Dictation software?

[bosco]

Im looking for software that writes when you talk to it. Word processing, e-mail or whatever. It's for someone with arthritis that can't type very good anymore. I thought Microsoft made a program that does this but I can't remember the name of it. Does anyone know of any good sofware that does this?
Thanks..

[glc]

There really isn't any GOOD software yet that does this, but Naturally Speaking (http://www.lhsl.com/naturallyspeaking/) and Via Voice (http://www.ibm.com/software/speech/) both seem to work - sorta.

[pcoopers]

You might look at Prody Parrot. I got it as a freebie on my MOBO disk, my boys played with it until I un installed it. Don't work well here, to much noise in the house, but if your arthritis happens to be located in a quiet house, maybe it'll do the trick.

Most software of this nature seems to be outrageously priced, so at least look at Prody, since it's free. If you can't find it, drop me a line, I'll e-mail it to ya.

[morriswindgate]

I..F U WA..NT 2 TAL....K LI...K EYE AAM TY...PE....NG, then the current programs like Via Voice and Naturally Speaking will work for you. But there is a very long setup to the programs and the learning curve of the program is tedious. Believe it or not the even the poorest typist can work faster with less mistakes. BU...T IF U WA...NT 2 TRI THEM GO A...HE.AD

[tward]

I have used the speech recognition built into Office XP. Works for Word documents, email and even forums like this one. It isn't perfect, but it does fairly well in my opinion. Certainly better than I can type. One of the tricks is to use a good headset microphone.

PC horsepower is also a factor. I have a PIII, 933Mhz, 256 Mb RAM.

[Prew]

I am using Dragon NaturallySpeaking to dictate this message. As you can see, this program works fairly well. I used this program to dictate most of my psychological reports. However, he can see that this program often makes bears by inserting the incorrect word. How ever, the program does not make spelling errors but rather many insert the wrong 10th of the word or an incorrect word altogether. I am speaking at a normal rate of speech, however, I am not speaking with any and flexion and sounds like a computer. You can judge board your self whether or not this program would be helpful for your friend.

[HAL9000]

With a high quality microphone and sound card, I've seen Naturally Speaking do even better than what Prew just posted (although that wasn't too bad). The mic and a decent sound card are what's going to make the difference

[Prew]

I should point out that NaturallySpeaking can learn- so that if I correct the errors in my message NaturallySpeaking will make very few, if any errors, the next time I dictate the same information or phrases. Because of this learning feature, my psychological reports contain very few errors when I dictate them-- and I can dictate them at a fairly rapid rate of speed-- it has learned my speech patterns and phrases well.

This is what the message looks like when I dictate it after I 'taught' the program what I was trying to say. So from now on, Dragon will correctly identify the words 'inflection' and 'tense' (etc.) anytime I use them.

I am using Dragon NaturallySpeaking to dictate this message. As you can see, this program works fairly well. I use this program to dictate most of my psychological reports. However, you can see that this program often makes errors by inserting the incorrect word. However, the program does not make spelling errors but rather may insert the wrong tense of a word or an incorrect word altogether. I am speaking at a normal rate of speech, however, I am not speaking with any inflection and I sound like a computer. You can judge for yourself whether or not this program would be helpful for your friend.

[bosco]

With a high quality microphone and sound card
The family member that is looking at this type of software has a new computer but it has on-board sound. Would Naturally Speaking still work well?

[Prew]

I was using a Compaq Deskpro with onboard sound to dictate the previous message, so it should work. The NaturallySpeaking I bought (at Sams Club) came with a microphone (the type of microphone you have to use is the kind that is in a headset like the ones operators use).

BTW, you will need at least 128 mg of ram (256 would be even better) and least a PII 350 processor. The personal sound file is over 90 mg.

Also, NaturallSpeaking is compatible with MS Word and Corel WordPerfect. It can load up with these programs and can be used to activate all of the menu commands and you can dictate directly into the wordprocessing program.

One other thing, to personalize the sound file so that it recognizes your voice and how you speak, you need to be able to read at about the 9th grade level- to personalize the sound file you read few chapters into the computer from a book (provided with the program). Probably not a problem for you and your friend, but it is for the reading disabled individuals I work with.

If you decide to purchase one of these programs, just remember, as pointed out before, that they are far from perfect and require time and effort to make them useable