Speech Recognition Software

[nomis5]

My right hand is increasingly becoming damaged through repeated typing. I have learnt to type left-handed to a certain degree but similar signs are now beginning to appear there also.

Looking to the future i am considering using voice recognition software to minimise the damage. Has anyone any experience of using voice recognition software?

[ergophobe]

Not personally, but I know someone with major wrist problems from typing who started using voice recognition software (Dragon) and said it helped, but since he was a computer scientist trying to write code, there was a real limit. So it was never a full solution, but for casual email and forum posting, I think it cuts a lot of strokes off your day.

[tangor]

Dragon works nicely. Once trained (not difficult) the software does a fair job of navigating the system menus and turning voice to text. Takes a bit of adjustment to speak the punctuation and not lose your train of thought, but it can be done.

Seeing more folks having to go this direction the older we all get. (My turn will be coming soon, I think!)

[nomis5]

Thanks. I will investigate Dragon, it's for use in writing website content, emails etc. No major coding so it may we help.

[tangor]

For ordinary jobs Dragon will suit your purpose. Have a friend who lost a hand in an accident who has learned the "what can be done and what I can do" aspect of Dragon to do the same thing. Emails and bodies of content are easy to accomplish, and the editing aspects aren't too shabby either.

[engine]

I used to use Dragon, and it got better with each major version step. I stopped using it because the machine it was on is XP, and now used only for testing purposes.

I'd certainly recommend trying it, and don't give up too easy. If you're writing messages such as this, without too much specialised text, it really can make a difference. You can interrupt the speech and type a specialised word, and add such words to your dictionary.
Patience when you first get it will pay off.

[ergophobe]

engine,

Do you think Dragon changed the way you speak?

The few times I've tried to overcome writer's block by speaking into a recorder, I've been surprised at how disorganized my speech is. I was wondering whether using voice recognition software would teach me the speak like I write, for better or ill.

[engine]

That's a really interesting topic, ergophobe, and the short answer is, yes, it does, or it can do. Or it did for me.

I found it really great for informal, chatty, and natural documents, as you would reply when speaking to someone.

I did use it for other formal documentation, and soon learnt to speak in a more formal and structured way, as required. I had to train myself.

It seemed very odd, at first, but, i soon got the hang of it.

Just to add info for the OP, I could not listen to music at the same time, so i had to prepare myself for a session.

[LifeinAsia]

I've been surprised at how disorganized my speech is.

None of us who know you are surprised. ;)

I had a copy of Dragon way back in the day (not sure if this was pre-Y2K or not, but around that era). It was definitely clunky to start, but seemed to improve quite a bit with training. And I'd heard from others that each new version drastically improved. At the time, I was mostly coding, so ended up not using it very much and didn't invest the time to really train it well. (I think they even made a couple of movies about training your Dragon...) Also, I remember that it didn't work well in an office or other environment with noise (like a radio). But again, that probably improved with newer versions and better audio equipment- it probably would've worked better if I had a headset, but I just had a cheap, standard microphone that probably pulled in a lot of background noise.

[tangor]

I'll second the "gated mic headset" observation. The less input the program gets the better it responds.

[Kendo]

There is no trial download for Dragon software?

[ergophobe]

>>None of us who know you are surprised.

I said disorganized, not long-winded.