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Speech recognition reaches its teenage years
By DAVE GUSSOW Using speech-recognition software is a lot like raising your kids. It doesn't always hear what you say. It doesn't always do what you want. And it requires a lot of time and patience. "You talk, it types," IBM prominently promises on the box for ViaVoice for Windows, Pro USB Edition. Yet until you put many hours into "training" the program in your talking technique, it's more "You talk, it may type" or "You talk, and it asks you to repeat" or "You talk, and it ignores you." The good news for those waiting for the right speech-recognition software is that ViaVoice has improved since I last checked it out in early 2000. That's particularly important since the market is down to two major players, IBM and Dragon's Naturally Speaking. We've checked out such software from time to time in recent years for two reasons: It's an interesting gauge of how well, or fitfully, personal technology is advancing for everyday users. (Technology true believers have long held out the vision of computers you can talk to.) And it's also an important alternative to typing for many disabled people. Installation and setup of the new ViaVoice were easy, taking about 20 minutes. An important part of the setup is reading onscreen text aloud so the program can learn your speech patterns. It was made easier with an included, good-quality Plantronics headset and microphone that connects to a USB port. (The whole package that we tested costs $189.95.) Theoretically, you're then ready to go. In reality, you and the program still need more time to learn each other. I didn't have to talk robotically, one word at a time, though I found myself speaking louder and in a clipped rather than natural, conversational tone. It was loud enough for my son to think I was calling him from across the house. I lost count of the "Remember to speak clearly and try again" and "Pardon me" messages that flashed on the ViaVoice bar at the top of the screen. As I did in the previous test, I challenged ViaVoice with the well-known "The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain" lyrics from My Fair Lady. Sure, it took six attempts to get it almost right. (In the end, "plane" instead of "plain" was the only error.) Among the first five efforts, the software came up with: "Loraine and Spain stays mainly in the pipeline" and "The rain in Spain stays mainly due bloodshot the plane." The more I worked with the software, the better it responded, though there are still significant problems to overcome. Among those: It wouldn't let me dictate into Microsoft Word or the Outlook e-mail program even though it's supposed to be compatible. Instead, I had to use its Speakpad, then cut-and-paste the text into my destination program. Voice command of programs was only partly successful. For example, saying "Surf the Web" opened the Internet Explorer browser. It navigated my Favorites so I could move around the Web. But it wouldn't open a news story on the New York Times site. In addition, it would open some programs, such as Word and Outlook, but wouldn't close them. It still has an annoying cartoon pencil called Woodrow that pops up to give you help, sometimes not so successfully. It's like that irritating animated paper clip that appeared in several generations of Microsoft Office. Woodrow is even worse because it speaks in one of those tinny robotic voices that sounds so 1980s-ish. Using Help functions also brought some strange results. Asking "What can you teach me?" brought up my browser's History list. Asking "What can I say?" brought up the time. I want to do more work with the program to see if I can master it well enough to dictate 100 words a minute or more with 95 percent accuracy, as some users have reported. With as much time as I spend on a keyboard, I'd like to give my hands a rest on occasion. But it will take a lot more work to get acquainted with the software, and the strange results. At one point, my exasperated sigh resulted in "Jewish" flashing on the ViaVoice bar. Funny, but it didn't sound Jewish. -- Dave Gussow can be reached at gussow@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4228.
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