IT Library
The Techno Zone
User Account
Dragon Slays Computer Club
"Computer Questions? Join our club." is the motto of the VPCUS computer club. On the second Thursday of each month, the Vancouver PC Users Society meets at the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre. Barry Weinbaum and Roedy Green, walking computer encyclopediae, field questions from novices and 'nerds' as the evening gets under way with a Q&A session. The "Barry and Roedy show" is a 'tough act to follow' but at February's meeting a 'dragon' slayed a computer club. That evening a dynamic young woman strode to the stage at the MacMillan Planetarium and captivated the VPCUS computer club. Is speech recognition for real? Alexandria Carstens read a prepared text into her headset microphone and shortly after the projection screen showed her text appearing on her computer screen with no errors. But how would this fairly (about 95%) accurate technology meet a challenge from the audience? A VPCUS member gave Carstens some text he had brought to put the Dragon NaturallySpeaking (DNS, version 5) software to the test. Alexandria (who works for Speakeasy Solutions) read the text with good results; speech recognition has never been 100% accurate, but DNS offers tools for easy mistake correction. Although corrections can be made manually at the keyboard, they are usually done via voice entry. [Alexandria will make another appearance at the VPCUS computer club with her articulate 'dragon' on Thursday July 12, 7 PM at the MacMillan Space Centre (1100 Chestnut St.), admission free] How powerful a computer is required for fast and accurate speech recognition according to the Speakeasy Solutions team of Carstens and Dean Husby?
Answer:
- Pentium III or Pentium IV (which have 7 special instructions to speed voice recognition) - minimum 600 MHz
- RAM: min. 256 megabytes
- Hard disk: absolute minimum of 150 megabytes + 60 megabytes for each 'speech profile'
- USB port
- Windows operating system 98SE or 2000
The user of DNS must first 'educate' this software as to his/her pronunciation of words which is done by reading a 'designated script';
this usually takes 30 to 60 minutes. A 'profile file' that keeps all these pronunciations occupies about 60 megabytes of space on the hard
disk; the more different people using DNS on the same computer, the more profiles and disk space required.
Is Dragon NaturallySpeaking the best product?
Carstens has searched for other products, including ones that run on the Macintosh line, but they have not measured up; e.g. Alexandria can enter data via voice at 160 words per minute using DNS but a major competing product requires that the speaker talk slowly.
How sophisticated can one get with DNS?
By voice entry alone Alexandria used Microsoft Word to create a table and entered words into various cells of that table; she also made cell entries into an Excel spreadsheet. For a much more in depth discussion of the capabilities that Speakeasy Solutions offers users, please visit www.speakeasysolutions.com .
Who uses speech recognition software?
Carstens provided the following example: "Several employees from a company were unfortunately stricken with repetitive strain injury. We deployed speech recognition solutions for each of these employees. We created a custom vocabulary specific to the Company's unique language as well as specific to their industry. This vocabulary can then be used by anyone in their company deciding to use speech recognition. The employees in question also spend considerable time on the telephone, and were therefore set up with a device that allows them to use the same headset as they do for speech recognition for the telephone as well (PCTI). A couple of the employees in question required a mobile solution allowing them to take notes away from the office for later transcription -- as a result, they were set up with a digital recorder. Each of these employees had Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional installed on their machines. The PCTI's were also set up.
Each employee received training separately as their needs were slightly different. The employees requiring the use of the digital recorder were also trained in its use. Speakeasy Solutions provided additional information sheets outlining pertinent tips and tricks. Some of the
employees in question use Netscape communicator quite heavily and therefore have encouraged Speakeasy Solutions to create a speech pack whereby Netscape communicator can be utilized with intuitive voice commands expressly for their purposes."
The ideal future is speech recognition software.
What is the ultimate test for speech recognition software? It's the "Mary Poppins' test": on the FIRST try speech recognition software should be able to correctly understand that common English word: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious To the tremendous disappointment of the VPCUS computer club audience DNS did not input this simple word correctly on the first try, but did get it right on a subsequent try.
Star Trek
In Star Trek the crewmen of the Enterprise are not typists but use voice entry to query computer data banks. Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Speakeasy Solutions have brought us much closer to this ideal. The 'Spock' at Speakeasy Solutions is Dean Husby (Tel: (604) 264-9109, email: dean@speakeasysolutions.com web: www.speakeasysolutions.com).
Does the 'dragon' (not the postman) ring twice?
Alexandria will return with her speech recognition 'dragon' (DNS) to the VPCUS computer club on Thursday July 12, 7 PM at Vancouver's H. R. MacMillan Space Centre 1100 Chestnut St. (free admission). Bring your heat shields to this event!
- Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred: $275
- Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional: $975
More like this . . .
Microsoft Office 2003
Introduction Microsoft on Feb. 11, 2003 announced Office 2003 as the official name of the productivity suite originally known as "NGO" (...Microsoft Office XP: Part 1 - Hoopla vs. Reality
A hands-on test of the final release of Microsoft Office XP Part 1 - Hoopla vs. Reality Introduction Microsoft is probably best known for its...Codename: Office 10
Product: OfficeXP (known as Office 10 in beta; released May 31, 2001.)
From: Microsoft
Price: Retail prices range from $479 to $799 (US) for various...
Hands-on Office 2000
Office 2000 Premium (final) – a Hands-on Test
June 10th, 1999 was the long-awaited release date of Microsoft Office 2000. Although the full...
Post new comment