Voice recognition

[SkipII]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I need voice recognition software that will allow me to record an interview on a digital recording device and then later transcribe that interview into a Word document. So, the software needs to be compatible with both my Mac and the recording device.

I have not bought the digital recording device, so i am still flexible on that element.

Most software I see has a headphone where you are dictating into the Mac.

Can anyone help?

 

[CyberTaz]

Have not used it but from what I've heard this is the only package worth
having... Whether it does what you want you'll have to find out from them:

http://www.1st-dragon.com/category-s/1.htm

Good Luck |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

MacSpeech is the only game in town, so that makes your choice a lot easier


On their website, they say it does not support use with a voice recorder.
http://www.macspeech.com/extensions/faq/kb.php?article=214

However, the suggestion to keep checking indicates they are planning that
feature in the future (Dragon Dictate used to have it).

But be aware that the quality of the microphone, and thus the quality of the
recording, is absolutely critical to good results. If the microphone is not
excellent, the accuracy of the transcription is appalling.

Of course, MacSpeech is a "particular speaker" product. It will give good
results only with the voice of the person who trained it (You!). Currently
there are no products that will transcribe speech from any speaker. The
computing power required for such software is still well beyond the
capabilities of a home computer.

I am well aware that Combined Taxis in Sydney uses speech recognition to
book all its taxi journeys. But it does that by constraining the number of
words the machine is listening for: if you reduce the English language only
to suburbs, street names, and phone numbers, you need a lot less computing
power to transcribe the result.

Similarly, the transcripts for the majority of Australia's court cases is
done with Dragon Dictate (MacSpeech is the Mac version of it). But each
copy of the software is dictated into by a single person, who repeats aloud
what was said in court.

Hope this helps

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I need voice recognition software that will allow me to record an interview on
a digital recording device and then later transcribe that interview into a
Word document. So, the software needs to be compatible with both my Mac and
the recording device.

I have not bought the digital recording device, so i am still flexible on that
element.

Most software I see has a headphone where you are dictating into the Mac.

Can anyone help?

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Clive Huggan]

I agree with John.

I've been using MacSpeech Dictate now for several weeks
(http://www.macspeech.com/pages.php?pID=143). The recently released version
1.5 has for the first time made it a very good product indeed. It is
astounding in some ways, but (not unnaturally) requires fine-tuning over a
period of some weeks to bring it up close to the 100% mark. Not all training
is by voice; it can suck up Word (and other) documents and learn from them.

As John says, it's *really* important to use a microphone matched to
MacSpeech Dictate. I use an Andrea USB headset (the Parrott is the same high
quality, perhaps not quite so comfortable). I also have a RevoLabs xTag
wireless microphone, which is handy if you're up and down all the time --
but it's not quite as good, or at least during the first few weeks when the
application is more vulnerable to typing un-uttered spurious short words.
But having it further from the mouth may make it not quite as effective as
the headset variety.

MacSpeech Dictate is based on the Dragon Naturally Speaking application on
Windows (hence only works on Intel-chipped Macs). But at present Naturally
Speaking has more features. MacSpeech Dictate has just released medical and
legal versions too.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the Americas and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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