Introduction to Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Dragon NaturallySpeaking (`You Talk, Dragon Types`) is probably the leading software in the automatic speech recognition industry. It is developed by Nuance, and was first released as “NaturallySpeaking 1.0” about 20 years ago! It was first invented by Dr. James Baker in the 70s.
What can Dragon do for you?
Dragon is a very powerful tool, with many features around text to speech. For the full feature lists you should visit the official website here. In short – it lets you dictate at almost speaking pace, it understands punctuation commands, and enables the system to train for your voice and pronunciation to increase accuracy. In addition to that, it allows speech commands to control a few other applications, such as web browsers, Word and Outlook by speech, which is especially helpful for people who have difficulties in operating a mouse or a keyboard. It can also take audio recordings and transcribe them for you – as long as you are the recorded voice, and your speech is slow and clear.
Introducing the new Speech Recognition Web Apps
Recently, Google enabled capturing audio through the Chrome browser, and moreover opened an interface for web apps to its outstanding speech recognition technology. A word on that: Google has gone a long way to improve its speech recognition capabilities, and at this point we would guess it has the best acoustic models for Natural Speech. Google has a huge advantage, as it has access to infinite speech data samples that it gets from Android devices and its other services.
That move has opened the door for new online apps that facilitate this technology, using Google’s cut-edge technology. Therefore, these apps have many advantages – they are cheap – as they don’t have to develop the core technology by themselves, they are simple to use, as they work online and focus on user interface, and they are extremely high accuracy as they lean on Google. One main advantage is that Google’s algorithms are built to understand any voice, and therefore the web apps are not limited to one specific voice the system was trained for.
“Speechlogger” belongs to that category of online apps. As the developers of “Speechlogger” we wanted to focus on “Natural Speech” – thus we invented a simple automatic punctuation algorithm. Other unique features are automatic save, click to print and various export options. Transcription is fast and accurate and intermediate results are shown in real time.
We also wanted to help people from all over the world communicate naturally, so we implemented instant translation too. We found people use that feature to learn and practice foreign languages too.
Comparison table – Dragon Naturally Speaking vs. Speechlogger
Dragon Naturally Speaking | Speechlogger (speech recognition online) | |
---|---|---|
Recognition accuracy in general |
~ Above 95% for US accent, dictating |
~ Above 95% for US accent, dictating |
Speech Recognition Engine |
Nuance |
|
Train to your voice |
V |
X |
Works with different voices (speakers) |
X |
V |
Speech controls over your PC (browser, Word, …) |
V (with limitations) |
X |
Automatic punctuation |
X |
V (with limitations) |
Instant translation |
X |
V |
Edit spoken text inline |
V |
V |
Works within other programs (such as Word) |
V |
X (but you can export to your PC or Google Drive) |
Transcribe audio files |
V (with limitations) |
V (need a virtual cable installed) |
Price |
Prices vary. It is usually around ~100$ for the latest version (see on company’s website and compare to price on Amazon (Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13.0, English)). If you are not interested in the latest you can its predecessor - get it on Amazon: Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 12.0, English (Old Version) - for much cheaper. |
Free |
System requirements |
It’s a pretty heavy software – so you’ll need a healthy computer. See here for more details. |
Light weight. All you need is a Chrome browser |
Installation |
Required, including training |
None. Works online |
Bottom line
If you are need a software to let you dictate long documents in your Word processor environment, or surf the web, or you have other limitations working with a mouse or a keyboard – then Dragon is a really good choice for you. If your voice is the only voice to be transcribed, you can get better accuracy as you train the system to it.
If, on the other hand, you simply need a tool to dictate emails or notes or to transcribe audio files into captions we would recommend “Speechlogger” as it is designed specifically for that, it is easier to use, lightweight, intuitive (includes auto save & auto punctuation) and unlimited free.
Dragon Purchasing Options
You can purchase Dragon directly from Nuance – the developer right here: You Talk, Dragon Types. Three times faster than typing! 30-Day Money Back Guarantee. For only $74.99). It might also be helpful to look around in Amazon (Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13.0, English)), as you might find a better deal. Also, the second to latest version (version 12 as of July 2015) is available here on Amazon (Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 12.0, English (Old Version)) at a really good price.