Speech to Text

[dlenglert]

Hello,

I saw a lot of posts about text to speech devices, but my question is about speech to text. My uncle has ALS and has lost most use of the left hand and is slightly better in his right hand. He has problems keeping his arm/hand up to type and use the mouse for any length of time. I saw in another post talking about cameramouse.org for moving the mouse with your head.

So what is the best software for speaking to text on a Windows based PC? I have heard of Dragon Naturally Speaking, are there any others? What works best? Anyone had any experience with these? Is there free software that works great?

Thank you for any help you can give.

Derek

 

[joelc]

Welcome!
Dragon works well but if you have a newer PC and it has Vista as its operating system there is an excellent program built right in.

 

[fishing890]

I bought for my PALS a Franklin speaking Spanish-English dictionary at Radio Shack for 80 dollars. One can type in an English sentence and push the speaker button. It will say the sentence. Ask the salesperson for a speaker if you want louder sound.

It uses AA (or AAA) batteries and fits into the pocket of your pants. It is very light, weighs less than 1/3 pound.

My PALS uses it to talk to me and I use it to learn Spanish. Great machine for less than $ 100.

 

[MtPockets]

Does anyone know of a stand alone program that will work on a regular laptop with eye gaze recognition software?
I have had the Dynavox demonstrated for me in my home and I am impressed with it's eye gaze system tracking my eye movements, but the main computer system behind it all is at best anemic.
I have built my own computers for the past 10 years. The one I am using now was state of the art, high speed dual core 2 processor, lots of ram memory, extra high definition video card, great sound card, etc.
Nothing like this is available on the Dynavox. The rep said if I load any of my programs which are probably 30 of them, it will slow the machine down to the point it will not work as designed. For the high amount of money they want for it , it should do everything.

 

[Peg B]

Hi,

I have worked for years (since 1993) with Dragon NaturallySpeaking (DNS), for students with a variety of disabilities. (I used the product "Dragon Dictate" before DNS was available).

I cannot testify for the Vista voice recognition program. But DNS is superior to anything else. Any Dragon NaturallySpeaking Prefered Version 7 or later is best. The reason to get prefered is because it records your message as you speak, in case you forget what you said, and it reads aloud what you wrote so it can speak your words out loud for proofreading and/or communication with others. If you do not want/need these feature you can get the Standard version of the program.

I use version 7 on my lap top which has Vista OS. Last week I got version 10 for my 8 year old great nephew because they have a new computer and version 07 did not work well on that one. Both versions are terrific. The tricky part of voice recognition is to help the computer and software to recognize your speech accurately. My nephew trained on 7 and tomorrow I am training he and his mom on version 10 on their lap top. He has dyslexia.

Version 10 sells right now on Amazon.com for 100 dollars. There is also a 50 dollar rebate, but you have to send in a CD of an older version to get the rebate. I bought version 7 about 3 years ago on amazon for 28 dollars. Version 9 may be in stock soon on Amazon. I used versions 8 and 9 before, at work, and they are good too. Hope this helps. Peg

 

[Peg B]

Hi again,

I checked amazon just now and they have version 7 preferred for 18 dollars and change. It probably does not come with the microphone but it really only needs a cheap verision of the mike which used to be about 15dollars. Unless you have a really new computer, version 7 should meet your needs. Best Wishes, Peg

p.s Just put Dragon NaturallySpeaking in the Amazon.com search engine to see all of their versions and costs.

 

[MtPockets]

Eye Gaze system for laptops

Thanks so much for the information. I am looking more towards an eye gaze system to work with a regular laptop so I do not have to pay $10,000 for the Dynavox system, or something like it. I do not know if there is anything on the market like that.
I am losing the ability to talk and to use my hands and fingers, so the other program would soon be useless.