The DragonDictate / Speech Recognition FAQ

Articulate Systems
600 West Cummings Park
Suite 4500
Woburn, MA   01801, USA
+1(617)935-5656 Fax: +1(617)935-0490
+1(800) 443-7077

Direct Dictation into Applications - Version 2.0 allows you to directly dictate into almost all 3rd party applications such as WordPerfect, ClarisWorks, Excel, QuickMail, America On-line, QuarkXPress, and PageMaker to name just a few. In addition to dictating text, you can use bundled versions of AppleScript and QuicKeys to create whatever voice macros you want to control your favorite applications.

New Auto Correct Feature - Version 2.0 includes a very powerful new feature that enables the system to automatically correct words after you correct a previous word. For example, if you say "2.0" and the system hears "to point zero", when you correct the "to" to "2", the system will automatically correct the "point zero" to ".0". This feature increases the system's performance by automatically making corrections for you in many cases.

More Hands-free Control - For the disabled user, Version 2.0 provides significantly more hands-free control than previous versions. For example, you can now correct misrecognized commands entirely by voice from within the target application. In addition, there is more robust AppleScript control of the finder including moving and clicking the mouse.

PowerBook now Supported - Version 2.0 runs on the PowerBook 540 lines of notebook computers without any additional hardware other than our PowerSecretary microphone. For those of you who need a mobile dictation solution, this is the configuration for you.

This is what others have to say

From: "Zack T. Smith" 
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 1994 12:53:46 -0800

Power Secretary costs about $1k more than DDwin. FYI, I recently called
"articulate" systems, Inc., to ask the salespeople there whether
they could articulate why their price is so much higher. I pretended
that I have the option of using either Pentium of PowerPC and that
the deciding issue is which product (Powersectretary or DDwin) is
cheaper. Rather than admit that their price is significantly higher, the
salesperson actually lied to me and said that DDwin costs *more*.
An entire rationale was provided as to why this is the case.
I called Dragon to attempt to get verification of this new sales-insight,
but was told that the 'articulate' person's numbers and rationale
were all wrong, and somewhat troublingly so for the Dragon person I spoke
with.

Date: Wed, 14 Dec 1994 08:01:25 -0500
From: Steve Larose 

According to PC Magazine, the list price for DragonDictate for Windows,
Classic Edition, Version 1.0 is $698. Everything I have seen from Articulate
Systems indicates the list price for PowerSecretary is $2,500 (although they
sometimes offer a discount, but I don't know how one qualifies for the
so-called discount). While I'm a diehard Mac fan, it's hard to justify paying
$1800 more for voice recognition on the Macintosh. Does anyone have any
insight as to why Articulate feels it can charge so much more, and when the
price of their product might become competitive with voice recognition
products on the PC platform? 


From: "Gary L. Karp" 
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 06:54:27 GMT

A brief update on my recent post on the PowerSecretary dictation system for
the Mac from Articulate Systems.
 
I had understood it was necessary to dictate into a separate window and then
copy into the application.  This has turned out to be only partially true.
One may dictate into any application, but cannot correct by voice unless they
work in the separate window.
 
The good news is, an update will release in November which corrects that.  It
will be possible to dictate and correct in any application window.
 
I feel confident based on discussion with Articulate that they are committed
to eventually meeting the full set of Dragon features on the Mac.  I will be
getting the system, and will report as I get it running.
 
It will remain necessary to have a minimum 040 system.  I am getting a
PowerPC.  It will also run on PowerBook 540s without added boards or
peripherals - except the microphone, of course.
 
A company in the Bay Area, Scott Tech, has a solution whereby Dragon is
pumped through a small PC and out to a Mac in ADB format.  This remains the
answer for pre-040 Macs.

Hardware

From: Simon Crosby 

A person in Cambridge suffering from early stages of RSI wants to know
whether there is a DragonDictate in the pipeline for NT.  Anybody
know?

Also, has anybody done the equivalent of a2x for NT?  I mean, PC doing
the recognition and an a2x-like thing on an NT  box.  Is this possible
(thankfully I have no knowledge of windows or nt)

From: Hans Heilman 

>> Also, has anybody done the equivalent of a2x for NT? 

