Members Ani Posted June 5, 2007 Members Share Posted June 5, 2007 I recently purchased a newer version of software that I've used in the past and, other than the initial set up, I'm amazed at the advancements made in the voice recognition technology. I purchased the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9.0 Preferred version along with a Sony mobile recorder specified for compatibility and accuracy. In all, I have about $425 to $450 invested in the updated versions. I bought the first mobile version of the software that was released and the "training process" was really a PITA back before the trend of voice recognition caught on with doctors and lawyers for dictation. The transcription then was acceptable as long as you were diligent in proof reading your documents after the voice was converted to text. This new version has cost me a day in getting it all set up and running, but as far as the mic in connection for the vox... after reading just a short spell to train the VR and set volume levels; it's picking up almost 100% accuracy already... blowing the old version completely away. I was able to dump my recorded vox into the transcriber, but the recorded vox has not yet lived up to the expectations of 100% yet.... I've been looking to see if there is a way to more effectively train the "pre-recorded" vox. One thing that I do know... it's a really cool program and once I get it zeroed in for the mobile recorder, it's going to be really great and timesaving. With as much writing as some folks do around here, especially writing articles and reviews, I was wondering if anyone else had ever looked into capitalizing on the use of voice recognition to ease their workload. One note of caution though, it's a resource HOG... the Dragon in itself uses 1.3 GIG of space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rabid Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 Our Assistive Technology branch tried it 4 years ago. One lady read to it for two weeks and could not get acceptable results. One of our psychologist tried both Dragon and the IBM program for a while and gave it. It is good to know that it has improved over the years. I almost bought it again a few months ago when a co-worker was diagnosed with bone cancer and was told she would loose her arm. The plan was to set her up with that as a way to do her clinical notes. Luckily she responded well to treatment and drastic surgery was not required. I will give the program another shot as a few clinicians still have a lot of interest. What I need is a program that will translate heavy foreign accents into something that our transcribers can more easily understand. They have a really hard time listening to tapes of our Russian and Far Eastern psychiatrists when transcribing their clinical notes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 Well Ani, if it's that much better, I need to get it. Previous attempts have sucked, but it would be great to have a headset mic on and talk into it while I use gear!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 Talking flows different than writing, so I wonder if this would affect the style of a writer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members elsongs Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 lol, it seems like people use this to write emails...or even forum posts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ani Posted June 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 I don't use the VR for writing emails or forum posts; it's not on my machine that's connected to the Internet... it wouldn't fit on this computer because of it's demand on resources. I tried!!! One of the main reasons that I bought the program was for the portability of the mobile device. It's cool that I've got the stationary bit to accept voice at almost 100% accuracy, but it will defeat my purpose if I can't get the mobile device in sync. I've been working on a book and some of my greatest inspiration comes while visiting the area that I am writing about. It's a resort that I have gone to frequently to indulge in photography and meditation. The book is about how progress has devoured the natural surroundings and replaced mother nature with maincured lawns and fabricated beauty... man-made. It talks about encounters with wildlife and how commercialism has driven the creatures from their homes while driving many to their fate. I used to get frustrated with the first version of Dragon mobile because of the limit capacity on the mobile device. It wouldn't hold much more than 20 to 30 minutes of dictation before topping out. It's hard to get inspired for 20 minutes and then CUT IT OFF. The new mobile device that I bought comes with a removable memory stick so that I can interchange cards and continue if I max out one. The device will take up to a 2 gig memory stick so..... I'd have to do a LOT of recording to max it out. It's going to be more of a chore to get the handheld trained, but in the end it will be worth it if I can defeat that task. I can talk into the recorder while I drive, which is something you can't do while using a laptop or any other device outside of a recorder. The older mobile device was not equipped with removable storage, and it was such a PITA with it's limited space that I stopped carrying it long ago and just jotted down notes while in idle stops during outings. I have Dragon 8 iPreferred nstalled on THIS computer, but I have not attempted to utilize it since the other (version 9) is noteably more accurate according to reviews. The Dragon 8 came included with the mobile device, but I haven't done much more than just activate it and register it. I mainly installed 8 on this computer when 9 wouldn't accept... I wasn't planning on doing VR on my new computer that I had bought for music recording, but it's the only computer that I had that was large enough and fast enough to accommodate the program. 8 is considerably less of a resource hog. Also, on v 9, the mobile device requires you to convert your files to wav format to allow transcription... 44k nonetheless. It's a good thing that I have two external hard drives handy. I'll be buying more shortly with all my heavy weight hobbies... I think that music is the least cumbersome of all when it comes to hogging resources.... if that tells people anything about high res photography and VR. At least my music and photography software WILL fit on my other computers and be functional... