Voice Recognition Software: Dragon Naturally Speaking

So. I've been kind of dancing around the point of this blog, which is the invisible chronic illness experience.

I think the main reason for this is the difficulty I'm having typing. The neck/shoulder arthritis pain I'm having just won't let up, and I'm trying to avoid doing things to aggravate it while I'm waiting to find out exactly what the problem is (MRI scheduled for next week) so I can start doing what needs to be done to alleviate it.

I'm going to get some voice recognition software. That should help. Dragon seems to be the preferred choice. I have some links below to ratings and reviews kind of stuff. I think the microphone is very important. It needs to be a good one with noise reduction.

This is probably what I'll go with:

OOOOOOUUUUU! They have a link at amazon to a rebate from Dragon for $50.00. Those people at amazon are really helpful!

At the bottom of this amazon.com page, 85 real people have reviewed the V. 8 product, and it has four of five stars. Hundreds of people have then rated the reviews.

These reviews are from consumersearch.com, "a leading online publusher of meta-reviews".

This one's from Voice Wizard "the speech resource for executives and other adventurers exploring voice technology miracles".

And from epinions.com, they don't have any reviews of version 9 yet, but it looks like there was marked improvement from V. 7 to V. 8. And they have links to places to buy. As I'm writing this there is one new V. 9 Preferred Solutions up for bid on ebay. So far the highest bid is about half the lowest retail price I've seen. Too bad I'm not ready to buy yet.

This one is a very good VIDEO review and example of how to use the version 8 software. They kind of make like it's a review from the New York Times, but I think it's more like a commercial from Nuance (the official seller of V.9 Preferred), in partnership with the NYT.


More on this topic on 6/25/07

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 19, 2007 at 2:45 PM

    Sherril,
    Just wanted to comment that I have Dragon 8.0 and it works pretty well.

    I am a fast talker, and a fast typer (even with just 6 fingers that work, rheumatoid arthritis...) so it can seem a bit slow and irritating...

    But it saved me when I had hand surgery 2 years ago with my arm in a cast and had to answer hundreds of emails. However, when I was on painkillers, I thought my voice was "normal." Nope! It wrote all kinds of (not nice) stuff. Instead of telling someone "It's great to hear from you" it would type something like "Go have beer with you..." So you have to watch it and read it before hitting send!

    I'll soon be having another hand surgery and it's great to know it's there when my arm is in a cast again. The more one uses it the better trained it is on your voice. For large documents I try to MAKE myself use it and am usually glad I did.

    Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  2. SherrilJune 19, 2007 at 11:55 PM

    Thanks for the input, Lisa! My hands bother me a lot. I was trying to find out what was causing my hand pain when I was diagnosed with FM in 1989. The only other diagnosis I have gotten about my hands is mild arthritis. When they start to bother me I wear wrist braces that I get at the drug store. That does help, but now I'm dealing with cervical spondyliosis and shoulder/neck pain that is keeping me from doing on the computer anywhere near what I have rolling around in my head. So I'm in the process of finding out what that's all about. I'm having an MRI tomorrow and I'll be glad to have the VR software to pick up the slack.

    Good luck with your hand surgery, and peace & blessings to you,

    Sherril

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 25, 2007 at 3:39 PM

    Hi Sherril, I'm just learning how to use Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 - preferred edition. I like it, but it takes a while to adjust to it, and I went through a big fuss to get the right kind of headset and microphone. But apparently having a good microphone is a huge plus in raising the accuracy of results. I wish you good luck - and let's stay in touch as we learn it with tips! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. SherrilJune 25, 2007 at 4:02 PM

    Excellent, Jenni! Will do.

    Jenni is the Editrix of one of my favorite sites, www.ChronicBabe.com.

    ReplyDelete

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