Is anyone using Dragon?

[mindem]

It looks interesting to me but I wonder how accurate it can be. I mean, how can it tell the difference between words like they're, their, there, see, sea, etc. It would seem to be worthwhile if it really works but for some reason I find it a little suspicious.

[PoliticAverse]

1. I know people that use it and you are correct, homophones are problematic as are sound-similars

in general. It's not perfect but it is apparently pretty good.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. I would find it extremely annoying to listen to myself talking all the time

for the same reason I find people who talk all the time annoying.

If I lived alone, or couldn't type anymore I would give it a shot though.

[HopeHoops]

3. Well, my wife teaches a pre-school karate class called Mini Dragons. Does that count?

[Wait Wut]

5. Awwww...

I want video!!!

And...I was born in the Year of the Dragon. That definitely counts.

[HopeHoops]

9. We don't have any pictures or video up now (my fault), but here's the site.

http://mini-dragons.com/index.htm

I haven't updated it in a long-time, but there is a video from six years ago. My eldest held a "Break-a-thon" to raise money for charity (four years in a row) and this is from the first one...

[Wait Wut]

12. That's so cool!

Those kids are a lot braver than I am!

[HopeHoops]

13. My dad put that together. All three of my daughters and my wife are in the video.

They're all in blue tops, but my wife is now a 3rd degree (red top).

[LWolf]

4. I have students that use it.

Those whose learning disabilities are severe enough that they can't write words; even spell check on a word processing program doesn't help, because they can't get enough letters write for the program to know what they are trying to do.

Those students can produce a paragraph, or two, or three, that is readable and understandable, homophones not withstanding.

[MicaelS]

6. Windows 7 has built in speech recognition

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2010/05/win-7s-built-in-speech-recognition-a-review/

If you have Win 7 all you need is a headset.

[Still Blue in PDX]

7. It's supposed to be able to infer from context.

I work in a medical transcription department, and we have some docs (primarily pathologists) who use it for front-end voice recognition. Some love it and some hate it. With any VR program there will probably always be a bit of editing to do.

[NV Whino]

8. I've used it, and it works pretty well

Works better the longer you use it.

These days I generally type with whichever two fingers are working best, but if I have a long piece to write, I dictate.

The iPad comes with dictation built in.

[RedCloud]

10. The following has been written by Dragon naturally speaking

This is version 11 of Dragon, NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software. It seems to do quite well when referring to itself. I was thinking perhaps tomorrow opening up a thread in which you guys send me your stuff and I can fine-tune my Dragon. The Dragon is still at work now. My lazy fingers have yet to type a single word. I'm going to type the next sentence by talking and keeping my eyes close. I trust you Dragon. I will bring some charcoal later. Thank you very much.

Apparently it is almost flawless. I have to admit, it took several months to get it to this level, but I don't do it for more than 30 min. a day and then only two or three days a week. I hope Dragon you don't understand what that last sentence said otherwise, I may get, shall we say, lit ablaze?

While Dragon may be almost flawless in English. It doesn't help me with other languages.
Watches the Dragon gets greatly afraid it's speaking another language. Errors are starting to creep in. And now for Spanish:

you killed those cockles were five or.(I have to type this part: I said, "Yo quiero dos tacos, por favor)
built, and then they Ernesto Che give (El comandante Ernesto "Ché" Guevara)

. I will resume speaking English. I believe I bought version 11 which is priced at 59.99 with a $30 off coupon from one of my purchasing clubs. I would check the compatibility. This program works well with Windows 7. The system requirements are listed and you should check before making such a purchase.

I hope this has been helpful.

[mindem]

11. Thanks.

I have a ton of input I have to do with some museum work I am and it would be nice to be able to just dictate. I was able, thanks to one of the posts above, to find the microsoft version in my computer and gave it a whirl. I think with a little practice it will do the trick.

[Jersey Devil]

14. I tried it but it doesn't speak Joisey

Try saying toikey sammich to Dragon and who knows what it will type?

[ashling]

15. I use it, but not all the time

It takes a while to learn your speech pattern, etc. but generally does a good job. I guess it depends on what you are sing it for. I teach online classes and use it when I find an excerpt from something in one of my books that I want to put online for class.

When I was in grad school I used it to get a first draft on the computer sometimes.

[Scuba]

16. Physicians have been using it for dictation for a decade or more...

... It does take some "learning" by the system to overcome voice inflections, accents, etc., but MD's are finding it a major time-saver.