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 Wonder how many wpm Ani can type? So, you're not into that whole brevity thing? [serious mode] Cool thoughts, though. I've often wondered about this type of software. Never took the plunge. Figured too much b.s. would crash it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ani Posted June 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 I can still type pretty fast, about 70 wpm. Brevity???? I seem to remember someone using something Bruce said in their signature line... Big assed windbag :D That sort of describes me at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ani Posted June 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 Especially if I'm on a topic that I am passionate about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted June 6, 2007 CMS Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 Microphone guru Stephen Paul used a speech recognition to write his articles and web posts during his last couple of years. He had severe arthritis and eventually became unable to type efficiently. It took a while, but he's very persistent and managed to tame it pretty well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rabid Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 This should be great software for writers that want to get a story down by telling without the distractions of bad typing skills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Billster Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 Talking flows different than writing, so I wonder if this would affect the style of a writer? Shelby Foote wrote a narrative history of the Civil War using a hand-dipped pen, in order to slow himself down and think about what he was writing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Billster Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 Another favorite quote, Mark Twain I believe, is this introduction to a letter: I'm sorry to write such a long letter, but I didn't have time to make it shorter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 That is a nice quote. I bet blue likes that one, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Billster Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 That is a nice quote. I bet blue likes that one, too. Here's a long article on that short quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boosh Posted June 6, 2007 Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 Especially if I'm on a topic that I am passionate about. I have never seen a topic you are not passionate enough about to write a gazzillion words Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ani Posted June 6, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 6, 2007 I have never seen a topic you are not passionate enough about to write a gazzillion words Hey now, I've tamed my writing down quite a bit. I don't have nearly as much time as I used to for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus Lozada Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 ... I should learn to speak English well first... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted June 7, 2007 Members Share Posted June 7, 2007 Hi Ani, Like you, I played around with an earlier version of DRAGON (v5) and have recently upgraded to Dragon v9.0 You're right-- the newer version blows the old one away. Only drawback? The old Dragon User Files cannot be used in the new version. In other words, all the hours and months you put into training the old Dragon created a User File, but that User file is not recognized by Dragon 9.0. Or vice-versa. Apparently Dragon 9.0 is using a wholly different approach/algorithm towards saving/interpreting one's training sessions. Dragon 9.0 is very good indeed, and makes astonishingly few mistakes. Mind you, I've been reading into it--- like some millennial Henry Higgins--- using a high-quality SHURE vocal mic, ha-ha. I dunno if it performs differently using, say, a much less sensitive headphone-sprig type cheapo mic. Virtually every buzzword and nomenclature of the Baby Boom generation has been obviously pre-coded into DRAGON in order to be recognized quickly and effortlessly. [And have you had fun reading those Medical and Legal tongue-twisters as part of your Dragon training?] Even so, a full proofread of the resulting text is always in order, since there are bound to be a few mistakes(sometimes they are inadvertently funny, as well) necessitating an on-the-fly re-train of that word. I just bought a handheld digital voice recorder. It saves fairly high-quality sound files (in the form of a WMA, for whatever god-knows reason). And in DOLBY STEREO, no less (why?) To me, the proof of the pudding will be if DRAGON can successfully transcribe everything spoken onto this handheld. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ani Posted June 7, 2007 Author Members Share Posted June 7, 2007 It saves fairly high-quality sound files (in the form of a WMA, for whatever god-knows reason). And in DOLBY STEREO, no less (why?) My guess for the higher quality sound files, especially the option for the 44k for dictation, it the growing popularity of audio books. If you can effectively train the mobile device, you would be able to capitalize on a lot of "otherwise" idle time and feel that you've actually accomplished something. The handheld would be great for lengthy plane trips, road trips while using a mic plugged into the handheld, WAITING anywhere that would allow the freedom of personal time... My thoughts for fine tuning the mobile device are to record something WORD FOR WORD that I have already written. After transcribing the recording into a document, then I would go in and use the edit commands to override misinterpreted words; if it didn't take after the first few tries, I would then override with the SPELL THAT command. From what I can tell, the more documents that you have written that you allow the VR to read, the more acclimated it becomes to your writing style. I like how it will offer a selection of words that it THINKS you said... Just for the fun of it, after getting the mic in portion to where it was picking up nearly 100% accuracy, I started playing around to see what it would do with DIRTY WORDS :D I didn't override the misinterpretations, but it was funny as heck that it would turn up every word in the book OTHER than a dirty word in most cases.... I said the word *ss, and it turned up us, ess, and others... but not the A word. Dare someone say the F word into it. For some reason I knew that the VR wouldn't be user friendly to a potty mouth. However, even though it wouldn't translate the A word, it would accurately spell BUTT without question. Last night was my son's birthday and I spent the evening out entertaining, and tonight I have a meeting at work that I have to attend, but I'm looking forward to playing around with the VR some more in the near future. BTW, Jeff da Weasel's birthday was yesterday also... I'll have to check the threads to see if anyone started a birthday thread for him... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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