[Hidden-tech] Opinions: Voice Recognition Software and Jott

[Richard Resnick]

Dan,

My girlfriend is a longtime (6+ years) user of Dragon due to a repetitive
strain injury. While it does recognize about 95% of what you say, the 5%
error rate is actually quite crippling. That, in addition to the speed of
recognition, has the typical user performing at a rate anywhere between 5
and 50% the rate of a user using a keyboard and mouse. Dictation works
better than "control commands" like switching between apps, selecting text
boxes, clicking buttons, etc. But even though you can dictate more quickly
than you can type, you will inevitably have misrecognitions that need fixing
- and using your voice to make those changes... imagine the syntax you need
to learn to say "select the word 'frustrated' and the space after it and
replace it with the word 'absolutely flustered.'" Imagine how you would feel
when it doesn't understand THAT command. Unfortunately, it's dictionary does
not have some key swear words.

You will also need to make serious investments in microphone technology on
the order of a few hundred dollars, plus sound cards suddenly become a very
important consideration. There is - at best - fragmented knowledge on the
Internet about what is best here.

There are a very small number of people in the world who have amazing
success with this software. But if you depend on a computer for your
livelihood and think you can move between keyboard/mouse and voice
recognition, we have a long way to go.

When Jott came out we had immediate and high hopes for it. Unfortunately,
the usability is really lacking - some obvious use cases are not supported
by voice, forcing you to go back to your computer to add new people to Jott
to, for instance. It's promising, but not there yet. When Jott makes a
fully-integrated Jott phone (or Apple just buys them) it might be better.

If you'd like to get an intro to my girlfriend I'm sure she'd be happy to
give you a demo of Dragon, it's pros, cons. She's led user group demos and
sessions in Boston with the Boston Voice Users Group and I bet she'd be
willing to run a similar session if there were enough interest out here.

Richard

On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 5:31 PM, Dan Kirsch <dan at kirschleuchs.com> wrote:

>   ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>   ** If you did, we all thank you.
>
>
>
> Friends -
>
> I just got a promo for Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 and it got me seriously
> thinking about making the investment.  So I'm interested in hearing list
> members' opinions and experiences with the variety and quality of voice
> recognition software options out there today.  I've never used one, but my
> image of them is slow and buggy with a long learning curve to get to a
> decent level of functionality vs my pitiful typing.
>
> Also, I'm curious if anyone is using Jott http://jott.com and what that
> experience has been like.
>
> Thanks
>
> Dan
> --
> Dan Kirsch
> KirschLeuchs Consulting
> Florence, MA
> 413.221.9521
> dan at kirschleuchs.com
>
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