Has anyone used speech recognition software?

Question

I have to type up a whole load of interveiws, and it could be quicker to but some software to help me, if i dictate the words.

Are programes effective that do this?

Has anyone used any?

What's Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 like?

Answer 1

Nope.... but you have reminded me that it was a project of mine... thankyou... you receive a star.

Answer 2

Well, the voice recognition softwares can be pretty effective, but only under the right circumstances.

You'll need a pretty powerful PC first, and you'll want the latest version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking - that is the best software out right now for VR.

You'll need to "train" the software first to recognize your voice, and you'll need to get a good headphone/voice recorder set-up.

But you can't simply chat very quickly to the program - you'll have to speak very clearly and at a steady pace.

If you can already type at 60-70 words per minute right now with more than 98% accuracy, it's not really worth it. You'd be better off practicing your typing skills to get to about 80 words per minute or higher. Because the VR software will set you back about 100 bucks. And plus, as I said, you need a pretty powerful PC.

Answer 3

The most recent version of Dragon Naturally Speaking is supposed to be the best, most cutting-edge speech recognition tool available. I've used speech recognition software, but I can't tell you what I used because I don't know... but it worked pretty well. I personally don't use it because I can type pretty fast, and I know exactly what should appear on the screen.

Answer 4

What I suggest is find someone to type it up for you and pay them for their time. There is a voice recognition program in MS Word 2003. Click on tools, then choose speech. If you need instructions go to Help and type in speech recognition and it will explain how to use it and which microphone or headset to use. If you decide to go ahead and type the interviews, you could program macros for the parts in each interview that are repeated and this will save retyping the common paragraphs or sentences over each time. I still use Dragon Naturally Speaking and have taken the time to train it, but it's far from perfect.

Answer 5

Dont use it because its a gimmick.
I tried Dragon NS PRO! and i thought it would be a good idea because i write a lot of essays but trust me they suck. Firstly, you have to spend like half an hour callibrating the software to your voice so it can recognize it. Then you find that it takes ages to detect what you say. There is a pause. Whats the point of that? I can type faster than it can detect what i am saying. So the only way you can use it is by talkin R E A L L Y S L O W L Y
And i have a powerful PC and good quality headset. Dont waste ur time and effort learn to touch type

Answer 6

I have used a couple of these including an earlier version of the Dragon software. As others have said, you need to train them and even when you have done this you will need to spend quite a bit of time editing. It is a useful tool for making notes but for a finished document I always found it quicker to type it from scratch.

Answer 7

Yeah, by the time you go through the setting up procedure, which involves reading things off the screen, so that the software can identify your particular pronunciation and accent, it takes so long that you can finish typing all your interviews and still have time to go the pub for a drink.

Apart from which it will still fail to recognise words and the punctuation is a real pain to learn and get the thing to understand. For example the one used, for a period (Full Stop) you had to say full stop. Unless you got the speed of the words and the timing of the gap between the two words perfect, instead of putting a full stop, it would type the actual words, full stop. AAAAHHHHHHHHHH, scream

Answer 8

A friend of mine who's not well enough to type up the ms of her handwritten novel bought ViaVoice and spent literally hours reading out sample paragraphs of 'Kidnapped' into it.

Having thoroughly exhausted herself in 'training' it, she tested it out on a few sample sentences. It began to type very fast but sentences so incredibly bizarre and so far from being any kind of recognisable English that we were both crying with laughter - there was something really funny about watching it type out utter UTTER gibbish at speed with a dogged but mistaken confidence in its own brilliance.

I'm told Dragon naturally is much better but I don't know - it will take me a long time to get over the first experiment.

Answer 9

To get better at singing I reccomend to follow an online course: http://www.goobypls.com/r/rd.asp?gid=541

It's much cheaper than going to a singning teacher and you can get really good results...I did that! I can suggest evens some singer tips if you wish...For example I reccomend to drink lots of water. Avoid drinking sodas so often! Always warm up. Vocal exercises. Try drinking this natural "clear the throat" remedy: Water, Lemon Juice, Salt,

Answer 10

when i got my widdows laptop 4 school it already had the software installed. AND ITS SOOO COOL! the only thing is you need to train the computer to underdstand you, takes a cople of the reconising speech lessons but its worth it. So sorry it already needs to be loaded as far as i kno. Luv Dove

Answer 11

I haven't used it to create documents with, but my laptop came with speech recognition for commands and it's pretty good. You have to train it to begin with but it works well.