There is a hardware solution called a TTAM that takes ascii output from
one PC and converts it into the correct electrical interface to go into the
keyboard port of a second PC. It also does mouse emulation going into the 
second PC's mouse port. I think this is the configuration:

+-----------------------+                   +-------------------------------+
|PC running Dragon under|         +---->[mouse port]     PC running windows |
|DOS, text goes out     |         |         |                               |
|port          [output port]-->[TTAM]-->[keyboard port]                     |
+-----------------------+        ^ ^        +-------------------------------+
                                 | |
			  keyboard mouse


A friend of mine has been using this setup for a while so he could use Dragon
for Windows development, before the DDWIN release (he was willing to live with
having to have 2 PC's). As an experiment, he swapped the righthand PC to be one 
running NT and everything seemed to work fine.

The TTAM is around $400 -- a company called something like Prentke-Romich sells
it (along with other assistive technology). If you send me mail, I'll get the
real name and address.


From: dp@world.std.com (Jeff DelPapa)

If you have a PS/2 mouse, the ttam will control it. (takes special key
sequences, but they can be done as voice macro's) The one I had (it is
currently on extended loan) also had a MAC ADB connector, and could
spoof both keyboard and mouse on that machine.  Mine was made by
Words+ in northern CA (who make lots of adaptive products) but they
have since stopped.  The box was originally designed by the Trace
Center at UWisc/Madison, and was licensed to several vendors.

Having said all that, there may be a minimal hardware solution. Under
DOS, and Windoze 3.1 there is a "handicapped access pack" (available
free for the asking from IBM and Microsoft respectively)  One of the
many things it provides is "serial keys" a setup that lets the keyboard
and mouse be driven by data on the serial line.  (you send "sentences"
to access characters outside of the normal printing ones)

I don't know if NT has such a facility, but since it was developed
after the access pak became available, they may have built it in from
the start.  If someone has the NT doc set and wants to take a quick
look, it would be appreciated.  (I will be looking into this myself
shortly, a co-worker will be in this spot soon)

All of these presume a two computer solution. In the case of NT, with
suitable software, you can use the DV/X trick and get the menu's to
share the main screen. (dragon/dos won't run in a less than full
screen ms-windows dos box, the video emulation isn't good enough).

In the case of the TTAM, it does not support ps/2 scan code 3
keyboards (unfortunate, as that is the code set that many X terms that
adopted PC keyboards use), so check yours.  The vanilla PC (big 5 pin
plug) keyboards are fine.  The program to convert key events to the
sentences needed by either ttam or the access pack does not exist in
the public domain.  The Word+ people used to include a copy if you
bought a ttam, but they wouldn't sell it separately, and it may be
essentially unavailable now.  I don't know what the others do.

From: dp@world.std.com (Jeff DelPapa)

I am glad we have the windoze NT documentation in machine searchable
format.  NT does indeed have a handicap access pack available for it,
the page that tells you how to get it is in the appendix of the SNA
Server development kit installation guide (I kid you not).  Anyhow it
is /softlib/mslfiles/wn0789.exe on ftp.microsoft.com.

I got a copy, but haven't tried it yet.  (toby will do so on monday).
Since I have the disks, I suppose I should try installing dd/win on NT
and see what happens.

From: Hans Heilman 

One place I know the T-TAM can be ordered is:

 Prentke Romich Company
 1-800-262-1984

Their catalog carries a number of assistive devices, and also sells
the T-TAM, apparently to connect their assistive devices to a PC
(although it can also be used to connect 2 PC's together).
They have a fact sheet on the T-TAM which can be included.

They list several different T-TAM models on their price list, so
be clear with them on the details.

Apparently, the T-TAM does have special input escape sequences
defined which can cause it to generate mouse button actions, although
my friend found that behavior to be somewhat flaky in different
PC configurations (as opposed to the straight ASCII character input
which worked fine). He was fairly frustrated with mouse emulation
difficulties.

He was running PROCOM+ on the Dragon PC to send Dragon-generated
text out the COM port, but ran into a limitation. Apparently,
PROCOM+ allows user-defined sequences to be found to different keys,
but the limit is 10 characters, which wasn't long enough for al
of the special T-TAM sequences. He worked around this by coding
a small ad-hoc program which reads input and sends it to the COM
port.

