One of my friends on Facebook who has a disability just started using voice recognition. As I was answering a message he left, I was thinking about the first time I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Voice recognition has come a long way since I started using it years ago. Earlier versions of Dragon ( I currently use version 9.5) were not as accurate. So I learned to develop a sense of humor about it.
I remember writing a message to a friend and I wanted to emphasize what I was saying with an exclamation point. Unfortunately, Dragon thought I was saying "excavation point" and kept typing "excavation ." As a new user, I didn't understand why the word point in Dragon converted into (.) I now know that certain words are commands and that sometimes Dragon, depending on the context of what is being said, will do things like this. Luckily, command words can be changed.
Keeping a sense of humor while trying out any assistive technology is very important. Otherwise you can lose the point or (.) of the whole thing.
2 comments:
A while back I wrote to a lady to tip her off that her images had been 'borrowed' off her website and used elsewhere without her permission. Towards the end of her reply (in which she said she'd had a lot of problems with this in the past and it was why she stopped updating her site), she said she "thinked" me for letting her know. She clearly has a strong Southern accent which confused her speech recogniser.
How do you let Dragon know that you want the word entered, rather than what it represents?
Matt Smith
hi Matt,
there is a way to train/correct voice recognition programs when they do that. Dragon has a correction box that includes a way to record yourself saying the phrase/words. This can be very effective in reducing errors, especially due to accents. ( I know because certain words I say are affected by regional accent.) dragon will often give you a list of words when you correct it and if the word is on that list you can select it. If it's not you can even spell in the word you want. It's a sophisticated software program that works well.
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