Okay,
As I sit down to write my second post of the new year, I am once again hit with a overwhelming sense of irony. For my longtime readers, you may remember where I'm coming from when I reveal today's topic-Dragon NaturallySpeaking. That's right, it was one of the first topics on Rollin' Into the Future. I am coming back to the topic now because Nuance came out with a new version of the software in August. I'm sorry for my late report of the application, but, as you know, I've had a lot on my plate since the move.
Overall, the new version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Version 10) is pretty much the same as older versions. The company has tried to make several improvements, such as adding a "search the web" command. This command allows you to search the web simply by voice; no more opening Internet Explorer and typing in the search terms.
While these improvements are welcomed, I have noticed slight dictation difficulties. For example, there is an option to upgrade your voice files with the new version. That doesn't always work out as planned. I tried doing that for a couple days but my accuracy was really good until I went through quick training
All in all, I really haven't noticed any drastic improvements.
This is where the age-old saying "why fix what not broken" comes into play.
Showing posts with label Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Show all posts
My opinion:
Hello again!
I'm going to do something a little different with today's post. Today I've decided to tell you a little bit about how I got to be a user of voice recognition software and its impact on my life. That being said, it's hard to believe that I've been using voice recognition technology for over 11 years. It seems like forever. Technology and I have changed a lot over the past decade.
I began using the first-generation recognition technology, called DragonDictate, in 1993 during my first few years of middle school. Five years prior, my father had attended a disability Expo in our home town which at the time was Baltimore, Maryland. You can imagine his amazement as he watched a disabled lawyer (who also happened to have CP) demonstrate the software. At that point in time, that software only allowed users to type a word in the time. This didn't bother me one bit as I was grateful to been doing my homework on my own for once. Because of this software, I now was independent and able to do things without always having to depend on my parents. With independence also came a new sense of self-worth and self-confidence. In high school, I joined National Honor Society; as well as participating in many of the physical activities, I also was responsible for keeping much of the paperwork for the society.
Granted, it took me longer to complete most tasks. But I did it on my own; not that I hadn't before. But you can in different kind of satisfaction knowing that you, and only you had spent hours alone dictating the paper. By that time, I'm tired and I know I truly worked for the grade.
That's the long short of it.
Any questions?
Voice Recognition Part Two: Commanding Your Computer
As promised, part two of a series on Voice Recognition.
Today's topic: Commanding Your Computer
Although the Dragon NaturallySpeaking software is primarily known for being a success in conjunction with word processing, it is able to accomplish much more than that. This technology is compatible with a variety of other popular products such as America Online, Internet Explorer, and ITunes; This allows computer users the freedom to send an instant messages, surf the web, and control your music-simply by using their voice.
How does this work? The software includes a vast vocabulary of commands. (Don't worry, I don't have the time nor the energy to list them all. For fellow readers wishing for more information, feel free to comment here or e-mail me.) Many of the commands are commonsense, using the obvious words to activate a simultaneous actions. For example, adding a word "open" with a application name will open the application. The same holds true for many of the drop-down menus provided in these programs. Other simple commands include the commands used during the dictation process. Yes, I realize I may have highlighted some of these commands in my earlier post. But I may have left out a few for time purposes. For example, let's say you dictate a sentence. It's correct, but looking back it doesn't sound right. Dragon NaturallySpeaking users have one of two options, they can either say "Select That" and take over the sentence or "Scratch That" which will delete the words highlighted entirely. Inserting new lines is just as easy, with commands like "Press Enter_Key", "New-Paragraph ", and "New -Line".
On the other hand, controlling the mouse by voice is a different story. Using the mouse can be done one of two ways. First, computer users can simply say, press "Mouse Grid". That opens up a tic-tac-toe style board that covers the computer screen. Each board quadrant has a number corresponding to it; saying that number selects the quadrant you specified and zooms users closer to the application or location you wish to click.Computer users can continue this action until the mouse has reached desired position and say one of three commands: "click", "double click", "button click".
