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Dragon NaturallySpeaking™, America's #1 Selling Speech Continuous Recognition Product, Incorporates Features Most Requested By Customers

New York, N.Y. - June 16, 1998 - The speech recognition PC software rated by independent reviewers as the world's best in accuracy just became even more accurate with new BestMatch™ technology from Dragon Systems of Newton, Mass. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 3.0, announced today at PC Expo in New York, incorporates BestMatch technology, evaluated to be about 25% more accurate than Version 2.0. Last year, various major publications reported Version 2.0 accuracy rates of 95% to 98%.

Other major enhancements include new Natural Language Commands, which allow users to edit and format documents by speaking commands in a more natural way, an enlarged active vocabulary, and Dragon NaturallyMobile™ software, which makes it easy to create documents using a hand-held recorder.

"Accuracy and ease-of-use are the most important features in a continuous speech recognition product for dictation and it is what customers request the most. But, improvements in accuracy are the most challenging improvements to make," said Dr. Janet Baker, President and Co-Founder of Dragon Systems. "Our accomplishments in this area are the result of our extensive on-going investments in research and development, which keep Dragon NaturallySpeaking as the leading speech recognition product in the marketplace."

Natural Language Commands build on the revolutionary Select-and-Say™ editing and formatting first introduced by Dragon Systems. Instead of requiring users to memorize a specific command, such as "bold that", the new Natural Language Commands recognize a wide variety of ways in which a user may issue a command. "Make that bold", "Bold the last paragraph", "Set font bold" will all accomplish the same task, as will many more conversational commands.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking now recognizes hundreds of thousands of ways in which a person could issue a command; however, the user only needs to say what comes naturally.

For the first time, Dragon products are designed with custom features that make it easier for users to create accurate documents with a hand-held recorder. Users can simply speak into an approved device, even if they are miles away from their personal computer. When the user returns to their computer, the Dragon NaturallyMobile software with Dragon NaturallySpeaking automatically transcribes the recording with the same high level of accuracy that is found in Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

"Whether the user is an executive road warrior, a commuter, a lawyer, or a physician that moves from place to place, the new Dragon NaturallyMobile software adds a new level of convenience to Dragon's software," Dr. Baker said.

BENEFITS AND FEATURES:

TRUE CONTINUOUS SPEECH - Users speak naturally and at a normal pace without the need to pause between words. Dragon
NaturallySpeaking was the first product on the market that recognized large vocabulary general purpose continuous speech.
HIGHLY ACCURATE - Industry leading BestMatch™ technology is designed to improve accuracy for most users by an additional 25%. The accuracy in previous versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking was already reported to be from 95% to 98%.
ENLARGED ACTIVE VOCABULARY - The enlarged active vocabulary comes with more than 62,000 words that are ready to use. A total of 230,000 words is on disk and can be automatically retrieved by the system. Each word contains spelling, pronunciation and language usage information for high accuracy. Users can customize the vocabulary by inserting up to 54,000 new words, proper names, and specialized terms.
DRAGON NATURALLYMOBILE™ SUPPORT - Users can create documents by speaking into a portable recording device, such as the Sony® MZ-R30 palm-sized mini-disc recorder and the Norcom Model 2500 hand-held tape dictation machine. The Dragon NaturallyMobile software enhances Dragon NaturallySpeaking by making it easier to transcribe the recordings right into the user's document. (Dragon NaturallyMobile is available in the Preferred, Professional, Legal and Medical product versions).
WORKS IN VIRTUALLY ANY WINDOWS APPLICATION - Users can just point their mouse and click in an application. Their text automatically appears in the text window where the cursor is. The product works well with Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, Lotus WordPro, e-mail packages, Internet chat packages and many more.
NATURAL LANGUAGE COMMANDS - Easy to use and easy to remember commands can be issued in a natural way to edit and format text within Microsoft Word 97. For example, a user can say "Create a table of five columns and two rows, "Make a five by two table," or many other variations.
COREL® WORDPERFECT® SUPPORT - Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 3.0 is the only product that comes fully integrated into both of the two leading word processors, Microsoft Word 97 and Corel WordPerfect 8. Integration makes it easier to create documents right in the application that is most familiar to the user.

