Dragon Naturally Speaking and Sound card

[james636]

Just a couple of days ago, I posted a problem I had with not being able to play Star Wars Battlefront. I came to discover that my video card was quite outdated; Here's the link to that post http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=17772&highlight=

My question now is, could the same problem hold true with me having problems with Dragon Naturally Speaking. For those that are not familiar with this app, it is a voice recognition program. Could my sound card be the problem with dragon not working as advertised. I know some might say that I have to train my computer. Well, at first I had version 6 and I trained my computer for 8 months with no luck. I lost that app after a reformat, so I now have the latest version 7 perfered. The same mistakes that V6 made, v7 also made. I'm not talking about mistakes like Ice Cream and I scream, I'm talking about Me saying cat and it types monkey. In the "getting started" part of the program, It gives a visual example of a man Talking and the computer typing what he says. He's talking at a moderate and regular speaking manner and the computer is right on point with no mistakes at all. Also Ive seen, on TLC, doctors using a voice recgnition program during their procedures speaking with masks on their faces and there computer isn't making mistakes. Could it be my system setup.

Operating System System Model
Windows XP Home Edition (build 2600) Dell Computer Corporation DIM4400
System Service Tag: 9CP8F11 (support for this PC)
Chassis Serial Number: 9CP8F11
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
1700 megahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache Board: Intel Corporation D845PT AAA67834-304
Serial Number: MY01K5291934124701B1
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: Intel Corp. A05 03/14/2002
Drives Memory Modules c,d
39.98 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
9.73 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

Generic DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]
OPTORITE DVD RW DD1203 [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

ST340016A [Hard drive] (40.02 GB) -- drive 0 256 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'J5G3' is Empty
Slot 'J5G1' has 256 MB

ATI Technologies Inc. RAGE 128 PRO Ultra GL AGP [Display adapter]
DELL E771a [Monitor] (15.2"vis, s/n 8J85421R849A, January 2002)

Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio Controller

Generic SoftK56 [Modem]
CNet PRO200WL PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
Network Card MAC Address: 00:08:A1:15:5D:81

[offline]

It's been quite a while since I've used Dragon but:

( excuse me if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here )

a) There should be a test setup in DNS where your voice is played
back to you. Do you hear any distortion?

b) Have you tried using sound recorder in windows under accessories/entertainment? Any sound problems?

c) Your onboard sound (Intel(r) 82801B) is not one that
Dragon suggests: try a SoundBlaster Live! or SoundBlaster Audigy sound card (this could well fix your problem)

d) Your memory and CPU setup is ok for basic voice recognition
only - you need a much faster system for perfect results.
The faster a system, the more Dragon can use cpu cycles
for voice analysis match up with its database. Do not expect
standard language speed with your setup, pause a little between
words.

e) I assume you have checked your microphone and distance it
it sits from your mouth? Have you ever tried another mic just
to test?

f) Do you really get "Monkey" when you say "cat" ??

[BJ_M]

Dragon Naturally Speaking never really worked anyway , in fact the owners of the company went to jail - but oddly enough it worked better than most of the other products of this type (remember IBM via voice?) ..


in other words - no mater what sound card you have -- don't expect miracles ..

[offline]

That's funny. I've installed about a dozen pro versions with
the extended language (legal) pack and after about 4 hours
of use + 30 min training, the users are getting about 70-80 wpm
with 85-90 percent accuracy. Normal speaking is about 100 wpm
so that is not so bad. I have to agree that the so called fluid speech, recognition however, is a myth as is the digital dictaphone to text version.

[james636]

( excuse me if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here )

No prob; I'm all ears

a) There should be a test setup in DNS where your voice is played
back to you. Do you hear any distortion?

No distortion

b) Have you tried using sound recorder in windows under accessories/entertainment? Any sound problems?

I haven't tried that, will do though

c) Your onboard sound (Intel(r) 82801B) is not one that
Dragon suggests: try a SoundBlaster Live! or SoundBlaster Audigy sound card (this could well fix your problem)

Which of those two are the best and where can I purchase them?

e) I assume you have checked your microphone and distance it
it sits from your mouth? Have you ever tried another mic just
to test?

I purchased the microphone that was suggested by Dragon.

BJ_M wrote:

in fact the owners of the company went to jail ..

I didn't know that What for? Was it before or after they released there latest version (V7.3) of Dragon Naturally Speaking?

[BJ_M]

Philips has pulled out of speech recognition software; the owners of the collapsed Lernout & Hauspie (makers of dragon) were jailed for fraud (ScanSoft picked up the company’s remains at a bankruptcy auction); IBM has announced its Via Voice product will now be sold through ScanSoft in a move widely seen as a precursor to Via Voice being folded into ScanSoft’s Dragon product; and ScanSoft has just completed its acquisition of SpeechWorks. All that carnivorous action has essentially left us with a single uber-product: ScanSoft’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

[BJ_M]

read about them here (or google it - lots of news stories on this, as they stole almost 230 million and made lots of false product claims)

http://www.silicon.com/hardware/pdas/0,39024643,11021666,00.htm


it still was/is the best product though for speech - though 85-90% still requires a lot of hand work and fixing mistakes - i find it easier to just type ...