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Lewis
Dragon Naturally Speaking Review
Full Review
Like most people, I spend a large portion of my day typing. Although I consider myself a fairly quick typist, pounding away at my keyboard hours every day can really take its toll after a while. When I heard of the new Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software release, I was interested, albeit a bit skeptical, of the potential time saving (and fatigue reducing) possibilities of using my voice instead of my fingers to get work done.
Nuance, the company behind Dragon Naturally Speaking, has quite a long history with voice recognition software. According to their website, the software helps you achieve a typing speed “3 times faster” than normal with “99%” accuracy, which definitely puts it ahead of the other voice recognition players. These are all big claims to be sure, but impressively, Nuance really delivers a great product that, albeit a few hiccups, lives up to their promises.
Dictation & Accuracy
Of course, what really makes or breaks a voice recognition product is not just how accurate the software is in general, but how accurate it is for your particular voice. The new version is reported as being 99% accurate, which I found to be basically true after using it for a few weeks. The reason it can take a few weeks is because Dragon Naturally Speaking actually learns your voice the more you use it, and while I found that it was about 80% accurate out of the box, after even just a few days it rarely made a mistake. This is a life saver for anybody who has a thick accent. Note that this process can be sped up by “calibrating” it, which you’re prompted to do after install. I recommend that you go through the training process for sure.
What’s also nice is that the new Dragon Naturally Speaking includes support for people with accented English. There are a ton of accents to choose from, and I really like that you can upload documents you have written so that the program can become familiar with your own phrasing. You can even train it over time to translate phrases like “smiley face” to write out a colon, a dash and a close parenthesis automatically!
One thing to be aware of, however, is that the performance of the program definitely depends on the quality of the microphone you’re using. I found that the microphone included with non-Standard versions (Premium & Professional) performed well, but heads up that when tested with a cheap headset, performance suffered. I highly recommend investing in the non-Standard versions or a quality headset.
Voice Commands
Another useful feature of Dragon Naturally Speaking is the included voice shortcuts which allow you to perform standard computer functions using only your voice. For example, you can quickly perform searches online, look for YouTube videos, open up documents…you get the idea. Basically, just about anything you can do with a mouse you can do using your voice.
Although I prefer to use my mouse for most things, testing confirmed that the voice commends work well if that’s what you want to use. I did find myself using the commands in popular Microsoft products (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.), for which Dragon has its own dedicated commands. Dragon Naturally Speaking can even cut and paste long blocks of text in these documents without having to scroll.
Do note that there are a ton of commands, too many to remember in my opinion. I found myself having to keep a cheat sheet on my desk for the programs I use most often just to remember them all. Also, keep in mind that the Standard version of Dragon Naturally Speaking does not support commands, only the higher end versions do.
Mobile Features
Perhaps one of the coolest features of Dragon Naturally Speaking is its ability to plug directly in to a variety of voice recorders and transcribe the recording word for word. The software supports multiple source formats including MP3, WAV and WMA audio files. Like the standard dictation feature, Dragon Naturally Speaking will remember your voice for easy transcription.
Do note that for this feature to work well, you have to be speaking directly into the microphone on the voice recorder. In other words, I ran into problems when I tried to record someone speaking at a conference for later transcription. I wouldn’t recommend using it for recording lectures or anything as the usually, the person is too far away from the recorder for it to be effective.
Also, the mobile transcription features cannot recognize two separate voices at the same time. So if you’re trying to record an interview for later transcription, the program won’t work very well.
Service/Support
There’s not too much to touch on here. Nuance (the company behind Dragon Naturally Speaking) backs its product and is available to help with everything from installation to advanced use. Their website also has a ton of useful Q&A type information, so if you’re like me and don’t like to ask other people for help, you can go read up on it yourself.
Final Word
Although not flawless, Dragon Naturally Speaking does everything you’d expect it to do very well. To my surprise, it’s incredibly accurate with straight dictation using a headset (99% is a fair statement), and it really has a lot of support for different accents and voice types. However, do make sure that you have a good headset/microphone as this makes all the difference in terms of program accuracy (the microphones included with the non-Standard versions are sufficient). It has a ton of voice commands that actually work like they should, and you don’t have to talk like a robot in order for the program to recognize your commands. The mobile features are great if you’re speaking directly into a voice recorder, and they offer plenty of product support should you run into problems.
If you’re interested in voice dictation software that actually works, look no further than Dragon Naturally Speaking. We recommend this product.
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Related Resources
- About Speech Recognition
- How Speech Recognition Works
- Speech Recognition Laboratory
- Science of Speech Recognition
