Voice Recognition Software Recommendations

Hi...

I was wondering if you folks use Voice Recognition Software (compatible with Vista Home Premium). If yes, would you be able to recommend a few with some info on best available accuracy rates. I am looking to write/ dictate long Word documents. By long I mean say over 200 - 300 pages. Also, can this software do references like footnotes and endnotes etc.?

Thanks

 

Nuance's Dragon Naturally Speaking is excellent voice rec software.

 

vista has voice recognition in by itself, hasn't it? or only voice command?

but yeah, dragon is quite cool.

 

I don't use any voice recognition software, but I've heard many positive reviews of Nuance's Dragon so I second that.

However, you can also checkout some open-source alternatives but might take a bit more technical knowledge on source codes to maximize the software's capabilities. Two you can checkout are Voxforge and Julius. Both claim they work for windows, but I'm not sure if Vista is supported yet.

You can also checkout the trial version of E-Speaking Voice Recognition Software. The trial lasts for 30 days and the full license is $14.

 

I tested the built in Voice recognition software that comes with Vista and I was surprised how well it worked. You should try it out.

EDIT: Be sure to go through the setup and tutorials because they allow the program to learn your voice correctly so improves accuracy. If you don't take the time to do this, the program will not work as well at all.

 

+1 for Vista's built-in voice rec.
(Haven't tried Dragon.)

 

Keep in mind that you will need a fairly good microphone/headset to make them work effectively. Even my £30 mic cant quite cut it, need to repeat something 10 times till it gets it right

 

Thanks for the suggestions folks! I did not know Vista (Home Premium???) had voice recognition software - I thought it was only available on the higher versions. I really need the VRS to be accurate - as I said I will be working on long documents. Maybe I will give Vista a spin first, if not I would go with Dragon. I would probably try to avoid Open Source stuff as I will be using it in quite strenous and time-sensitive environments....so I I can't afford too long a delay if things start to go wrong.

Thanks again for all your suggestions.

Cheers!

Ps: Dragon - as per their site - gives me a microphone - hopefully it will be adequate for the task. If I go with Vista, I will need to buy one, which should not be bad - I guess I can spend up to $99 (the cost of Dragon - Regular!)

 

My $2.40 desktop microphone actually works reasonably well. It's not all about how much it costs. (I'm sure there are better mics out there though.) The mic built in to my laptop didn't work too well though. They recommend using a headset for best results, which makes sense though I haven't tried it.

If you have bad results, you may want to check if there's noise on the mic jack.

It also helps to go through the training exercise.

Control Panel > Ease of Access > Speech Recognition Options

 

OK. Thanks. Will do. What about reference like foot notes etc. Do these need to be inputted by hand or can the software handle them? If you have the speech recog of Vista a little bit of time, can you please take a look and let me know here?

Thanks