Yesterday, after reading Joseph’s blog post concerning Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 voice recognition software, I decided to order myself a copy and give it a go.
I have used voice recognition software in the past (mainly IBM’s earlier products) and found it actually extremely useful and surprisingly workable, at least when compared to the alternatives — a keyboard being rather difficult for me to use, as I have limited upper body movement. A couple of years ago, however, I switched to using handwriting recognition on a Pocket PC, finding it a little slower, but somehow more natural in the way it felt.
Given my current workrate, however, I have felt that the handwriting recognition system has been holding me back somewhat. Hence my deciding to give this a go again.
And, boy, has voice recognition improved in the past couple of years! The speed and efficiency of it is remarkable. It demands little of the system, other software working away merrily at the same time without any clashes. The recognition rate is, as claimed, in the region of 99%. Correcting the few mistakes it makes is quick and easy — and improves recognition vastly.
As you may have guessed, I’m actually using it to write this. I’ve made only a couple of corrections, it’s taken me a matter of minutes, and I’ve hardly had to move at all!
Remarkable.
Now, however, I’m faced with something of a dilemma. I have only a couple of chapters — three, actually, now that I think of it — to finish on the Children of the Resolution, and I can’t make my mind up whether to use this to complete it, or stick with the handwriting recognition. This might strike you as not being all that much of a problem at all, but my concern is that it may alter the tone of my work, however slightly. I have read through some of my early work, the stuff I wrote using voice recognition, and I don’t really think it will be an issue — not if they are anything to go by. In my earlier work, I sound pretty much the same as I do in my current project, but…
Maybe you can help. Having read the above, answer me this: do I still sound like me? 🙂
Gary William Murning Online 
Yup, you still sound like you.
And is that a good thing? 🙂
You still sound like the Gary that I know. And that’s definitely good! 😀
I’ve just discovered that it also does text to speech, as well, and have had a great time listening to my novel in a Stephen Hawking-style voice!
The funny thing is, it pretty much retained the tone of the novel — in despite of the oddly mechanical voice, it still had that rhythm and structure that I’ve worked so hard to achieve. Whether that’s because the software is so good or because I’m such an incredible writer, I don’t know, but I’m happy to be persuaded that it’s the latter!
Hey Gary, I’m glad I could be of service. I had been worried that you wouldn’t like it, I’m even more impressed with it now.
P.s. Thanks for the ping!
You still sound like you. Congrats on finding a good tool to help you out. Good luck with it!
My Yorkshire accent is never recognised on those bloody things, Gary.
Nowt a’bhat Yorksha that shunt be ‘ard istheer?
Yes, Joseph, I’m growing more and more impressed with it by the minute. Incredibly useful and speedy!
Thanks, Damian. It’s always especially gratifying when you find something that does what it says on the box 😉
My accent is pretty broad, too, Will. Plus I tend to mumble quite a bit. This used to cause problems in the past, but the improvements in speech recognition have eliminated most of them.
Whereabouts in Yorkshire are you originally from, incidentally?
You sound like you only, funnier..heh
I actually worked this morning, unable to wait until Monday morning, and then compared the chunk I’d dictated to some of the early sections of the novel — and there was, thankfully, no discernible difference!
Even funnier? Is that possible? 🙂
If you draw an X from Bradford, Wakefield, Huddersfield and Leeds you sit on top of where I was from.
I am sure you will have heard of Cleckheckmonsedge. LOL
Oh, yes, I was there just last week… lol. Okay, that’s a lie. Never heard of the place, mate — and it doesn’t even show up on Google Earth! Somewhere just west of Morley?
I’m so glad you’ve found a new tool–I haven’t tried voice recognition in at least five years–maybe more–time does keep moving. Still wearing out the keyboard…
It must be about three or four years since I last used it, Evanne. And it’s definitely come along in leaps and bounds. Using the old IBM Simply Speaking range of software, everything else on the computer used to grind to a virtual halt — and the recognition itself wasn’t that good (though it was, for me, quicker than typing, even with the corrections I had to make.) But this… it’s a different kettle of fish altogether! I would seriously recommend it.
Cleckheckmonsedge is made up of, Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike and Liversedge. So yes, just west of Morley. LOL
Well that explains why Google Earth didn’t have a bloody clue what I was on about! 🙂 Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike and Liversedge are all there!
(Incidentally, my voice recognition software understood all three names no problem at all!)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/over_to_you.shtml
Gary, that link is to the BBC site where I did that online thing for the BBC, the Bond booklette.
If you look for the date updated 7th of June that is the exact show.
Cheers, Will! Listening to it now, mate.
“He’s everywhere, is James.” 🙂 That should be the tagline!