Speech-to-Text software?

U

Undercover_Man

[H]ard Surgeon
Joined
Jan 17, 2010
Messages
1,314
Hay, I have way way too many pics to give names and descriptions to on Flikr and I was wondering what software you guys would recommend (free or pay) that would allow me to speak in a mic and have it type where I click my cursor.
 
My dad got one a long time ago and he said Dragon sux. I tried using it and it suked. Maybe it got better? It's still around and I used it a hella long time ago.
 
I do a lot of writing and often use a Sony voice recorder to remember thoughts while out and about to transcribe later and I have tried many of them over the years. I have not found “one” that works properly, especially Dragon. Most of them I’ve forgotten the names of, but I remember they didn’t work. They are a pain in the ass to set up and then still function for shit.
 
Yah, it's been so long since I have used Dragon. A decade maybe. I just thought there would have been some sort of improvement considering all the more processing power and new tech that's gone by since I last used the software.
 
Even Vista and I'm pretty sure XP has it buried somewhere in their accessibility crap. Might have to be professional though. I used it a few times... Not so great.

Dragon is supposed to be the leader, but like everyone here, I used it so long ago that I don't know how they are now.

I can tell you though that the App on my iPhone "Dragon Dictation" is quite impressive!

If you get anything, make sure if you want higher accuracy, that you use the speech learning tutorial if it's available in the program. This will listen to the way you pronounce certain sounds and learn to accurately understand your speech habits.
 
Click Start, type speech, wham... there it is on the menu, Speech Recognition (that's for Windows 7, of course). It works fine, but as is so often the case, there are variables: your voice, your environment, the mic you're using (a headset mic is preferred unless you have access to one seriously kick ass desktop or array mic with noise canceling tech, the works), and TIME spent training it.

The more you use it, the better it gets, seriously. That is the one overriding thing that people have to understand about speech recognition or voice dictation technology of any kind - it has to be trained to your voice and speech patterns, etc. Over time it'll get insanely accurate and you can bang out whatever text you want without even needing to touch the keyboard when you learn how to use such stuff properly.

But most people - if not effectively all of them - don't want to put in the training time required to get to that level, they get bored and pissed that "it just doesn't work the first time out" as well as they'd like.

Sorry, but you didn't learn to speak properly in a few minutes, nor most anything else if it's a developed skill. It takes time...

The software is there, offering upwards of 99% accuracy with training and consistent use, the question is whether you're that inclined to do it.

I use the speech recognition on my Windows 7 Pro installation pretty frequently, and I would have used it right now to do this posting but, it's already 99F degrees outside, expected temp is 111F today so the AC is on and the noise in my room is excessive to the point where the noise cancellation on the mic still won't pull my voice out cleanly enough to make it useful. ;)

The stuff works, seriously, you just have to train it. Use it, use it more, use it continuously for little things, and definitely complete the training with respect to reading the "books" and text the tutorials/training offers. It's worth the effort when you realize how invaluable the ability to bang out text without using your hands on the keys is... ;)

Vista has speech recognition as well, effectively the same as Windows 7 but I think they made some improvements to the original version when Service Pack 2 (for Vista) came out. If you don't have Vista or Windows 7, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is still the very best consumer product you're going to find.
 
Another vote for Dragon Naturally.I have some clients that have used that since the early days....it needed a lot of power to run OK before (the software seemed ahead of hardware abilities back then), but since H/T and dual cores have come out...now hardware seems ahead of it. Stuff your system with RAM. And spend the money on a quality microphone (VERY important). Cheap microphones will cripple any voice to text proggy. And then spend some time training it to your voice and doing a little personal dictionary building.

Don't give up on the first day or two of trying it...the software is very adaptive and will learn your voice and such.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top