Another shortcut to using the "Mouse Grid" is by saying the word "mouse" followed by the number of the quadrant you wish to choose. It's easy to remember if you understand and refer for to the analogy of a tic-tac-toe board I explained earlier. For example, if you wanted the mouse to be left-hand corner of the screen, you could simply say "Mouse 1". Let's say you have two minimized windows in Microsoft Word on your computer tray. There are several ways to go about this. The simplest is to use the "Mouse Grid " command with the following additional commands. Once you have clicked on the application in your computer tray on the bottom of the screen, users can then say "Button Click". This will open up a drop-down menu listing all of the documents they have open in the application. From there, the user can simply say "Move Mouse Up" until the mouse highlights the document you wish to select. Users then can proceed by saying "cancel" and "mouse button click"
Now that I've covered the basics of moving the mouse by voice, I will try to explain how users can navigate the Internet. Four illustration purposes, I will be examining popular Internet software products such as Internet Explorer and America Online. Surfing the web is quite simple actually. The new version of this software automatically creates commands for virtually all of the links listed on page you have open. For example, if users deciding to search for golf clubs typed that into the search engine through dictation, thousands of entries may come up. Computer users can click on one of those websites by probably saying the first two or three words of the website title. If one or two of the websites have the same title or name, a number will appear next to it, simply say the number and you're there!
Using America Online uses a majority of the same commands as Internet Explorer. For example, in order to send an instant message click on the person you want to instant message and dictate your message and then say one of these two commands: "Send "and "Press Enter-Key".
I know I covered a lot, so I'm sure there are questions. Feel free to e-mail me
Today's topic: Commanding Your Computer
Although the Dragon NaturallySpeaking software is primarily known for being a success in conjunction with word processing, it is able to accomplish much more than that. This technology is compatible with a variety of other popular products such as America Online, Internet Explorer, and ITunes; This allows computer users the freedom to send an instant messages, surf the web, and control your music-simply by using their voice.
How does this work? The software includes a vast vocabulary of commands. (Don't worry, I don't have the time nor the energy to list them all. For fellow readers wishing for more information, feel free to comment here or e-mail me.) Many of the commands are commonsense, using the obvious words to activate a simultaneous actions. For example, adding a word "open" with a application name will open the application. The same holds true for many of the drop-down menus provided in these programs. Other simple commands include the commands used during the dictation process. Yes, I realize I may have highlighted some of these commands in my earlier post. But I may have left out a few for time purposes. For example, let's say you dictate a sentence. It's correct, but looking back it doesn't sound right. Dragon NaturallySpeaking users have one of two options, they can either say "Select That" and take over the sentence or "Scratch That" which will delete the words highlighted entirely. Inserting new lines is just as easy, with commands like "Press Enter_Key", "New-Paragraph ", and "New -Line".
On the other hand, controlling the mouse by voice is a different story. Using the mouse can be done one of two ways. First, computer users can simply say, press "Mouse Grid". That opens up a tic-tac-toe style board that covers the computer screen. Each board quadrant has a number corresponding to it; saying that number selects the quadrant you specified and zooms users closer to the application or location you wish to click.Computer users can continue this action until the mouse has reached desired position and say one of three commands: "click", "double click", "button click".
Another shortcut to using the "Mouse Grid" is by saying the word "mouse" followed by the number of the quadrant you wish to choose. It's easy to remember if you understand and refer for to the analogy of a tic-tac-toe board I explained earlier. For example, if you wanted the mouse to be left-hand corner of the screen, you could simply say "Mouse 1". Let's say you have two minimized windows in Microsoft Word on your computer tray. There are several ways to go about this. The simplest is to use the "Mouse Grid " command with the following additional commands. Once you have clicked on the application in your computer tray on the bottom of the screen, users can then say "Button Click". This will open up a drop-down menu listing all of the documents they have open in the application. From there, the user can simply say "Move Mouse Up" until the mouse highlights the document you wish to select. Users then can proceed by saying "cancel" and "mouse button click"
Now that I've covered the basics of moving the mouse by voice, I will try to explain how users can navigate the Internet. Four illustration purposes, I will be examining popular Internet software products such as Internet Explorer and America Online. Surfing the web is quite simple actually. The new version of this software automatically creates commands for virtually all of the links listed on page you have open. For example, if users deciding to search for golf clubs typed that into the search engine through dictation, thousands of entries may come up. Computer users can click on one of those websites by probably saying the first two or three words of the website title. If one or two of the websites have the same title or name, a number will appear next to it, simply say the number and you're there!
Using America Online uses a majority of the same commands as Internet Explorer. For example, in order to send an instant message click on the person you want to instant message and dictate your message and then say one of these two commands: "Send "and "Press Enter-Key".
I know I covered a lot, so I'm sure there are questions. Feel free to e-mail me
Voice Recognition Software: Bringing Your Words to Life!
Hello everyone and welcome back!
