Re: Here's the PCMag review of ViaVoice & NaturallySpeaking

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How different the viewer's opinions and test results would have been had
they been properly instructed on the use of the products and if the
software had been installed on the correct system. I very strongly DO
NOT feel that either VV or Nat are ready to be "off the shelf" types of
products for the average consumer. I have voiced that opinion many,
many times in this group. In addition to factual errors in the article
(like Dragon's entry into voice-recognition listed as 1994 with a
Windows based product - my first Dragon was for DOS in 1991 - and
listing IBM with a first entry in 1993 - in reality IBM's first entry
was built around the Dragon recognizer), there were many things wrong
with their testing setup:


1) RAM - was listed as 32MB. As we have all found, 64 is pretty much
the acceptable "good" minimum for either of the products.
2) soundboard - SB "vibra" 16. aka "value" - not recommended. SB16
will work fine, the "value" model will not. Even then, what values did
the Audio Wizard return for their mic/soundboard setup?
3) what issue of Windows? 95, 95A, 95B? updated kernel32? what were the
resources? How many things were loading in autoexec? win.ini?
StartUp? How much junk had they failed to clean up in their temp
directory? How many actual programs did they have loaded at the same
time?
4) did they load both programs on the same computers? which one did
they load last? Did they have the SR-1 patch installed on Office 97?
5) the microphones that are usually shipped with both products are
hardly the best microphones to use with the products.


I could go on and on about their hardware/software setup but won't -
think I've made the point. Someone who knows what they are doing needs
to setup the system to provide for maximum productivity with either VV
or Nat. Most consumers (and a lot of computer resellers) simply don't
know enough to do it correctly.


I had to laugh out loud when I read their review of Nat. It became
obvious that:
1) They had no idea that they COULD, if they wished, use the
mouse/keyboard to correct/change words and phrases - they thought they
HAD to do it by voice AND
2) They didn't know the correct way to do it by voice. Not once did I
read that they knew about "Select and Say" which, in my opinion, is the
strongest feature of Nat.


As a result of 1) and 2), it actually took them longer to correct the
text in Nat than it did in VV. They claim to have run their test
dictation through the Vocabulary Builder prior to performing the test.
I have a hard time believing that they did this correctly either or I
think their test results would have shown a much higher degree of
accuracy, even with inadequate hardware.


Just once I would like to be able to write one of these articles or to
at least have the chance to properly train the reviewer on hardware that
has been setup correctly prior to his writing the article.
NaturallySpeaking performs very well on my system. True, I have had to
spend time learning the correct "care and feeding" of Nat. but I've also
had to spend a lot of time learning WordPefect, Word, Excel,
TimeSheets, and any other software I've ever loaded. The perception
problem comes, I think, when people start thinking of voice recognition
software being as easy to install and use as replacing their keyboard.
It's not. I doubt that it ever will be nor do I think that it has to be
in order to be a useful tool for people to interface with computers.
However much time it took me to learn to use Nat., it was far less time
than the months and months it took for me to learn to type at 60+wpm.
Rose


Alan Arfken wrote:
>
> Holland St.John wrote:
> >
> > David,
> >
> > I don't get PC Magazine anymore. I do however consider NaturallySpeaking
> > a fairly frustrating and irritating program to use. I haven't used
>
> The review is at http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/speech/index.html
> --
> H. Alan Arfken, Jr. MESSAGE INTENDED FOR
> mailto:aarfken@@pobox.com ADDRESSEE(S) ONLY
> Post Office Box 6337
> Chattanooga, TN 37401-6337
> 423.267.2100


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