Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite lets software developers create their own high-performance speech-aware applications incorporating the award-winning Dragon NaturallySpeaking continuous-speech technology. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite includes the Dragon NaturallySpeaking SDK, with easy-to-use ActiveX® components and COM interfaces based on Microsoft's SAPI specification. Dragon NaturalVoc™ Tool for custom vocabulary development and Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional are included, and for a limited time, a copy of Corel® WordPerfect® Suite 8.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite supports all of the available Dragon NaturallySpeaking 3.0 languages, which currently include American English, British English, French, Spanish, and Italian. The US English version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional is included in the product; Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional in other languages is available separately.

"The Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite provides easy-to-use, high-performance tools for adding natural speech capabilities to new or existing applications," said Roger Matus, Vice-President of North American Marketing. "The Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite will be key to establishing and supporting new strategic relationships between Dragon and its OEM/ISV partners."

Dragon NaturallySpeaking SDK

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite contains ActiveX controls that make speech-enabling applications easier than ever before. Developers can integrate the full capabilities of Dragon NaturallySpeaking directly into their programs using Visual Basic®, Visual C++™, Delphi, and other development environments supporting the industry-standard ActiveX specification.

Support is also provided for the Microsoft Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI), which is based on the Component Object Model (COM) architecture under Win32®. The component objects can be accessed through C/C++ or Visual Basic® Automation.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking SDK supports Dragon NaturallySpeaking's state-of-the-art continuous speech recognition, constrained recognition grammars, user interface (including training and correction dialogs), macro scripting language, text-to-speech capability, and fully customizable vocabulary for use in a wide variety of continuous dictation, data entry, and command-and-control applications.

Dragon NaturalVoc™ Tool

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite also includes Dragon NaturalVoc Tool. Dragon NaturalVoc Tool is an enhanced version of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Vocabulary Builder that offers additional functionality for development of redistributable custom vocabularies. When building vocabularies, this tool can analyze efficiently much more source text, resulting in enhanced language models and improved recognition performance.

Developers can modify the extensive 230,000-word general-purpose vocabulary in Dragon Naturally Speaking, or the specialized vocabularies found in the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Suite and Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical Suite for optimal performance in a broad range of applications.

Runtime Components

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite includes a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional, which includes a comprehensive active vocabulary of 30,000, 45,000, or over 64,000 words and the revolutionary Vocabulary Builder™ for creating custom vocabularies. Developers can dictate, format, and edit text in Microsoft^® Word and Corel® WordPerfect® as well as use Natural Language Commands for editing, formatting, and navigating in Microsoft Word 97. Developers can create macros to insert standard code segments or execute complicated commands with a single word or phrase.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite supports all Dragon NaturallySpeaking 3.0 versions as the end-user runtime component, so end-users can benefit from using speech recognition within their other applications. Developers can bundle Dragon NaturallySpeaking with their application, or license custom runtimes directly from Dragon Systems for seamless integration with high-volume applications.

Features and Benefits of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite

• Increase the Value of Software — Speech recognition speeds data entry, form filling, and dictation, simplifies complex tasks, and allows hands-free use of PC applications. Interactive user interfaces use text-to-speech for eyes-free user prompts, feedback on recognition performance, and to read back text and numbers for instant confirmation or correction at a later time.
• Add Sophisticated Speech Capabilities Quickly and Easily — ActiveX components access Dragon NaturallySpeaking through a simplified set of properties, methods, and events. Developers can control recognition, user interface, text-to-speech capability, and vocabulary while leveraging their existing code base, custom controls, and development tools. They can even create, modify, and select recognition grammars dynamically for improved recognition performance. Support is also provided for Microsoft SAPI, an industry-standard programming interface.
• Build Customized Vocabularies for Specialized Applications — Dragon NaturalVoc Tools allows developers to create high-performance, redistributable custom vocabularies to support specialized applications, from dictation within narrow medical and legal specialties, to data entry of company-specific product and client names.
• Leverage the Advanced Capabilities of Dragon NaturallySpeaking — Dragon NaturallySpeaking's outstanding recognition performance, intuitive user interface, and large, fully customizable vocabulary have made it the most widely acclaimed software product of the year. Its "Select and Say"™ voice editing feature provides simpler, more natural selection and correction of dictated text.

System Requirements (Developer System)

• 200 MHz Pentium Processor, IBM-compatible PC; Windows® 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT 4.0.
• Memory requirements: 64 MB; an additional 16 MB of is recommended for using within Corel WordPerfect or Microsoft Word.
• Hard Disk requirements: 200 MB; 40 MB additional to save recorded speech; 15 MB additional to install Text-to-Speech; 50 MB for Dragon NaturalVoc Tool.
• A 16-bit sound card or built-in audio system with input quality equal to or greater than the Creative Labs® Sound Blaster® 16.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite is expected to begin shipping to US customers in early August at a SRP of $695. International products and upgrades to support development in all available Dragon NaturallySpeaking 3.0 languages are expected to be available by the end of August.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Developer Suite joins DragonXTools™ 2.0 and Dragon SpeechTool® 1.1 in the DragonDeveloper® Series of developer products. Dragon Systems offers a broad range of speech products, including Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical Suite, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Suite, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Call Center Edition, Dragon Point & Speak, Dragon PhoneQuery, DragonDictate® for Windows, and DragonPro® specialized language modules.