Software

The following summary of a discussion of hoarseness was made by Scott@ccgate.dragonsys.com (Scott Jangro).

++++++++Original E-mail Posting+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have been reading peoples' summaries of their experience with voice
input for performing programming and related tasks, since I have
considered use of this technology myself for a worsening RSI problem. It
all sounds quite encouraging. However, at this time I have a few
questions/concerns perhaps someone can address:

1) have the users of voice input at work found that their talking disturbs 
their officemates? Has anyone needed to arrange for having an office to 
themselves? It seems that when office space is limited this may pose a
problem.

2) has anyone experienced hoarseness or similar problems attributable
to the increased talking? Is it possible we may be partially substituting
one problem for another?       

3) speaking of hoarseness, how do Dragon and the other packages
perform when the user has hoarseness due to voice strain or a cold?
Does recognition suffer significantly?

Any insight on these questions would be appreciated. Thanks!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1) have the users of voice input at work found that their talking disturbs
their officemates? Has anyone needed to arrange for having an office to
themselves? It seems that when office space is limited this may pose a
problem.
----------------------------- this can be a problem.


2) has anyone experienced hoarseness or similar problems attributable
to the increased talking? Is it possible we may be partially substituting
one problem for another?
---------------------------
No problems...


3) speaking of hoarseness, how do Dragon and the other packages
perform when the user has hoarseness due to voice strain or a cold?
Does recognition suffer significantly?
-------------------------------
I've found that if I already have a sore throat, working by voice can
aggravate it.  However, I have not had recognition problems even when
*completely* stopped up (as in runny nose, congestion, etc.).

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 >their officemates? Has anyone needed to arrange for having an office
to  >themselves? It seems that when office space is limited this may
pose a
>problem.

I work in a cubicle.  Most of the people around me say that my talking is
"white noise" that doesn't bother them.  Apparently one person has
complained, and as a result I may be getting a private office (which
I wouldn't normally rate) when my group moves in a month for two.
If this happens I'm certainly not going to complain :-)

>2) has anyone experienced hoarseness or similar problems attributable
>to the increased talking? Is it possible we may be partially substituting
one
>problem for another?       

I had really bad voice strain the first day or two, but I changed the way
I was speaking and the problem when away.  I had taken a singing class
and been taught how to project without straining my voice.  When I used
that technique I stopped having voice strain.

>3) speaking of hoarseness, how do Dragon and the other packages
perform when
>the user has hoarseness due to voice strain or a cold? Does
recognition
>suffer significantly?

I have allergies and my level of congestion varies a lot.  Mostly it's not a
problem.  Sometimes on a particularly bad day I notice the recognition
being a bit worse, but it's not a real big difference.  I have two frequently
used macros, [sniffle] and [clear throat], which don't type anything.
They work really well!

Here's the mail I sent in response to the original inquiry, since people
other than that person seem to be interested:

I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Sybase.  I do new feature
development on the SQL Server, which is our core product.  I investigate
problems, write specifications documents, write code, and fix bugs.  My
work is in C in a Unix environment.

I use DragonDictate all day long.  I can't type at all without pain, so
I do everything with DragonDictate.  I think that the effect on my
programming productivity is minimal; i.e. I get pretty much the same
amount of work done with DragonDictate as I used to get done typing.
It's a little more of an impediment when writing a document; I create
documents somewhat more slowly than before.  However, I'm perfectly
capable of doing what's needed for my job.  I was a very fast typist;
DragonDictate makes me more like a fairly slow typist. There are plenty
of engineers here who are not super fast typists who do a good job.  My
company expects the same amount of work from me that they expect
from other people, and this has not been a problem.

There was a pretty significant amount of time required to get going with
DragonDictate in a Unix programming environment.  Getting the various
pieces of software and hardware working together correctly took some
doing; getting macros and such set up took some doing; getting used to
using DragonDictate took some doing.  I spent a fair amount of time after
hours working on my environment for the first month or two.
During that period of time, I was doing my job using DragonDictate but
wasn't as productive as I am now with it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


1) have the users of voice input at work found that their talking disturbs 
their officemates? Has anyone needed to arrange for having an office to 
themselves? It seems that when office space is limited this may pose a
problem.

