Typing Without Touch
By Pegoraro, Rob; Washington Post, p. D02Publication Date: November 6, 2008
Review of two new speech-dictation computer software programs that enable voice-input typing and editing of text. Programs discussed are Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 from Nuance Communication and MacSpeech Dictate 1.2 for Macintosh computers. Basic setup procedure for both programs is discussed, including speech-pattern training to the user’s voice and document analysis to learn user vocabulary. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, which requires Windows 2000, XP, or Vista, was found to have noticeable speedup of text-editing tasks as compared to earlier versions of the program, with fewer commands needed. Program drawbacks noted were its being prone to crashing or freezing when used in Vista, and problems working with less common applications. MacSpeech Dictate 1.2, which only runs on Macs with OS X 10.4 or 10.5 and an Intel processor, was found to recognize speech equally well as compared to NaturallySpeaking, with about 90 percent word-recognition accuracy after initial training. Valuable features mentioned include the ability to spell out a word letter-by-letter and train the program to recognize new words. Finally, the author found text editing to be frustratingly cumbersome in both programs.
Assistive Products Discussed: DRAGON NATURALLYSPEAKING
Published by: Washington Post Company (Website:http://www.washpostco.com)
Link to text: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/05/AR2008110504204.html?wpisrc=newsletter
