Has anyone bought this and tried it. For those who don't know what I'm talking about Dragon is a voice activated software. It is suppose to listen to your voice and type what your saying. It can also navigate the Internet for you. I am curious to know if anyone here has had experience with this software and if it lives up to its claims. I know someone who due to disabilities could really benefit from the software program if it really does work as it claims to.
Are you talking about Dragon Naturally Speaking? I have tried it and occasionally use it. It does work; however, you need to spend a lot of time training it to your voice. If you do try it, I recommend getting a quality headset for your computer. It's best to use a headset with an analog to digital converter so, you have a clear signal to your computer allowing Dragon to transcribe for you better.
Thank you for the information. I had heard that it does take awhile for Dragon to get use to the sound of your voice. Also, thank you for the advice about the type of headset to purchase when using the software. I am definitely interested in purchasing this software in the future, so this was good information to have.
My boss used to use it, but it's kind of pricey and if you are working in an office setting it's also kind of annoying hearing someone trying to use it all day long. If you are working by yourself though it should be fine. There are some voice commands you need to get familiar with in order to use it though too.
Yes, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is great software and works as described in their marketing materials. In fact, I am using it right now to dictate to the contents of this posting. You do have to spend some time training it (and correcting mistakes) but that amount of time initially is more like about five minutes. You just read text provided to you and it will create a speech vocabulary based on what it's hearing relative to the contents of the prepared text. There are several training texts that are included. I think I used the "Alice in Wonderland" excerpt. You don't have to use prepared text to train the software, though. It is incredibly easy and over time becomes incredibly accurate. Even if you're a mumbler like me! You can even control the mouse position, clicking and double-clicking by using a MouseGrid that comes up and overlays the screen. You simply say the number of the grid box that encloses what you want to click. It moves the mousepointer to the center of that grid box, and then creates a new grid within that area. You continue until the mousepointer is over the item you want to click. Then you simply say "click that" or "double-click that". At least this is how the version I'm using works. I have an older version. Describing it is much, much slower than what it takes to actually do it. If I had some motor skill issues, I wouldn't skip a beat with using the computer because of the Dragon software. It's the next best thing to doing it yourself or dictating to someone else to do it for you. For a disabled person it would lift their spirits to have some additional freedom to do things on their own. The latest version of Dragon must be killer because, like I said, my version is many years old and I'm satisfied with its performance. I'm using version 5 (Preferred edition). Copyright 2002.
Having experience on other voice activated software, i have a bad impression on this kind of stuff, especially because the lack of quality that usually comes with. But after giving this one a spin, i can say for sure that what most promise, and fail to achieve, this one delivers for sure.