> > > I have found that I can dictate pretty softly, and it seems to work
better that way anyhow.  Outside noise doesn't seem to disturb
DragonDictate much, though.  Classical music is just fine, as are
conversations in the hallway, but it doesn't seem to like Devo music!
As for disturbing my neighbors, as long as I talk relatively softly, that
doesn't seem to be a problem (no worse than having a neighbor who
spends all day on the phone, which is normal for some environments).
I think privacy may be more of an issue: you need to realize that now
people can hear you writing your email!  (Already a problem with phone
conversations).

2) has anyone experienced hoarseness or similar problems attributable
to the increased talking? Is it possible we may be partially substituting
one problem for another?       

> > > Yes, hoarseness is a problem.  Much better when I talk softly,
which is desirable anyway.  I also drink a lot of water and tea.  You
should treat it like typing -- don't do it for hours without stopping once in a
while for a break.  When I first got the system, my head, neck, and
shoulders bothered me more, until I realized that I was essentially
shouting at the system (like teaching a class without a microphone and
trying to project all the time).  This is less of a problem now that I've
learned that it works just fine with soft speech. 

3) speaking of hoarseness, how do Dragon and the other packages
perform when the user has hoarseness due to voice strain or a cold?
Does recognition suffer significantly?

> > > Yes, it does suffer.  It's really fun to dictate while crying!
:-(  You need to be sure not to save your voice files after such a session
so as not to screw it up.  It does still work, though.

Any insight on these questions would be appreciated. Thanks!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

hoarseness has not been a problem for me, even when I was pulling a
lot of all-nighters last summer/fall.

the following will help keep you going longer:

1) sip water frequently, and don't wait for your throat to get dry before
you get something.

2) speak softly and steadily

3) avoid drinks with caffeine or the harsher pops.  (I don't know what
the mechanism is, but avoiding caffeine was suggested by a friend who
is a singer.  I did find that my throat would feel dryer and more irritated if I
had had a lot of pop and I had been working at the  computer.)

There are many professions where people use their voice all day.  Its
good to get suggestions from them.  We have an advantage, because
our voices must only carry to the microphone.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    1) have the users of voice input at work found that their talking
disturbs 
    their officemates? Has anyone needed to arrange for having an office
to 
    themselves? It seems that when office space is limited this may pose
a
    problem.

DragonDictate is sensitive to noise, particularly to drawers and binders
closing, although you can train an empty macro to these sounds it does
interrupt and slow you down.  I think a private office is important; don't
be afraid to mention the American Disabilities Act.
    
    2) has anyone experienced hoarseness or similar problems
attributable
    to the increased talking? Is it possible we may be partially substituting
one
    problem for another?

I sip water all day and have had problems with hoarseness only when I
let my cup stay empty.  Drinking water also forces me to take breaks to
go to the restroom.
    
    3) speaking of hoarseness, how do Dragon and the other packages
perform when
    the user has hoarseness due to voice strain or a cold? Does
recognition
    suffer significantly?

DragonDictate works surprisingly well when my voice sounds different
from normal.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

>
> 2) has anyone experienced hoarseness or similar problems attributable
> to the increased talking? Is it possible we may be partially substituting
one
> problem for another?

I am responding to this question because I have had a particularly bad
experience in this area.

I began using Dragon extensively at the beginning of this year.  After a
couple of months, I noticed my throat was getting sore each time I used
it.  Being a performer in amateur theatre, I found that I was having to quit
using Dragon by Wednesdays so that my throat could recover for a
weekend performance.  (In a dozen years of singing and acting, I have
never experienced voice problems from performing.)

The problems persisted and worsened.  I asked our medical department
if a voice therapist could be brought in to see what I was doing wrong. 
Nine weeks of aggravating bureaucracy later, I saw an ENT (ear, nose,
throat) doctor who told me I had modules on my vocal cords.  I
immediately stopped using the system.

While the nodules have since faded away, I continue to have pain in my
throat from speaking (regular speaking).  So now I can neither type nor
talk confortably.

