# Voice Recognition Software



## hjones4841 (Jan 21, 2009)

This may be slightly off-topic, but for those of us who are interested in voice recognition software the newest version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a vast improvement over the first versions that I tried about 15 years ago. The early versions got about as much wrong as they did right, at least for me. I'm using it to compose this post and am only having to make minor corrections. I have only been using it for two days and I anticipate that as I train specific words and phrases that the accuracy will be even better.

One of the problems with early versions is that it did not understand "Southern". At some point in time different speaker profiles were added, including Southern US. The improvement in accuracy is striking for us who speak that way. In addition, the initial training time is vastly reduced.

A quality headset is still recommended, although one comes with the software that is adequate.

As I get older I find that my typing speed and accuracy is not what it used to be, primarily due to onset of arthritis. So, for email, web use and work use I find it to be a significant timesaver.

As far as CPU requirements versus speed and accuracy, I really have nothing to compare. I'm running Windows 7 with an i7 processor and 16 GB RAM. There is only a slight time delay between completing a sentence and having it appear on-screen.

So if you are interested, give it a try. I understand that the basic home version is rather limited, so I bought the premium version. Places like Amazon and Newegg frequently run it on sale for less than $100.


----------



## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

I remember that from about the same timeframe. 
Unfortunately it didn't understand us Aussies either. :rant:


----------

