For example, we hastily added DARPA, MHz and BRB - you know, essential phrases in this line of work. Once your profile is created, you can then add certain words that are in the (admittedly gargantuan) dictionary. Users are asked to read 10 or 15 paragraphs aloud so that the software can learn how you speak, how you pronounce certain things and whether or not you've a southern drawl. The most time-consuming part of the setup is right at the beginning. The installation process is relatively painless - our boxed test unit did indeed require an optical drive to be nearby, but digital download versions are available for those who have opted for one of Apple's ODD-less machines. In short, it's an application that runs quietly in the background and picks up whatever you say into the bundled Plantronics USB microphone. We recently pushed our preconceived notions about this stuff aside in order to spend a solid week relying on our voice instead of our fingertips - read on to see how it turned on.įor those unaware, Dragon Dictate is comparatively new to the Mac platform. The newest build of Dragon Dictate for Mac (v2.5) allows users to seamlessly combine dictation with mouse and keyboard input in Microsoft Word 2011 it also gives yappers the ability to more finely control how Dragon formats text such as dates, times, numbers and addresses, while a free iOS app turns your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into a wireless microphone. Teaching a vehicle how to route calls, adjust volume and tweak a radio station is one thing, but having a program that turns actual speech into presentable documents requires a heightened level of accuracy. Throw in nearly unlimited amounts of dialect and regional variation with even a single language, and it's a wonder that programs such as Nuance's Dragon Dictate even exist. Teaching a computer program how to recognize, understand and act upon the movement of human vocal chords is a Herculean task. Even today, most new automobiles have to be spoken to loudly, pointedly and directly, and even then it's a crapshoot as to whether or not your command will be recognized and acted upon.įor as much as we complain, we totally get it. It's not that things aren't improving, it's just that they aren't improving at the same rate as the hardware and software surrounding them. While processing speeds and user interfaces have made great strides in the past handful of years, voice recognition has managed to continually disappoint. Anyone that's used an early generation Ford SYNC system - or pretty much any vehicular voice command system - knows exactly what we're getting at. It's one of those technological wonders that we all seem to take for granted, while simultaneously throwing laughter its way for not being nearly sophisticated enough.
Or, more specifically, speech recognition.
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