In short, it’s software that will enable your computer to interpret verbal commands.
Even in this modern day people are unsure about voice to text software, and I’ll be honest it is pretty sci-fi, but it’s fantastic, and it’s real.
With modern software improving all the time, along with the advances in personal computing hardware, voice activation and recognition capability is getting better and better.
Voice To Text Software
The benefits are amazing:
Hands free at the computer. Think of how this could aid you in your daily life.
The speed increase in your text input is outstanding. Up to 3 times faster is the rate generally reported. Just imagine what it could do for your data entry…
Browsing the web just became even better. Tell your computer verbally which link to click.
It sounds like something we’ve been watching for years on Star Trek, and it is. The future’s here. And about time!
Now, as with anything, you need to take a certain amount of care.
Still sit in a comfortable position so you can reach the microphone without straining
Speak at a normal pitch and volume
Still take regular breaks
Make sure you are drinking regularly
Be aware also that if you catch the flu, your voice may change dramatically, so take careful note of what your dictating.
Make sure you do your research on voice to text software before getting your credit card out and good luck!
I’ve recently tried out the 2 most popular iPhone voice recognition apps. I was seriously impressed with both of them.
I’ve always been fascinated by the feature on most phones where you can just speak a contact’s name and the phone dials that person. Brilliant! The technology gets better all the time. Thinking back, this feature was a selling point to me of which cellphone I would buy and I was generally disappointed.
Nowadays, our phones are so evolved and the application creators so clever, that not only can you dictate to your iPhone, but you can use the speech recognition sofware to send SMS and update your Facebook and Twitter accounts. I am so happy with this!
Ok, you know what the best news is?
Both applications are free!
If you have an iPhone you NEED one of these:
iPhone Voice Recognition Apps
Vlingo Voice App
Vlingo, I’d never heard of them. Impressive application…
Now, there is a paid option, it’s like 7 bucks, which will hardly break the bank, but you don’t even need to pay that. For free you can:
Browse the Web
Dial contacts
Update Facebook and Twitter and
Use Google Maps
To use it for emails and texts, you’ll need to pay the measly seven dollars.
Dragon Dictation
Now, I’m not going to recommend one over the other, both are excellent, but I will say that Dragon Dictation is totally free and in practice seems to be a lot faster.
The guy on this video is not using any camera trickery, this is exactly how it works.
They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Well some of my ex-girlfriends would disagree, but that’s another story. Is there though, such a thing as free speech recognition software? Yes, of course. Virtually every type of software has a free version nowadays.
The question we should be asking is:
Is it worth getting, or like other free software, will it turn out to be an exercise in frustration?
So, for the top 3 examples of
Free Speech Recognition Software
E-Speaking – Free for 30 days and then it’s only $14. So is it worth using? Considering it uses an outdated model, I would say no. It’s inexpensive, but for those of you who use a modern version of Microsoft Windows, you’d be better off using:
Windows Speech Recognition – Available on Vista and Windows 7, this truly fantastic for the price. And let me tell you that the price is FREE. Can’t get better than that. Whatever you say about Microsoft and Windows, and generally I say good things, you can’t fault them for this. Windows Speech Recognition blows the competition, even the premium competition, right out of the water. It is only surpassed by Dragon Naturally Speaking. I suppose it’s not something you can go out and buy and it’s also not immediately obvious, but if you use Vista or 7 and need free speech recognition software, this is an excellent way to start.
Tazti Speech Recognition – Well, it’s just that. Speech recognition. It won’t made notes for you, but it will navigate through your programs with just your voice. It’s free and easy to use. If you don’t need dictation, go get it.
So, in a nutshell, it depends on what you need:
Got Windows Vista or 7? Use the built in free speech recognition software.
Otherwise, e-speaking is pretty good or
If you don’t need dictation try out Tazti, it’s free so you got nothing to lose.
Every time a new version of this software comes out I do a new page, so let’s look at my Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 Review.
I’m glad they update it so often even though it can be tough on the old wallet, but it’s so innovative that I would hate Nuance to stand still in the market.
The best technology, be it hardware or software will always be ahead of its time. We may, as consumers, complain about having to upgrade, but if it wasn’t like this, we would make little progress.
If you’re new to this software, in a word, it’s incredible.
As that won’t help you much, it’s a sophisticated piece of software that interprets your voice commands to your computer and executes them. This is exhibited mainly in 1 of 2 ways…
Dictation
or
Voice Control of your computer functions.
All you do is speak into your microphone and DNS does the rest.
Setup
In order for the software to get used to your voice (your inflection, accent etc) you read a short passage into the microphone during setup. This is about all you need to do.
Use
Now it’s just a matter of how you use it.
Let’s say you’re composing an article such as this one. All you need to do is simply speak into the mic what you want to happen, speaking plainly all the punctuation you need. It doesn’t recognize the end of a sentence so you need to say ‘period’ for example.
To use it to control your computer, you do exactly the same thing.
Let’s see it in action…
As you can see, it’s best used quite casually. Speaking in a stiled manner may be different than the way you read out the setup text so make sure you’re relaxed, with your microphone in a comfortable position. A headset is definitely the best thing to have for this software.
DNS is eerily accurate in getting the speech right. It’ll take a little bit of getting used to but once you are practiced you will be able to compose documents, articles, emails etc far quicker than you used to type them. Even with the infrequent corrections you will inevitably have to make it’s still a huge time saver. And that’s if you’re a competent typist. If you’re a bit fumble fingered this is truly a godsend.
There are different versions other than the home version, giving different capabilities, but that’s for another time.
The learning curve is a little steep if you aren’t used to speech recognition software, but that goes with the territory for much new technology, but if you have even a little interest in letting your computer do all the hard typing work you currently have to do yourself, there is no better option than DNS.
I hope this Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 Review has been of use to you. I can’t rate it highly enough.
