Talking To Type
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Speech-to-Text capabilities have been around for a good number of years now. In the early days the technology suffered from the lack of processing power that was available at the time. Competition between the major players helped drive the technology to achieve greater accuracy while a welcome decrease in training time was another benefit for the earlier adopters. As time went by hardware processing power increased considerably but we also saw some of the speech-to-text developers getting out of the mainstream business or opting to merge with competitors.
We have now reached a position where the hardware is capable of handling the needs that speech-to-text software requires to perform at an acceptable level and a market that is dominated by one company. While not a bad thing, this situation does deny the user the opportunity to make a choice between competing products. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to come across a speech-to-text product that was new to me.
This product, entitled SpeakToText 2.0, has been developed by CoolSoft LLC and can be purchased from the company's website at www.coolsoftllc.com. A 30-day trial version with a limitation of 1000 characters is also available. SpeakToText is based on Microsoft SAPI 5.1 speech recognition engine. You will need a system capable of running Windows 2000 Professional or later - I would suggest a Pentium III 500MHz or better. At least 256MB of RAM is required with 500MB being the preferred option. You also need 100MB of free hard disk space plus a noise-cancelling microphone headset. Unlike other commercially available products, the microphone headset does not form part of the standard package.
Any speech recognition software relies a great deal on its understanding of the user's speech pattern and diction. This product is no exception. In order for the software to achieve this familiarity, the user needs to undergo a training session which involves reading selected passages of text. In the case of SpeakToText, the recommendation is to read through at least three passages selected from a list of eight. This should take less than 30 minutes although you can stop the process at any time if you need a break.
After each reading session the data is processed and a user-profile builds up. Additional training sessions can be undertaken at a later date to help increase the program's accuracy. The software also has the ability to learn from any dictation sessions that are carried out. Individual profiles will need to be set up for different users.
SpeakToText has its own editor module which is a cross between WordPad and Notepad. You can dictate into this module using voice commands to enter, edit and format text. While the software promises support for a range of other applications such as Microsoft word processors, web browser and Chat programs, you will still need the SpeakToText editor module in order for this to be possible.
There are two modes in which this can happen. First there is Copy to Target whereby you dictate in the basic module and then issue a command for it to be sent to the target application, such as Microsoft Word, which will need to be open. A second method is to use the Echo to Target facility. In this mode, as with the Copy method, both the basic and target modules are open but the dictated text does not appear in the basic module instead it is immediately passed through to the target application.
Even with the full compliment of training exercises, mistakes will occur when the spoken word is converted to text. However you can use a Train feature to help with words that regularly cause problems. One obvious way in which this feature could be useful would be to train the software to accept "Full Stop" as the appropriate punctuation mark rather than the default American version of "Period".
SpeakToText does require a certain amount of effort on the part of the user before any real benefit is noticed. However the effort is generally worth it. The more you use the product, the more accurate it becomes. While it does not match the ease-of-use and accuracy, especially in the early stages, of a product such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, it is worth looking at to see if it will suit your style of working. This product is priced at $34.95.
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