Speech Recognition Software by Nuance - Is It HAL 9000?

© Maryan Pelland

Dec 1, 2006

Part I of a series of reviews of electronics-related products to enhance Baby Boomers' lives. Can a Dragon allow you to talk to your computer?

SOFTWARE: Dragon Naturally Speaking by Nuance Communications, Inc (Ver. 9.00.100.004 Preferred Edition)

Released 2006 - Priced $99.00 and up

The Hype

I’ve been using Dragon every day for four months. There are nine versions. Here’s rhetoric from the PR department at Nuance:

“Dragon NaturallySpeaking never makes a spelling mistake, and it actually gets smarter the more you use it! You’ll be dictating letters, documents and e-mails 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 noise-canceling microphone. With Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard you can talk to your computer and watch words quickly appear in documents, e-mails, instant messages and even surf the web simply by speaking! It's amazingly accurate - up to 99% - and really easy to use. There's no script reading or "voice training" required, so you can get started dictating right away. Perfect for the whole family - busy parents, kids just learning to type, and even grandparents!”

The Truth

You'll probably never need a spell checker again. When I use Dragon, I combine speech rec (talking into the microphone) with keyboarding. I type a little because, composing as I dictate, it’s sometimes easier to type a phrase than puzzle it out with my mouth. Spelling errors occur only in my typing. Dragon’s spelling is right on. Oh, it makes mistakes. When it doesn't recognize what you said, it'll guess. Sometimes those guesses are amusing. But it's simple to train it not to make the same mistake twice.

Okay, the real skinny -- I dictated this paragraph, and the following two, entirely to Dragon. Oddities marked with [ ] indicate text errors. I’ve disabled the automatic punctuation feature designed to add[, send] periods in "appropriate" places. As a writer, that feature drove me nuts adding a period any time I took a breath. Now, I have to read-in or dictate my own capital letters, periods, [calm was], and paragraphs. That's okay with me and I suspect it would be with you too, once you get used to it. It's no big deal.

Having attempted intensive writing, e-mailing, and composing with the speech rec shipped with [with] Windows XP, I was frustrated. I felt like I was forever reading bedtime stories to the software so it recognized what I wanted it to do, and might become compatible with my way of speaking. It never managed and I disabled it long ago. I talk fast. I've been dictating into machines on-and-off for 30 years, back to the old Dictaphone['s]. While Windows was a mess, Dragon seems to have no difficulty --- or very little, at any rate. In the past two paragraphs, you will notice one or two incongruous words marked with brackets [ ]. These came from the software's inability to recognize words I ran together.

Bottom line, if you do a lot of writing, or arthritis is a problem in your hands and fingers, or you have any other special reason why keyboarding or typing is difficult or undesirable for you, this is a great program. If you just love gadgets and new technology, this is certainly worth the price.

The Details

I fiddled with Dragon's text-to-voice capabilities (very helpful for vision-impaired people). It's pretty accurate at reading text aloud to you. The synthesized voices are not human by any means. I'm told by users that, like anything else, necessity is the mother and you can get used to those voices. Maybe you’ll become friends?

Here are some bugaboos to accommodate if you choose to buy Dragon:

• You must teach the software specialized words or symbols you use in every day computing. It's kind of fun.
• It's essential to use a good headset like the one that ships with the program. Even so, you must configure your sound and optimize it with the procedures at the beginning of the introduction section.
• Get used to tweaking as time goes on. Changes in computer location, environmental conditions, and background noise affect sound recognition to one degree or another. You don't have to reprogram the thing --- minor tweaking solves almost all problems.
• Occasionally the software clogs up and slows way down so it can’t get my thoughts down quickly enough. These are brief interludes and there is a fix for them.
• Do take the tutorial, though you don't necessarily have to. I find myself going back to it from time-to-time when I’ve forgotten a particular command or function. It's a good tutorial. After 15 to 20 minutes you'll feel like a pro. There are surprising numbers of plain speech commands this program can recognize. You don't have to say exactly what the tutorial says. Dragon is very intuitive. You’ll be astonished at how many surnames it recognizes, even uncommon ones.

My favorite part of using Dragon is the phrase for pausing your work. Say, "Go to sleep" and the microphone does. Say, "Wake up," and it comes back. Now, how did I just dictate those command phrases without putting affecting the microphone? Must be some sort of technical miracle. Actually, you learn to pause slightly before a command so Dragon knows whether you want a phrase typed. It makes occasional mistakes, but once you learn how to regulate your speech patterns, it's pretty good at knowing what you want.

It should be noted that I didn't find tech support responsive when I had some quesitons about the product. My emails went unanswered and I had trouble finding a phone number. However, there is a new support page on their Web site that offers multiple ways to contact them.