Help: Voice Recognition Software - Pros & Con

Subject: Voice Recognition Software - Pros & Cons
From: Les B
Date: 14 Dec 99 - 10:05 PM

I'm on the cusp of buying Voice Recognition software to same the tedious hours transcribing a stack of old interviews by listening and typing, listening and typing...ad nauseum ! I figure I can either play the tape directly into the software and "train" it to recognize the voice, or, alternatively, repeat what is said on the interview tape directly to the software's microphone. That's the theory, anyway. Before I put out $30 to $100 on this theory, I'd like to know what other people's experience has been with various software brands ??? Please regale me with the good, the bad, and the ugly! Thanks.

Subject: RE: Help: Voice Recognition Software - Pros & Con
From: Les B
Date: 14 Dec 99 - 10:06 PM

"same" in the first line should read save !

Subject: RE: Help: Voice Recognition Software - Pros & Con
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Dec 99 - 12:09 AM

Dragon Naturally Speaking seeems to work a lot better and easier than other. They all seemt o depend on pracitcing wiht your voice. I try a *gold* something or other that was cheap and it was cheap, worthless, really. Dragon Naurally Speaking, once you spend some time with it, does a pretty good job. There is a very expensive version for M.D.'s and then the version I got, which I saw at Office Max for about 100.00. I was able to try it out for free through an agency for disabilites and work-related challenges.

kat

Subject: RE: Help: Voice Recognition Software - Pros & Con
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 15 Dec 99 - 08:03 AM

I was hoping to use Dragon Naturally Speaking for a major project I am due to complete. I haven't fully trained it yet. At this stage it is not worth using, but I don't mean that as a slur on its capabilities. At this stage it is fairly slow,but I only use a Pentium 166 with 64 M RAM. My expectation is that it will become quite usable.

I had previously bought an IBM package which was a complete waste of time and money. The results it gave were absolutely gobbledy-gook, kind of amusing the first couple of times, but it wears thin in a hurry.

Regards, John

Subject: RE: Help: Voice Recognition Software - Pros & Con
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 15 Dec 99 - 08:22 AM

BUT. If you speak gobbledy-gook like me can it understand you? How would Cletus get on?
RtS

Subject: RE: Help: Voice Recognition Software - Pros & Con
From: MMario
Date: 15 Dec 99 - 08:39 AM

I set up dragon naturally speaking for a client (lawyer) and he is thrilled with it. It did take some time to "train" the program, but he dictates to a tape and then runs the tape into his word processor. The program (at least when I installed it, was quite finicky about what sound cards etc it supported, but that may well have changed.

Subject: RE: Help: Voice Recognition Software - Pros & Con
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 15 Dec 99 - 08:49 AM

I know Dragon did a project in my institution last year where they paid students to talk into it. They could get a full range of UK accents as well as non-native speakers so they probably do OK. I didn't volunteer to test my brummie accent.
RtS

Subject: RE: Help: Voice Recognition Software - Pros & Con
From: Les B
Date: 15 Dec 99 - 09:55 AM

Dragon Naturally Speaking is one of the packages I have my eye on. There seem to be several grades: standard, academic, etc., but no explanation I can see on the box as to how they differ. Any clues ?

Subject: RE: Help: Voice Recognition Software - Pros & Con
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Dec 99 - 11:51 AM

Les, if you go to Computernerdz, it looked as though they had a nice, short summary of each version. A search just using dragon naturally speaking comes up wiht a bunch of sites, all of which might answer more questions for you. Good luck.

kat

Subject: RE: Help: Voice Recognition Software - Pros & Con
From: Les B
Date: 15 Dec 99 - 01:16 PM

Thanks, Kat, that's just what I was hoping to find.