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Nuance Unleashes Its Latest 'Dragon' Speech Software
Nuance Unleashes Its Latest 'Dragon' Speech Software
Dave SmithJul 22, 2014, 17:30 IST
NuanceNuance on Tuesday announced the next version of its PC speech software for dictation and voice control, Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13.Like each prior release, Nuance focused again on speed and accuracy. According to Nuance CMO Peter Mahoney, Dragon 13 is 15% more accurate than Dragon 12, and for the first time, it supports the ability to dictate with built-in microphones so you don't need to use a headset for a "truly untethered experience."In an interview with Business Insider, Mahoney described how Nuance was able to make Dragon significantly more accurate."It turns out one of the ways to make Dragon more accurate is by telling it the words that mean something to you," Mahoney told us. "Product names, email addresses, those things, but also your writing style. That makes a big difference in accuracy."A big aspect of Dragon 13 is making it much more compatible and friendly with web applications, particularly email clients like Gmail or Yahoo Mail. Once you give the software permission to look at your "sent mail" folders, Dragon's set of tools automatically analyze your vocabulary so it can adjust its language model to better accommodate you for better speech accuracy."Dragon users are spending more time on web-based applications," Mahoney told Business Insider. "The early versions of Dragon worked well with clients like Microsoft Office and Word Perfect, but we've invested a lot to improve the compatibility and support for web-based applications for dictating but also navigating around."Nuance still boasts the fastest and most accurate speech recognition software, and dictation and voice control are further improved in NaturallySpeaking13, which has also gotten better at distinguishing between dictation and voice commands."Personal assistants are designed to have two-way conversations, which are convenient and cool, but they're meant to be an adjunct way of getting information, not controlling your entire environment," Mahoney told us. "I can navigate my entire computer user experience with my voice and make my computer hands-free. That's important for people that have strain injuries or personal disabilities, and Dragon is far ahead of anything [else like it] on the market."The "Home" edition of Dragon Naturally Speaking 13 will be available for shipping and download starting in August for $99. The premium version of the software, which costs $199, goes on sale today. Visit Nuance to learn more about the capabilities of Dragon 13.
