Newton, MA, June 12, 1996 — The first speech recognition dictation system for Windows® NT and the first with text-to-speech capabilities, was announced today by Dragon Systems, Inc.® of Newton, MA. DragonDictate for Windows version 2.5 gives us ers complete control of their PC by voice, including allowing users to enter text, data and commands into virtually any Windows application simply by speaking.

"While other companies continue to add some of the features that have been in DragonDictate since 1994 or before, Dragon Systems takes a leadership role again with several industry firsts," said Roger Matus, director of marketing for Dragon Systems. "We' re proud to introduce the world's first dictation product for Windows NT and the only dictation product with built-in Netscape support."

DragonDictate continues to be the only system that instantly supports virtually any Windows application for in-place dictation. It offers the largest number of words built into the active vocabulary for faster dictation. Additionally, it supports an ex tremely wide range of portables and systems with built-in 16-bit audio or selected sound cards. Supported cards come from a wide range of companies, including Creative Labs, Advanced Gravis, Media Vision, Reveal and Turtle Beach.

Windows NT is rapidly becoming the operating system of choice for corporate and other environments. The new integrated speech capabilities, with both speech-to-text and text-to-speech, resulted from a collaboration with Centigram® Communications Corporat ion of San Jose, CA.

Now, users can simply ask to have their input read back to them or to have selected files, such as electronic mail, read aloud. Centigram's TruVoice® system is included in DragonDictate for Windows Power Edition and is optional for Classic and Personal E ditions.

Version 2.5 also brings improvements to DragonDictate's already well acclaimed speed and accuracy. Dragon Systems ran extensive real world tests using randomly selected users on typical systems, who dictated a wide range of materials drawn from medicine, law, business, personal correspondence, and hobbies, such as sports and cooking. Even on slower 486 systems, first choice out-of-the-box accuracy for most speakers exceeded 85%, with on-choice list accuracy of 90%. After moderate use on a Pentium® syst em, first choice accuracy reached 92% with on-choice list performance reaching 96.5%. Even higher accuracy is achievable with further use. DragonDictate automatically adapts to the user's voice. It personalizes the acoustic and language models to the way each user speaks, adjusting automatically to individual dialects, accents and language usage.

This new version also further supports the Netscape® Navigator™ Internet browser with macros that make surfing the net easier and more fun.

New Features and Benefits

• NT Compatibility — Gives corporate and other users the added benefit of speech recognition in their environment. DragonDictate for Windows is unique, as the only dictation product available for Windows NT, Windows 95 and Windows 3.x on the market today. Only Dragon Systems makes dictation available to all Windows users.
• Text-to-Speech — The new, integrated text-to-speech feature allows users to have their text read aloud to them within multiple applications, including electronic mail.
• Support for Internet Commands — Voice macros have been added to maximize the use of the Netscape Internet web browser. Users can access browser menus and dialog boxes by voice.
• DragonPro™ Series Compatibility — DragonDictate 2.5 for Windows is fully compatible with the DragonPro Series, including DragonBusiness™, DragonEXTRA!™, DragonLaw™, DragonMed™ and DragonTech™. The DragonPro series offers specialized langua ge modules with up to 60,000 additional words for domain-specific terminology.

Additional Features

• 120,000-Back-Up Dictionary — More than just a spelling list, the 120,000-word back-up dictionary contains speaker-independent acoustic and language usage information, to ensure accurate recognition. It provides additional words not included in the active vocabulary and covers a broad range of topics.
• 10,000 - 60,000 Word Active Vocabulary — Unlike other products, DragonDictate for Windows 2.5 comes with an active vocabulary fully loaded with up to 60,000 words. Since there is already a large word choice, the user does not have to waste ti me adding words individually into blank slots. Words from the back-up dictionary can be added easily, often by only entering one or two letters. These few letters are compared to the acoustic and language information in the dictionary to quickly find the right match. When users do need to add a word, it is done simply by saying and spelling the word once as they dictate. For users who want to add lots of names, new words or whose speech is heavily accented, Version 2.5 uniquely lets them customize their entire active vocabulary. Experience has shown this to be a major benefit for users, particularly those with highly specialized terminology. The Personal Edition comes with a 10,000 word active vocabulary, the Classic Edition with 30,000 and the Power Ed ition with 60,000.
• QuickTalk™ — Dragon's exclusive semi-connected speech engine, provides faster dictation speeds. QuickTalk significantly reduces the length of the pauses previously required between words. As long as users speak clearly and distinctly, they can talk quickly and more naturally.
• True Continuous Speech for Commands, Navigation and Numbers — Continuously spoken phrases may be used to streamline a wide variety of commands such as "bold next four words." DragonDictate is the first general purpose PC dictation product t o incorporate a true continuous speech recognizer that builds commands, navigation phrases, and numbers. A natural speaking style may also be used for variable length numbers, columns of digits, most seven or ten digit telephone numbers, and five or nine digit zip codes.
• MouseGrid™ — Dragon System's voice controller for a mouse, enables users to quickly move their mouse to any point on the screen and click the mouse by saying a few words.
• Automatic Menu Tracking — DragonDictate is designed with fully automatic menu tracking by instantly adjusting its command vocabulary to let users "say what they see." Unlike some other dictation programs on the market, users can dictate dir ectly and immediately control virtually any word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail, or other application, including specialized products designed for particular industries.

Systems Requirements

Version 2.5 supports Microsoft Windows 3.x, Windows 95 and NT platforms. It requires a 486/66MHz or faster (Pentium recommended), 12 MB of RAM for the Personal Edition, 16 MB for the Classic Edition and 20 MB for the Power Edition with an additional 4 MB recommended for NT users. Hard disk storage requires a minimum of 32 MB for the Personal Edition, 36 MB for the Classic Edition and 42 MB for the Power Edition.

DragonDictate supports a broad range of built-in audio and industry standard cards, including Creative Labs Sound Blaster and notebooks with built in audio. Users can talk directly to most of their existing PC applications. Proprietary speech cards are no t required for either desktops or portables. Users can speak into a microphone to issue commands, pull down menus and dictate directly into most Windows 3.x, Windows 95 or Windows NT applications.

Since 1990, the award-winning DragonDictate has been the preferred PC dictation system for people wanting to drive their computers entirely by voice. DragonDictate is part of a family of speech recognition products available from Dragon Systems with produ cts ranging from tools for software developers and OEMs to the DragonPro Series that is especially designed for professionals who have specialized dictation needs. DragonDictate 2.5 for Windows is available through 21st Century Eloquence, a Certified Pre mier Reseller of Dragon Systems.

U.S. Pricing (These prices are for the U.S. English version sold in the U.S. only.)

Personal Edition $395 Classic Edition $695 Power Edition $1695

This press release was created by dictation using DragonDictate for Windows, version 2.5.

Dragon Systems and DragonDictate are registered trademarks of Dragon Systems, Inc. DragonPro, DragonMed, DragonLaw, DragonEXTRA!, DragonBusiness and DragonTech are trademarks of Dragon Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respectiv e holders.

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Copyright © 1996 Dragon Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.