Talking To Yourself

The Age

Thursday November 15, 2007

Mark Camm

Voice-recognition programs have improved out of sight. Mark Camm puts two through their paces.

YOUR word is their command fullstop What you say comma they do fullstop They do it brilliantly comma and pretty close to flawlessly fullstop new paragraph

Mind you comma you do feel a bit of a dill talking out loud to a computer and having to say comma fullstop new paragraph and all the other punctuation and layout commands text is composed of full stop But oh that all life was as controllable and hands-free as this fullstop new paragraph

Word-recognition programs for PCs and Macs used to be pathetic and so limited as to be useless. Some are now freaky in their ability to sort through your garbled attempts at dictation. They can take the words out of your mouth and put them on a screen faster than you can type, literally as fast as you can speak and with astounding accuracy.

You use speech recognition programs to verbally operate your computer, dictate text - life stories, death threats, letters to mum - and input information. People unable to adequately use their arms and hands will find these programs a godsend.

Business people who spend much of their lives writing memos, reports and proposals no one will ever read can hook into their power.

Surprising, perhaps, is the suggestion that anyone can benefit from them. Speak better than you write? Then speak and get the computer to do the writing for you. Bad typist? Same thing. Lazy? Ditto.

But which program and, in this case, which computer platform - a PC or a Mac? - are best? Would you have to swap platforms to enjoy the best word-recognition program?

Two programs really worth looking at in terms of value for money and excellence are Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.5 from Nuance, for PCs, and iListen 1.7 from MacSpeech, for Macs. These two occupy the high ground. Each comes in several forms - from home/office versions for a few hundred dollars to expensive versions aimed at doctors and lawyers - in software-only packages or with headsets and digital voice recorders.

The Dragon version tested came with a Philips voice recorder. You dictate your letters, memos and chicken recipes using the voice recorder while, say, you're on the john and at your most creative, then download the converted .wav sound file to the computer, crack open Dragon and let it transcribe the file into text on the screen. Livewire's attempts met with limited success. The version of iListen tested also had a transcribe feature, which returned a similar level of success.

The key, perhaps, to getting these transcription features to work well is the same as getting the programs' prime features, word recognition and voice direction to do their best: practice and training for both you and the program. Dragon and iListen train you to speak (ideally like a news reader, clearly and fluently, but also fluidly and fast) and you train them to understand you. It doesn't take long - 30 minutes tops - and the rewards are gobsmacking.

Dragon and iListen work with most programs, even Photoshop, would you believe. But their true home is programs such as Word.

There is a lot to remember in using these programs, learning how to correct mistakes, format and rewrite, but once you have the commands and procedures committed to memory or a few Post-it notes, it's a breeze. Mac lovers will find iListen wonderful, PC lovers will find Dragon wonderful. Using either program, the results speak for themselves. One last word: Microsoft's Vista has its own speech-recognition program. It's not as accurate as Dragon but good nonetheless. Mac's Tiger speech program isn't worth talking to.

The contenders

Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred Mobile 9.5

(Comes with Philips voice recorder, and headset)

$750 ($200 for standard)

australia.nuance.com

4/5

For PCs, a high-end voice-recognition program that won't leave you lost for words. It's adaptable, very accurate and amazingly easy to use once a little training and familiarisation are done. Microsoft Vista users will need an update disk from Nuance or to download a 1.6 GB file from Nuance's website. The quality headset that comes with the package works well but a USB headset (that you get with iListen) would be better. There are many packages and variations, but the Preferred Mobile and Preferred versions would suit most users. The transcription-from-audio-file feature didn't work well.

iListen 1.7 (with transcription package and headset)

$440 ($360 with no transcription package)

macsense.com.au or buymac.com.au

4/5

For Macs, this is everything the PC users have with Dragon along with the smooth integration and operation Mac users have come to expect. iListen's hands-free operation is easy and fast, although initial set-up requires prior Mac-oriented know-how. The transcription package is also a learned taste. But, overall, this is a classy and brilliant package that does everything it claims to do. Like Dragon, iListen will work with pretty well any program but naturally does especially well in word processors.

Verdict

There is nothing major to separate these two packages. They are both very good programs. Whatever environment you're used to - PC or Mac - stick with what you know. Both operate in a similar way using similar commands and processes, and both are at the top of their game.