ViaVoice Pro 10
- Thread starter KathyFP
- Start date
Towncrier
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 23, 1999
- Messages
- 10,334
I purchased a copy of ViaVoice a few years back and had a heck of a time getting it to install on my PC. I only purchased it because I found the software for a very low price and wanted to play around with it. I didn't play very long as I had to uninstall the program in order for the rest of my PC to work.
Again, this was a very early version. I had no intentions of using it for any serious work.
Again, this was a very early version. I had no intentions of using it for any serious work.
Towncrier
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 23, 1999
- Messages
- 10,334
Make sure that you have a decent noise cancelling microphone/headset to use with ViaVoice. I think that the reason my copy was so inexpensive was that it was not bundled with a microphone. The right microphone can make all the difference when it comes to voice recognition.
Imzadi
♥ Saved by an angel in a trench coat!
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2004
- Messages
- 40,076
I've had 2 different Voice Speaking programs several years ago. The first program was so old you had to pause...between...every...word...and speak...slowly...and...individually. I typed faster than that. 
Now I have the company Dragon Naturally Speak. It too, is a few years old, so I don't know how much the the technology has improved since. Back then, it needed LOTS of hard drive space, because it uses lots of memory during usage.
You do have to manually speak each punctuation and capitalization as you go along. The program doesn't know you want a period until you say PERIOD. It is a pain when dictating. It's not like simply speaking into a tape recorder. (You've seen people here who type with no punctuation, capitalization or paragraph spacing, maybe they are using the program?
)
This one you need a couple of hours just to "train" the program so it will understand your voice & how you speak specifically. You may say certain vowels with a regional accent, or clip off the ends of words, or your pluralization of words may be non-existant because you drop your "s", or you may mashyourwordstogetherwhenyouspeak. The program needs to be trained so it can recognise all these & separate out all your individual nuances.
That program was much more intuitive, so it will guess at words it doesn't recognise, and put them in context to what it thinks you are saying, so it makes sense ON THE PAGE.
The PROBLEM was, if it does't understand ONE word or phrase, it guesses, typing a phrase that is a close match to what it thinks you said & sounds like, then follows up with a string of words that also sound similar to what you said (and in context to what it just wrote, but may in fact be not at all even remotely what you said.)
When dictating off the top of my head, I've lost complete sentences this way, as when I'm later proofreading what was written, it is soooo out of context to what the rest of the paragraph is, (but makes SENSE,) I don't remember what I originally meant to put there, but I know I didn't say THAT!!!
To use the movie, "Pretty Woman" as an example, I may have gone to the opera. I'll be dictating about it. I'll say, "I loved it so much more than "Pirates of Penzance!" The program will mishear it and type, "I loved it so much, I could have peed in my pants!"
For me, with that program, I've found if I freehand write the letter down first, so it is out of my brain & onto paper, so I haven't lost any thoughts by mistyping, I can then do to my computer and literally DICTATE what I'm sayimg, pausing, inserting in punctuation & capitalization as I'm going along, and editting/correcting words as I'm dictating, because I am simply doing that -- DICTATING and not thinking out loud, off the top of my head. It worked well for that. But was a pain, as I could have simply typed it in the first place.
I'd love to try a newer version out, but don't have the time or inclination to "train" a new version.
Now I have the company Dragon Naturally Speak. It too, is a few years old, so I don't know how much the the technology has improved since. Back then, it needed LOTS of hard drive space, because it uses lots of memory during usage.
You do have to manually speak each punctuation and capitalization as you go along. The program doesn't know you want a period until you say PERIOD. It is a pain when dictating. It's not like simply speaking into a tape recorder. (You've seen people here who type with no punctuation, capitalization or paragraph spacing, maybe they are using the program?
)This one you need a couple of hours just to "train" the program so it will understand your voice & how you speak specifically. You may say certain vowels with a regional accent, or clip off the ends of words, or your pluralization of words may be non-existant because you drop your "s", or you may mashyourwordstogetherwhenyouspeak. The program needs to be trained so it can recognise all these & separate out all your individual nuances.
That program was much more intuitive, so it will guess at words it doesn't recognise, and put them in context to what it thinks you are saying, so it makes sense ON THE PAGE.
The PROBLEM was, if it does't understand ONE word or phrase, it guesses, typing a phrase that is a close match to what it thinks you said & sounds like, then follows up with a string of words that also sound similar to what you said (and in context to what it just wrote, but may in fact be not at all even remotely what you said.)
When dictating off the top of my head, I've lost complete sentences this way, as when I'm later proofreading what was written, it is soooo out of context to what the rest of the paragraph is, (but makes SENSE,) I don't remember what I originally meant to put there, but I know I didn't say THAT!!!
To use the movie, "Pretty Woman" as an example, I may have gone to the opera. I'll be dictating about it. I'll say, "I loved it so much more than "Pirates of Penzance!" The program will mishear it and type, "I loved it so much, I could have peed in my pants!"
For me, with that program, I've found if I freehand write the letter down first, so it is out of my brain & onto paper, so I haven't lost any thoughts by mistyping, I can then do to my computer and literally DICTATE what I'm sayimg, pausing, inserting in punctuation & capitalization as I'm going along, and editting/correcting words as I'm dictating, because I am simply doing that -- DICTATING and not thinking out loud, off the top of my head. It worked well for that. But was a pain, as I could have simply typed it in the first place.
I'd love to try a newer version out, but don't have the time or inclination to "train" a new version.
/
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