I see that Vista offers Speech Recognition software that allows you to open
apps and dictate speech into Word, Wordpad, etc.
Does anyone have any idea on how this free Speech Recognition software
compares to the Dragon software that I've been seeing advertised on TV
commercials?
WSR (Windows Speech Recognition) is very good for general commands and
naviagtion and for general business correspondence. For example, in
any program (Word, Outlook or a browser) just say, "Show Numbers."
Each button, menu or drop down list is given a number. Simple say that
number and then OK and you have command of that feature. For medical
dictation as an example, you would be better off with Dragon
NaturallySpeaking's Medical Edition.
For any speech recognition software to attain high accuracy you need:
1. To enunciate each word clearly. You cannot speak conversationally
or slur your words together.
2. To speak in phrases. Speech recognition software not only listens
for the sounds of each word, but compares each word to the words
before and after for context clues.For example look at there, their
and they're which sound the same. Speech recognition software knows
which one to use from context as in, "They're going to park their car
over there."
3. A good sound card or USB sound pod. Many sound cards built into the
motherboard are not well shielded and pickup electronic noise from
within the enclosure. This is why a USB sound pod (sound card) works
better in many cases.
4. A good close talk microphone designed for speech recognition and
does not pickup background noise. Microphones built into notebook
computers rarely work well.
To learn more about WSR, read, Getting Started with Windows Speech
Recogniton found in a link at:
http://www.msspeech-forum.com/
Also, there is the $15.99 WSRToolkit which adds 7 functions to improve
accuracy, easily create command and text macros and even take
dictation from high quality digital recorder .wav files. See this at:
www.emicrophones.com/p-1228-wsrtoolkit-for-windows-speech-recognition.aspx
Marty Markoe, eMicrophones, Inc.
