Technology comes of age

For 30 years now, I have been a computer geek utilizing computers both at home and at work. I came across this image on Facebook today which shows you how to use the alternate key along with a numerical command to generate the various symbols.
Because I am such a computer geek I am now starting a new phase in my blogging starting today I will be using Dragon naturally speaking version 12.5. Everything you see here is dictated as I spoke it without correction. The program is doing an amazing job.


Are any of you using speech recognition software? If so, I would like to know your impressions of it. I just cannot believe that this stick Tatian is without errors. Well it finally made a mistake. It did not recognize the word dictation. That’s better.

I have some journals and/or diaries that I would like to put in my blogs. It would be very time-consuming and laborious to type them in manually; therefore, I would like to dictate or that is, read the diaries directly into Microsoft Word. That would be so much faster and easier.

There must be some professionals among you, such as doctors or lawyers, who are already using dictation software. Please comment below how you feel about voice recognition, and how accurate it is for you.

6 comments:

anne marie in philly said...

☺ ☼ ♥ ♀

holy crap, it works! (bows in your direction)

Anonymous said...

We use Dragon Naturally Speaking a LOT as an Assistive Technology for students who have trouble typing for one reason or another. It has come a long way since the first time I installed it for a student back in 2002. (One hint: Don't get a version for a phone or iPad. They require Internet access as the translation is done in the cloud due to performance limitations on the tablets or mobile devices. No speedy - and I do mean speedy - Internet, it doesn't work).

I love the ASCII codes. I've been using them for years. Some are as second nature as regular typing, like £ (ALT+0163) for British Pound.

Cool post.
Peace <3
Jay

David Jeffreys said...

At my old age, I will never be able to memorize that chart. I guess I will have to laminate it and put it beside my keyboard.

David Jeffreys said...

Dragon has come a long way since I tried it several years ago and then it was only about 50% correct with my voice. It is amazing how accurate it is to use now. Typing on my desktop keyboard is easy an fast since I am a touch typist, but typing on my eBook is difficult for me because the keyboard is downsized and my fingers are always over the wrong keys.

Ur-spo said...

I've been using Dragon for a couple of years and it is a godsend. I could tell you lots if you are interested.

David Jeffreys said...

Dr. Spo, glad to hear from you on Dragon. I loaded the program on my Windows 7 eBook, did the simple profile setup, used Koss speakers/microphone that I bought with it, and it did the wonderful job you see above with only the one error. Tonight, I loaded it on my Windows XP desktop and started creating the profile with the HS-GEN-C headset that came with the Dragon product. So far, I have not been able to get the profile set up -- volume too low, etc. So, I don't know if the problem is with XP or the provided headset.

Any tips you can give me will be most appreciated. If you had rather, you can use my email: david at ladyslippercove dot com.