Today's topic of interest is Dragon NaturallySpeaking software.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, voice recognition software allows you to put words to paper simply by using your voice. It sounds simple enough, right? Not necessarily. It requires a lot of training and persistence on the part of the user. Training allows the computer to adapt to a person's voice and particular speech patterns. This process is essential to the user's success with dictation as well as computer accuracy. There are two primary ways to proceed while training. The first is through introductory training directly after installation. In this process, a person is asked to create a name for the voice files to be saved under. (Note: there can be more than one user.) The program then checks whether your computer has adequate sound quality in memory to support it; it does this by asking users to read aloud what is provided on the computer screen. If input is normal or above average, training can continue. If not, the computer may ask you to backtrack, providing you a few options. For example, checking your source of audio input (i.e. the headset microphone provided with the software or a regular tabletop microphone)
Users are then asked to continue the training process by reading aloud from a variety of book excerpts. They cover a variety of topics and cater to specific ages and skill levels of the user and what the product is used for, some excerpts may be more appropriate than others. That way, the software gets to know the type of vocabulary that is unique to you and will be more accurate at guessing what you were saying when you dictate the future.
The second of training is called on the spot training. It's not really called that or anything, but that's the best way I can to explain that. This type of training is ongoing, where the computer tries to guess what the user is saying. If correct, the user may continue dictation without interruption. If incorrect, they must go back and correct the error. This is a necessity for two reasons. First and probably most obvious, people want to produce documents without errors. But actually there is a reason more important than that. Correcting an error improves the accuracy of recognition and adapts the vocabulary to your way of speaking. If mistakes are made without correction, the computer assumes it's accurate and adapts itself accordingly, influencing other words in your vocabulary .
Correction can occur in several ways, but I'm going to highlight only two of them. First,if the computer dictates incorrectly, the user can simply say "Correct" and then the word it spelled wrong. Then, a list of possible choices of sound alike words will appear. From there, the user can simply say just "Choose" and the number corresponding to the correct word. If it does not show up, they use will probably have to spell it manually by saying "Spell That "by using the handy command and alphabet list as users begin to navigate and understand the software.
As you can see, there is too much to discuss in one post and quite honestly, I am getting tired of talking. Yes, I am using the voice recognition software as we speak to write this. So stay tuned for part two of what I decided to make a series.
Part two will be called Voice Recognition: Commanding Your Computer.
Today's topic of interest is Dragon NaturallySpeaking software.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, voice recognition software allows you to put words to paper simply by using your voice. It sounds simple enough, right? Not necessarily. It requires a lot of training and persistence on the part of the user. Training allows the computer to adapt to a person's voice and particular speech patterns. This process is essential to the user's success with dictation as well as computer accuracy. There are two primary ways to proceed while training. The first is through introductory training directly after installation. In this process, a person is asked to create a name for the voice files to be saved under. (Note: there can be more than one user.) The program then checks whether your computer has adequate sound quality in memory to support it; it does this by asking users to read aloud what is provided on the computer screen. If input is normal or above average, training can continue. If not, the computer may ask you to backtrack, providing you a few options. For example, checking your source of audio input (i.e. the headset microphone provided with the software or a regular tabletop microphone)
Users are then asked to continue the training process by reading aloud from a variety of book excerpts. They cover a variety of topics and cater to specific ages and skill levels of the user and what the product is used for, some excerpts may be more appropriate than others. That way, the software gets to know the type of vocabulary that is unique to you and will be more accurate at guessing what you were saying when you dictate the future.
The second of training is called on the spot training. It's not really called that or anything, but that's the best way I can to explain that. This type of training is ongoing, where the computer tries to guess what the user is saying. If correct, the user may continue dictation without interruption. If incorrect, they must go back and correct the error. This is a necessity for two reasons. First and probably most obvious, people want to produce documents without errors. But actually there is a reason more important than that. Correcting an error improves the accuracy of recognition and adapts the vocabulary to your way of speaking. If mistakes are made without correction, the computer assumes it's accurate and adapts itself accordingly, influencing other words in your vocabulary .
Correction can occur in several ways, but I'm going to highlight only two of them. First,if the computer dictates incorrectly, the user can simply say "Correct" and then the word it spelled wrong. Then, a list of possible choices of sound alike words will appear. From there, the user can simply say just "Choose" and the number corresponding to the correct word. If it does not show up, they use will probably have to spell it manually by saying "Spell That "by using the handy command and alphabet list as users begin to navigate and understand the software.
As you can see, there is too much to discuss in one post and quite honestly, I am getting tired of talking. Yes, I am using the voice recognition software as we speak to write this. So stay tuned for part two of what I decided to make a series.
Part two will be called Voice Recognition: Commanding Your Computer.
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