The crossover point was probably NaturallySpeaking version 8 in 2004, when the utility of speech recognition finally outweighed its limitations. At first, speech recognition packages were more like frustrating toys with maddening limitations, but they have steadily improved over time. In fact, I've been using PC-based speech recognition on and off for nearly two decades to alleviate the stresses of keyboarding. There is a version for the Mac called Dragon Dictate ($199.99), along with specialized Mac products for legal and medical workers.ĭragon also has several apps for mobile devices, including Dragon Dictation for iOS devices and Dragon Go, an audio search app for iOS and Android.Ī bit of background: I'm not new to speech recognition. Other versions include a Home Edition for $99.99, which does not integrate with spreadsheets or support off-line dictation and has no playback facility a Professional Edition with enterprise-level administrative, customization, and multi-user features for $599.99 and a similar Legal Edition with a law office vocabulary, also for $599.99.
For this review, I tried out Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 Premium for Windows PCs, available for $199.99. There are a variety of versions available.
While newer speech recognition mobile apps such as Siri and Google Now have grabbed most of the headlines, one of the longest-running and most well-known speech recognition software packages is Dragon NaturallySpeaking from Nuance. But once the skill is mastered, keyboarding seems painfully primitive.ĭragon NaturallySpeaking corrects a dictated sentence from Shakespeare's Hamlet: The word "town" is changed to "tongue." In this case the correct alternative is second on the list and can be designated by saying "Choose two." While this may sound like a trivial point, dictation turns out to be a distinct skill that involves factors that are not intuitive.
The technology has gotten so good, in fact, that the weak link in the system appears to be the user's ability to dictate.
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