Re: Speech Recognition
- From: "Wendy" <none@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:56:51 +0100
May I ask what version of Dragon you bought?
"Standard" or "Preferred" ?
Hi Mark,
It is 9.5 Preferred. I bought it from a friend of a friend for £ 40.00. He said it was good value and it was still in the box, he had never used it. The 10 Preferred is too expensive for me, I am only a humble teacher on a meagre salary, it seemed like a good deal.
I have started to look at some of the commands and features but there are hundreds! Plus I do get confused and forget this is a different speech recognition program to windows and occasionally I say the wrong command so I have to quickly look at my printed out sheet of commands for Dragon to remind me.
One thing I have noticed with Dragon, as I am dictating the words, there is a slight delay before the word's appear On The Screen. Do you just carry on dictating and not worry about this delay? It is very clever though and I am fascinated with it at the moment. It could be a very useful tool for me if I had more time. I suppose little by little if I gradually learn the basic commands at first it will eventually stick in the grey matter!
I am still tinkering after 14 years ;-)
14 years! You must be an expert on the subject, that is a long time and I can tell by your post that you are very knowledgeable with this technology.
Me, I have just started, four days ago with Dragon! I have tinkered with windows speech recognition a little more because it is in my operating system anyway, so I thought I would give it a bash.
I also use a Dictaphone for work to take any last minute notes down and this technology could also help me in that department albeit just for taking notes at the moment by dictating.
So nowadays, I have no problem speaking at a fast rate
of 336 wpm and have my computer understand each and
every word.
Gosh, really? That is fast. How long did it take you to dictate that fast? Do you use it for work in some capacity?
For me, it has the potential for being a permanent tool within my work if I persevere as you have done. I know where to come if I need any tips then!
Good Luck, Wendy, remember, keep it fun.
Yes, it is sort of at the fun stage at the moment but with a little frustration added for me in my case.
In your case after 14 years you must know every command and feature like the back of your hand! Still you have to start somewhere I suppose and if I study these commands bit by bit every night, I can only improve, right?
Wendy
"Mark Conrad" <none-of@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:290420091945132766%none-of@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <O0L60EEyJHA.3920@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Wendy
<none@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
...but I am finding the dragon harder to learn
because I have just got it.
Hi Wendy, that is a common complaint about Dragon,
seems the excellent tutorial of Vista Speech is easier
for newbies to grasp.
May I ask what version of Dragon you bought?
"Standard" or "Preferred" ?
I have started tinkering with the built in Windows
Speech Recognition within my Vista operating system.
I am still tinkering after 14 years ;-)
Beware, I am about to bore you with a little trivia. <g>
Ignore the rest of this if you have anything better to do.
PhDs Jim and Janet Baker founded Dragon Systems in 1982.
In 1995 I bought one of their first public offerings,
called "Dragon Dictate". This was about the first time that
a good speech "consumer-level" product was offered to
the general public
I...had...to...speak...like...this...with a space between each
word, the top speed was about 40wpm.
Accuracy was pretty darn good, though.
In 1997, Dragon introduced "Naturally Speaking", which
was the first "continuous speech" software for the general
public. I could therefore speak normally such as:
"Nowisthetimeforallgoodmentocometotheaidoftheircountry"
...and the poor software had to figure out where each word
began and ended.
So nowadays, I have no problem speaking at a fast rate
of 336 wpm and have my computer understand each and
every word.
Believe me, if I mispronounced even one of those 336 words,
it would come out wrong on the screen.
I managed to get 100% accuracy, no corrections needed.
Well, I lied a little, I had a _tiny_ problem.
I could only maintain that fast rate for 60 seconds. I did
21 repeats of the sentence:
"now is the time for all good men
to come to the aid of their country"
Every 2 reps I gulped a breath. I was more or less
blue in the face after 60 seconds of dictating.
I have no doubt that those "speed talking" champions
could push Dragon to 600 wpm and get at least 99%
raw accuracy, which means they would average about
6 mistakes per minute.
Correcting those mistakes would waste another minute,
dropping their effective speed way down to 300 wpm.
Wendy, one last bit of trivia, this time regarding
modern speech apps in general.
A tiny Mac software company named "MacSpeech"
just fielded a speech recognition app named:
"MacSpeech Dictate 1.0" a year ago.
This Mac software is very immature, it can't yet even
link a users voice to training a misrecognized word.
It is all Mac users have, and they will no doubt improve
their software in years to come.
Windows users are blessed with much better speech apps.
ANYHOW, in my modest way I am trying to popularize
this immature speech app to Mac users, hitting a stone
wall so far.
Here is an example of what I managed to force this very
immature Mac software to do, with only _one_ text
mistake that needed correction:
-------------------------------
Patient's name is Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.
She is a Ukrainian-American, born in the USA.
Only standard Whipple resections were performed.
Reconstruction was achieved using one-or-two jejunal
loops, an end-to-side pancreaticojejunostomy, an
end-to-side hepaticojejunostomy, and a gastrojejunostomy,
with or without a transanastomotic drain,
in the pancreatic duct.
------------------------------
The one mistake was a incorrect word "and" at the end of
one of the lines above, which I had to correct to the correct
word "an".
The point is, when you get your share of smarts about the
ins-and-outs of speech recognition, you also will be able to
duplicate the results that I achieve.
All the good people in this thread have given you excellent
advice. I am far from being any sort of expert on the
subject.
In my case most of what I learned was learned the
hard way, by experimenting, instead of listening to
other people. Please do not repeat my mistakes.
Good Luck, Wendy, remember, keep it fun.
Mark-
--
Technical Details -
Two-year old MacBook Pro, 4 GB ram,
Vista Ultimate on an 80 GB partition of the Mac,
presently running "Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10.0"
(the "full" medical version at the cheapy price of $1,600)
Presently own these speech apps:
1) Dragon "Standard" $99
2) Dragon "Preferred" $200
3) Dragon "Pro" $900
4) Dragon "Medical" $1,600
5) WSR (Vista Speech Recognition)
6) "MacSpeech Dictate 1.3" $200
Microphones, several, generally use the cheap ones
that ship with Dragon software, like "Andrea NC-91"
headset microphone.
USB "Translator", basically an external sound "pod"
that plugs into the Andrea headset at one end, and the
Macs USB port at the other end. Cost roughly $40.
.
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