
(SP1 or higher) Home and Professional, 2000
(SP4 or higher)
- Creative® Labs Sound
Blaster® 16 or equivalent sound card supporting
16-bit recording
- Microsoft® Internet Explorer
5 or higher (free download available at
www.microsoft.com)
- CD-ROM drive (required
for installation)
- Nuance-approved noise-canceling
headset microphone (included)
- Speakers (required for
playback of recorded speech and text to
speech features)
- A web connection is required
for activation
- For Bluetooth wireless
microphone support, please visit
http://support.nuance.com/compatibility/
During the install process
the software checks to make sure your system
meets these minimum requirements. If you do
not meet the requirements, the software will
not be installed.
|
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7.0 & Accessibility Features
Dragon NaturallySpeaking
7.0 is up to 15% more accurate than the previous version,
according to ScanSoft, allowing one to dictate continuously
and naturally at up to 160 words per minute with accuracy
up to 95%+. It is Fully integrated with Microsoft Word,
Excel, Internet Explorer, and Corel Wordperfect, and
can be used with virtually any Windows-based application.
DNS 7.0 is available
in six Microsoft Windows editions (Professional Solutions,
Legal Solutions, Medical Solutions, Preferred, Standard
and Essentials), ranging in price (7/2004) from $695.99
to $59.99. A side-by-side comparison of each edition's
features is available at
http://www.lhsl.com/naturallyspeaking/matrix
The Preferred and Professional
editions have a number of usability features that would
generally make either of them better choices than the
Standard or Essentials editions as assistive technology
aids for students with disabilities. These additional
features include Web browser voice link support, natural
punctuation, text-to-speech, dictation playback, and
text and graphics dictation shortcuts. However, only
the Professional, Medical and Legal Solutions editions,
which also include a macro recorder not available in
the other editions, meets
Section 508
standards, established by the US government, to make
software accessible for persons with disabilities.
William E. Benet, Ph.D.,
Psy.D.
August 7, 2004
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 6.0
ScanSoft
During an online discussion
forum, a colleague wrote:
“I read your
reply on dictation and am fascinated. I’ve been told
that the Dragon software is difficult to use, eats up
a lot of memory, and thus is inefficient. Obviously
this has not been your experience. A brief comment re:
pros and cons and/or a suggested reference would be
most appreciated. Also, is this compatible with Word?”
Another colleague replied
that he was using DNS with a Micron 800 with 512 RAM,
and that recent versions “work beautifully within most
software, e.g., Outlook, Word, WordPerfect, etc.”
I prefer DNS’s native
notepad, since it uses less system resources than Word,
but that is probably unnecessary with today’s I GHz+
computers that come loaded with a minimum of 256 MB
RAM.
There are also four hardware
components which are very important to accurate voice
dictation and transcription that I would rank in the
following order:
-
CPU speed
-
RAM
-
Sound card quality
-
Microphone quality
I didn’t include disk
space since today’s computers invariably have plenty.
DNS 6.0 recommends a
Pentium II/400 MHz CPU and 128 Mb of RAM. For best results,
you will want a CPU that’s twice as fast as that and
has 512 Mb of RAM (256 Mb minimum). Each new version
of DNS has had greater system requirements than its
predecessor, and newer versions may not install on computers
that are too slow. So, get all the speed and RAM you
can so that you will be able to upgrade as well as obtain
maximum performance (i.e., speed and accuracy).
Another important component
for maximum accuracy is voice recognition training.
Ten minutes is enough to get you started, but like CPU
speed and memory, the more the better.
Accuracy is very good
with training, but can vary depending on the other factors
listed above. Don’t expect 100% accuracy; however--90-95%
would be outstanding. That’s comparable to a professional
transcriptionist. As for difficulty, DNS 6.0 has an
intuitive voice command interface that couldn’t be easier
to use. Not too long ago, I installed the latest version
of IBM's
ViaVoice
(the other major program in the field of voice recognition)
for comparison, and found it to be very close to DNS
6.0 in accuracy. But where DNS 6.0 excelled was in ease
of use, and in particular, grammatical and syntactical
awareness, in which ViaVoice’s performance was dismal,
resulting in considerably more time needed to accurately
format and edit text. Both products have received outstanding
reviews, however, but my impression of some of these
reviews is that they were based on very limited use.
After using ViaVoice for 30 days, I went back to DNS.
One other important consideration is product support.
In this regard, DNS 6.0 wins hand down, mainly due to
its very active, informed and helpful online user forum,
something that IBM does not offer.
DNS’s online user forum
is open to all and available at
http://support.lhsl.com/databases/dragon/webdisc.nsf
DNS 6.0 is available
in four basic editions (Professional, Preferred, Standard
and Essentials) which all have the same dictation engine,
but different supplementary usability features that
may or may not be needed depending on your specific
needs. For a side-by-side comparison of each edition's
features, see the Feature Comparison Matrix at
http://www.lhsl.com/viavoice/matrix
William E. Benet, Ph.D.,
Psy.D.
March 5, 2003
IBM ViaVoice
IBM ViaVoice is now distributed
by Nuance Communications, Inc., which distributes
Dragon NaturallySpeaking. For product information, see
http://www.nuance.com/viavoice.
ViaVoice is available in four editions for Windows
(Pro USB, Advanced, Standard, and Personal) and two
editions for Mac (Mac OS X and Simply Dictation Mac OS
X), ranging in price (1/2008) from $189.99 to $29.99.
For a side-by-side comparison of the Windows editions,
see the Feature Comparison Matrix at
http://www.nuance.com/viavoice/matrix
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