12-08-2004, 08:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Dragon Naturally Speaking 8 for Pocket PC/Desktop Review
"What would you do if you could cut the amount of time you spend every day typing e-mails, making forum posts, typing in reports and otherwise putting fingers to keyboard to communicate your message? For several years there have been companies such as IBM and ScanSoft whose aim has been to allow you to simply talk into a microphone and have that voice translated into text. Considering you can speak at hundreds words a minute, the potential of getting more work done in a shorter period of time is phenomenal. Writing the Great American novel while you sit back in your chair (or even lying flat on a bed) with eyes closed, hands at your side, while playing music into your headphones would suddenly become within the grasp of just about every person...literate or not."
If the idea of using your Pocket PC as a dictation device excites you, check out this review. I used to be a big fan of Dragon Naturally Speaking, but gave up on it a couple of years ago because it seemed like even with 99% accuracy, I still had to reach for the keyboard at least once per dictated sentence.
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12-08-2004, 08:10 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 49
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:?:
Did I read the review wrong, or does it really say that you can't use the Dragon software on the PPC without it being attached to a regular PC? What is the point?
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12-08-2004, 08:14 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 65
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I agree, if the Pocket PC can't translate it then basically it's just a glorified audio recorder that you must dock to translate on a PC.
I wonder if you could record a WAV or MP3 and import that into speech recognition program to translate. If so then there would be no need for the PPC software.
Still aways off from what I would call truly portable and usable in the field. Software designed for the PPC that eliminates the desktop component is truly where it's at!
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12-08-2004, 08:23 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,768
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Microsoft at one time showed a demonstration whereby a PPC would allow a user to record (dictate) in real time and via a wireless network, the audio was streamed to a powerful desktop computer to transalate the spoken words into written text and streamed back to the Pocket PC.
If accuracy were good enough, I can see a SIP module that did nothing more than capture audio and collect back text from a remote server.
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Jonathan (JonnoB)
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -Edmund Burke
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12-08-2004, 08:34 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 307
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by JonnoB
Microsoft at one time showed a demonstration whereby a PPC would allow a user to record (dictate) in real time and via a wireless network, the audio was streamed to a powerful desktop computer to transalate the spoken words into written text and streamed back to the Pocket PC.
If accuracy were good enough, I can see a SIP module that did nothing more than capture audio and collect back text from a remote server.
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But you would need a number of steps to work well. With Pocket PCs now at 624 mhz, why can't we have a real stand alone program?
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12-08-2004, 09:06 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 18
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What ever happened to VoiceCentral by Fonix? This was supposed to work entirely on the Pocket PC. Has anyone here ever tried it?
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12-08-2004, 09:11 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,520
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Its a little disappointing. My Toshiba came with Voice Command and Text to Speech software. It would be great to have Speech to Text capabilities as well.
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Phone: Nexus one Backup Phone: AT&T Samsung Jack; Future Phone: I'm Watching WP7; Media Player: Platinum Zune HD 32GB; Home Server: HP MediaSmart Server LX195 Console: XBox 360, PS3, Wii |
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12-08-2004, 10:33 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 92
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Fonix and IBM ViaVoice
"What ever happened to VoiceCentral by Fonix? This was supposed to work entirely on the Pocket PC. Has anyone here ever tried it?"
I have VIA Voice (it came bundled with my old iPaq 3835) and could never get it to work reasonably on either my 3835 or my current 4155. A while back I bought Fonix Voice Alert and couldn't get reasonable results from it either. Fonix claims it can use a custom dictionary but I couldn't find any way to set one up. My multiple emails to Fonix tech support were completely ignored. Handango even tried to contact them on my behalf as well, also unsuccessfully. Eventually Handango was kind enough to refund my money (I buy a fair amount of software from them and will continue to do so - I've found their support to be very good). Fonix, on the other hand will never get another dollar from me, now will I hesitate to make others aware of the poor experience I had with them.
The happy ending is that I eventually bought Microsoft's Voice Command. It's pretty limited in functionality, but what it does it does very well, at least for me on my iPaq.
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12-09-2004, 12:11 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 148
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by silver99
I wonder if you could record a WAV or MP3 and import that into speech recognition program to translate. If so then there would be no need for the PPC software.
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DNS will translate wav files. Not sure about mp3, yet.
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12-09-2004, 01:03 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 184
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I must say that this is somewhat dissapointing in that it doesn't translate on the PPC. Whats the use. I would like to speak, then edit, then print. See me when you can do the DNS.
 0X
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Linear Mode