There is one other person here that uses Dragon, and though he is able
to use it, he, too, had some much less severe throat problems along the
way.  Even now, if his allergies act up, he has some difficulty.

I am glad to hear that others have not had much problem with this, but be
advised that it can occur.  This possibility is also noted in the best book
on RSI we have yet to find, on p. 168 (RSI A Computer User's Guide, by
Pascarelli and Quilter).

From: duncan@super.org (Duncan A. Buell)
Subject: hoarseness and speech coaches

I realize that the discussion about hoarseness has already
come and gone, but I thought I would add my comments, since
they may help people.  I had been suffering from a chronic
irritated throat from speaking to Dragon, so as well as
seeing a doctor and getting medical treatment, I spent about
10 weeks seeing a voice coach.  My coach is a choral music
conductor, has 10 years experience as a public radio
announcer, and teaches voice and public speaking privately
and in classes.  Here is the summary of my experience with
her; I think this is highly relevant since I can now speak
at great length to Dragon without suffering irritation in my
throat.  I found that once I recognized what I was doing
that was causing the problems, it wasn't all that difficult
to change my habits.  Although it is desirable to change
habits in everything regarding speaking, I found that the
relatively controlled environment of speaking to Dragon made
it easy to practice what I was supposed to be doing.
And since speaking in general had never given me problems
(I spent 15 years teaching), fixing the irritation caused
by speaking to Dragon solved nearly all my problems.

Two things were paramount in my case.  First, I wasn't
getting enough air, and second, I was ``squeezing'' my words
out.  This is a different way of stating the comments made
in Pascarelli's book about shallow breathing.

First things first: air.  Don't breathe from the top of your
chest but from your abdomen.  Don't tense up.  Treat your
body as the instrument it must be -- stretch your arms up
and rotate your shoulders before you sit down for a session.
Roll your head to stretch your neck and jaw muscles.
Singers would do this before a practice or performance, and
athletes do this before exercise.  You should do the same.

Posture is important to being able to breathe properly and
get enough air.  Sit up; don't lean forward.  When you lean
forward you close off the abdominal part of your breathing
apparatus and cannot help but breathe shallowly from your
upper chest.  Better yet -- stand.  I have the good fortune
to be able both at work and at home to stand when I dictate
to Dragon.  At work I have both the Dragon computer and my
workstation elevated (using the simplest of support
materials -- unopened reams of paper) and a copy holder
coming up from between the two machines.  This allows me to
stand and get plenty of air, as well as to fidget, reach
both keyboards and my cup of water, and even stretch while
speaking.

I had been speaking with short, shallow, bursts of air.
This was less of a problem with dictating ordinary text as
with dictating computer commands, programming constructs, or
the detailed stuff of mathematical equations in TeX, since
ordinary text has longer words and has a certain flow to it.
My coach listened to me speaking and suggested I was
probably starting my utterances with my vocal cords closed
and then requiring that they produce sound from that
position.  Most of the changes I have made have been to try
to change that.

One key to not squeezing the sound is to speak words by
letting the air start flowing first and then starting the
sound.  "Speak on a sigh" my coach says.  I now speak words
like "one", "as", "of", "and", and "in" much more as if I
were singing them.  Think of reaching for a high note to
sing such a word.  Open your throat and behind your palate,
start the air going and then let the sound come.  Very
gently aspirate an "h" before such a word.  Linger on the
vowel to round it out.

I do find that Dragon has a harder time distinguishing "as"
from "has" (but not the other way around), but aside from
that there seem to be no problems.  The choice list is a
little different from before ("Juan" now often appears when
I say "one", but it's never the first choice).

Another problem I had was my Midwestern "a"; too much nasal
raspiness.  Words like "as", "has", "that", were hard on my
throat.  I am much more careful to be more expansive with
such words.  I have even at times resorted to chanting to
Dragon instead of speaking because it is so much more
natural for me to sing with rounder, more open tones than to
speak thus.  Dragon has never seemed to notice at all that I
have begun chanting instead of speaking.

The bottom lines: posture and correct breathing to get
enough air, and making sure to use enough of that air when
you are speaking.