DRAGON NATURALLYSPEAKING PRODUCT FAMILY

Dragon NaturallySpeaking STANDARD - This value packed edition includes all of the major features that made Dragon NaturallySpeaking America's #1 selling continuous speech product, according to PC Data. It includes Dragon's BestMatch technology for superior accuracy, Natural Language Commands with Select-and-Say editing, dictation into virtually any Windows application and more.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking PREFERRED - Contains all of the features of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard and adds features designed for business and other users, including: Dragon NaturallyMobile for transcription of recorded speech with recorded speech playback and text-to-speech for easier editing.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking PROFESSIONAL - Contains all of the features of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred and adds sophisticated customization features for the user who creates significant amounts of text. In addition, the Professional Edition adds advanced macro support which allows for total control of forms, the ability for users to add and customize vocabularies and DragonDictate 3.0 for complete hands-free use.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Suite - Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Suite is the first Dragon NaturallySpeaking continuous speech recognition software product designed specifically for the legal market. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Suite allows attorneys, judges, paralegals, legal secretaries and others in the legal profession to improve their productivity by creating documents, briefs, notes and correspondence completely by voice.

The Legal Suite adds a comprehensive legal vocabulary, support for Corel WordPerfect and Microsoft Word, and a copy of Corel WordPerfect Legal Suite 8 to the already extensive list of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional features. These include multiple user and topic configurations, increased active vocabulary sizes, text-to-speech capabilities, recorded speech, and integration with DragonDictate® software which allows for complete hands-free operation of a PC.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical Suite - Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical Suite is a continuous speech recognition system specifically designed for medical professionals to create patient records, medical reports, notes, correspondence and other documents. Medical professionals can dictate directly into Microsoft® Word, Corel® WordPerfect®, as well as custom medical reporting applications.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Suite - The new Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Suite for Medical and Legal products use the latest version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking continuous speech recognition software, including Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Suite or Medical Suite Version 3.0, Dragon NaturallyMobile™ software and an innovative palm-sized recorder from Sony. Users create text simply by speaking naturally into the Sony MZ-R50 mini-disc recorder, even if they are miles away from a PC. Later, the recording can be transcribed by Dragon NaturallySpeaking software using new features designed to make audio transcription easier. The new product is aimed at medical, legal and other professionals who need the highest accuracy and the most flexibility in their work. They can create briefs, reports, correspondence, email or other documents, while away from the office or when moving from one location to another.

AVAILABILITY AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is scheduled to start shipping by the end of June. It supports Windows 98, Windows 95 and Windows NT. It requires a 133 MHz Pentium Processor IBM compatible PC, 32 MB RAM for Windows 95, and 48 MB RAM for Windows NT. To take advantage of improved accuracy with Dragon's BestMatch Technology, users require an additional 16 MB RAM. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 3.0 supports a broad range of built-in audio and industry standard sound cards, including Creative Labs SoundBlaster 16 and compatibles, as well as notebooks with built in 16-bit audio. Proprietary speech cards are not required for either desktops or portables. Users should refer to the latest compatibility list on the Dragon web site before they install the program: www.dragonsys.com/techsupport/complist/nscmplst.html.

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Dragon Systems, Inc. the Natural Speech Company, is a worldwide leader in PC speech recognition. Dragon develops and markets high-performance, cost-effective speech and language technology tools that, in multiple word languages (including American English, British English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish), enable users to create any text, issue commands, and enter and access data simply by speaking. The company also licenses its technology worldwide through VARs (value-added resellers), developers, distributors, resellers, OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), ISVs (Integrated Software Vendors) and strategic partners. Dragon Systems ports its technology across multiple operating systems and hardware platforms - from hand-held devices and personal computers to workstations, and is pursuing leading-edge research and development projects for computer and telecommunications applications.

Founded in 1982, Dragon Systems is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts; its Dragon Systems UK Ltd. subsidiary, which is focused on speech recognition for telephony and high-noise environments, is based in Cheltenham, England; Dragon Systems GmbH is located in Munich, Germany. You can find Dragon Systems on the World Wide Web at www.naturalspeech.com or www.dragonsys.com.

Dragon Systems is a registered trademark of Dragon Systems, Inc. NaturallySpeaking, and The Natural Speech Company are trademarks of Dragon Systems. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

Please Note!
The article above was released Dragon Systems, Inc.

Press Contact:

Renee L. Blodgett
Dragon Systems, Inc.
617.796.0348
reneeb@dragonsys.com