BASIC TRAINING
Once the system has been trained to your voice and writing style it's necessary to train you, the user, in the software's operation. NUANCE incorporates an excellent tutorial that consists of 14 short interactive lessons in the basics of the software's operation. Taking your time and going through each of the lessons in detail will only take about 20 minutes and is well worth your time. Each of the lessons included in the tutorial is detailed in the image below:
Basic Tutorial Menu
Another tutorial that details some of the more advanced features is also available an also well worth the user's time (approximately 15 minutes). This set of five lessons deals primarily with how to use Dragon Naturally Speaking in conjunction with other software such as: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Internet Explorer. The use of portable digital recorders in dictation and playback is also covered in addition to dictating in a non-standard window.
Advanced Tutorial Menu
Dragon Bar
The Dragon Bar is the entire user interface with Dragon Naturally Speaking. It is quite simplistic, yet very powerful.
Dragon Bar
Dragon Bar with Advance Options Visible
NaturallySpeaking Menu Options
Tools Menu Options
Words Menu Options
Sound Menu Options
Help Menu Options
As you can see even though the Dragon Bar is is not obtrusive it packs quite a bit of options in a small package. Most of the options in the images above are fairly self-explanatory. There were two options that we found tremendously impressive and felt worth expounding on them. The first is the Accuracy Center which provides a plethora of various options to help improve accuracy of the transcription from your perceived dictation.
Accuracy Center
The Preferred Edition of Dragon Naturally Speaking doesn't have the extensive macro support that it's big brother the Advanced Edition does, but then again it's $700 cheaper. It does however offer a Command Editor that allows the user to essentially construct text based macros.
Command Editor
Basic Commands
We thought it prudent to make a table with a few of the basic commands to show the ease of the system's use:
Basic Commands |
To Enter | Say |
, | Comma |
. | Period |
! | Exclamation Point or Exclamation Mark |
? | Question Mark |
- | Hyphen |
: | Colon |
Add a New Line | New Line |
Add a New Paragraph | New Paragraph |
Select Text | "Select" + Text to be selected |
Correct Text | "Correct" + Text to be corrected |
Erase | Scratch That |
Choose Alternative | "Choose" + alternative number |
Spell Text in error | "Spell That" + correct letters or words |
Open MS Word | Start Word |
Open a New Word Document | Open a New Word Document |
Open Internet Explorer | Open Internet Explorer |
Open a Menu | "Click" + Menu Name |
TESTING
Test Platform |
Processor | Intel E6850 Core 2 Duo at 3.0GHz |
Motherboard | ASUS Blitz Formula SE BIOS 0903 |
Memory | 2GB of OCZ Reaper 8500 DDR-2 |
Drive(s) | 2 - Seagate 750GB Barracuda ES SATA Drives |
Graphics | XFX GeForce® 8800 GTX XXX running ForceWare 162.22 |
Cooling | Enzotech Ultra w/ 120mm Delta Fan |
Power Supply | PC Power & Cooling 1KWSR PSU |
Display | Dell 2407 FPW |
Case | Lian Li G70 (highly customized) |
Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit |
Test Methodology
Dragon Naturally Speaking is not the type of product we test very often at Bjorn3D! For that reason we had to put our respective noodles to work to come up with a test regime befitting software of this quality and type. We felt that the two primary items that needed to be tested were the speed and accuracy of dictation and transcription using Dragon Naturally Speaking as opposed to typing the same text. Here's what we came up with:
- Test #1: Dictate and type a linguistically easy paragraph and compare the results
- Test #2: Dictate and type a linguistically difficult paragraph and compare the results
- Test #3: Dictate and type a linguistically easy page of text consisting of 425 words and compare the results
- Test #4: Dictate and type a linguistically difficult page of text consisting of 458 words and compare the results
For the record it should be noted that on a good day I type somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 words per minute and my work is far from mistake free. I also made sure that I dictated at a normal pace and considering the fact that I'm Southern Challenged (from the South) this would indicate that I speak slower than most. Nuance claims that Dragon Naturally Speaking has the ability to transcribe data dictated at a rate of 160 words per minute. All tests were performed using Microsoft Word 2003. We used the Nothing But Speech Natural Punctuation feature in all of our testing. This feature allows the software to perform simple punctuation based on enunciation and inflection. Each test was timed and performed twice with and average of the results reported.
Test Results |
Test # | Dictation
Time | Typing
Time | Dragon NS
Errors | Typing
Errors |
1 | 31 secs | 92 secs | 1 | 3 |
2 | 38 secs | 146 secs | 2 | 4 |
3 | 92 secs | 443 secs | 2 | 5 |
4 | 121 secs | 521 secs | 4 | 6 |
FINAL WORDS & CONCLUSION
We spent several hours a day for about a week with Dragon Naturally Speaking and found the longer that we used the product the more accurate it became. Nuance makes claims of 99% accuracy and we do not see that figure being outside of the realm of possibility, especially for a user that properly enunciates the Kings English. We also neglected to mention that there are several different dialects of the English language: US English, UK English, Australian English, Indian English, and Southeast Asian English. Dragon Naturally Speaking also supports other languages.
In our testing we had a few errors but overall the speed and error rate of Dragon Naturally Speaking was hugely better than typing the same text. We also experimented with our Internet Explorer 7 using Dragon Naturally Speaking's verbal commands to surf the Web. We were able to navigate without too much difficulty, but an excess of commands were in many cases necessary to achieve the same results as one or two mouse clicks. We were also quite impressed with the "Nothing But Speech" punctuation feature in which the software automatically performs basic punctuation based on your voice inflection.
Being visionaries of sorts we can see a number of different uses for this excellent voice recognition software:
- College students recording lectures on a digital recorder and transcribing that lecture with Dragon Naturally Speaking
- Writing anything from a simple paragraph to a complex novel
- Aiding those who have physical infirmities to more easily use the computer (writing, Web surfing, and etc.)
- Reading of text to those individuals both with and without reading deficits
- Coding/programming with the use of macros (Professional Edition)
While Dragon Naturally Speaking version 9 is not yet perfect in all respects, it has made gigantic strides forward from the last version we used (version 5). This product may not yet be at a point where it appeals to more than a medium sized specialty market. However, as its accuracy, speed, features, and product support continue to improve we feel it will be embraced by a much larger segment of computer enthusiasts. We feel that currently this product rates quite highly in most areas but still has room to grow and additional features to add. The current suggested retail price of the preferred edition of Dragon Naturally Speaking is $199 USD. While this may be a drawback to some users we don't find the price obtrusive in the least given productivity increase we witnessed with our testing. Finally, Dragon Naturally Speaking is a software tool that we feel can certainly be of use to almost anyone who uses their computer for writing to any extent.
Pros:
+ Fast, transcribes up to 160 dictated words per minute
+ Accuracy up to 99%
+ Support for Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird
+ Control Menus and Dialog Boxes in Most Microsoft® Windows® XP & Windows® 2000-based Applications by Voice
+ Current version supports Microsoft® Vista
+ Nothing But Speech (NBS)™ Natural Punctuation
+ Transcribes from a handheld Digital Recorder
+ Dictation Playback
+ Text and Graphics Dictation Shortcuts
Cons:
- The cost may be prohibitive to some
- Training improves product performance despite advertisement that it is unnecessary
Final Score: 8.0 out of 10 and the Bjorn3D Seal of Approval .
