Speaking About Dragon

Jon Morrow Video – Speech Recognition for Bloggers

2009-11-20T17:16:00Z

Jump over to Problogger to check out Jon Morrow's terrific video about speech recognition. This is a great overview that covers everything from sound cards to microphones to PC set-up to software. Jon includes a great demo of Dragon as well!

"Speech recognition technology has come a long way in the last few years – in this in depth, informative and inspiring video which Jon Morrow (Associate Editor of Copyblogger and Co-founder of Partnering Profits) shares his first hand insights into speech recognition for bloggers."

Happy viewing!

Cool Series from GearDiary: Look Ma, No Hands...

2009-11-13T15:33:00Z

An interesting new series has kicked off over at GearDiary focused on the state of voice recognition technology today. Writer Dan Cohen has started his series with an in-depth look at Dragon NaturallySpeaking. He's even included some great videos that take us through the process of getting started with Dragon.

Hop on over to GearDiary and take a look!

Alex Shines Through!

2009-11-12T03:45:00Z

I'd like to share a story that was submitted to us from a proud parent:

"For our 12 year old son, school was a nightmare. His Aspergers made the work tedious, his dyslexia was frustrating, and his dysgraphia made handwriting extremely difficult and exhausting. According to him, it was torture every day until he met the Dragon. It took a bit of practice and he was frustrated when the dragon didn't understand him. He even was heard reprimanding the dragon for making mistakes! Soon, however, he and the Dragon became fast friends. Sometimes they would play too much and Alex enjoyed tricking the Dragon with sound effects. It's now almost 4 years later and Alex and the Dragon are still friends. Alex has been able to write wonderfully imaginative stories with the help of the Dragon, as well as, complete other academic projects in high school. Now, he and the Dragon talk often which allows his ideas to be communicated more effectively so that the true Alex shines through. Thank you Dragon!"

Are you using Dragon to overcome a learning disability? What about someone you know? Let us know! These stories are great to share, and can really help others who might be struggling alone with learning disabilities.

Australian Webinar for Legal Community from WinScribe

2009-11-11T08:03:00Z

You are invited to attend a FREE webinar

Digital Dictation, Workflow and Speech Recognition: A Legal Case Study

Wednesday, November 25th 2009
12:00pm - 1:00pm (AEST)
1:00pm - 2:00pm (AEDT)
via WebEx online meeting

* Please note you will need to dial in using your phone to hear the audio portion of the event.
The toll free number is 1800-093-897.
Pre-registration is required

Register Now

Speech Recognition has been a hot topic in the legal industry in recent times, but how can this technology integrate with your dictation system? In this educational session, you'll hear first hand how these technologies can work together with an introduction to the options available to deliver maximum efficiencies within a law firm environment.

Guest speaker and WinScribe Dictation customer Malcolm Sinclair, Practice Manager at Queensland based Law Firm Payne Butler Lang, will present his experiences with the technology, which will include discussions around the following:

Challenges within the firm that led to the requirement for Digital Dictation with the Speech Recognition and how it is being used within the firm.
Key objectives and how the technology met those needs
User adoption and training
Speech Recognition component accuracy and results since implementation.

The session will conclude with a Q&A discussion to give you the opportunity to share your experiences, and pose your questions to our expert panel

Panel members:

Scott Winstone - Sales Executive, WinScribe
Cameron Foale - Sales Executive, WinScribe
Derek Austin - Sales Manager APAC, Nuance Communications.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Best regards,
Derek Austin
Sales Manager Asia Pacific, Integrative Technologies
Nuance Communications

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Law Firm
Administrative
Management

Dictation Services
Management

Dictation &
Transcription Users

Information
Technoilogy Directors
and staff

Those looking to take
advantage of using
both Dictation and
Speech Recognition
components.

CONTACT

Please contact
Nicole Williams at nwilliams@winscribe.com
with any further enquiries.

Register Now

Dragon Review in Post Chronicle

2009-11-09T16:33:00Z

Writer Jim Bray just posted his review of Dragon to the Post Chronicle.

Take a look!

November Dragon Newsletter is Here

2009-11-05T14:34:00Z

The November issue of our Dragon NaturallySpeaking newsletter is up. This month's newsletter includes tips and tricks to boost accuracy and productivity, as well as new command and control tips. We've also featured a great student success story. Check it out here.

If you'd like to keep tabs on Dragon, you can sign up to receive our monthly newsletter via email. Hop on over here to sign up!

Dragon 10.1 earns Windows 7 certification!

2009-11-03T18:03:00Z

Windows 7, the newest version of the Windows operating system, was just launched in late October. And a lot of you have been asking recently: “What’s the deal with Dragon and Windows 7 support?” Well, we are pleased to report that Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10.1 now officially supports Windows 7 (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions). Dragon has earned the Windows 7 logo certification for compatibility!

More information can be found here, including what to do if you are currently using Dragon and planning to upgrade to Windows 7.

If you’re using Dragon 10.1 with Windows 7, drop us a comment here, @ us on Twitter (@DragonTweets) or post a message on Facebook. We’d love to hear your thoughts on using Dragon in the Windows 7 environment.

Dragon Makes the Grade in Education

2009-10-30T02:47:00Z

There was a time when talking in the classroom was strictly forbidden. Those days are fading fast as Dragon NaturallySpeaking helps students and teachers at all educational levels better exploit their full potential just by speaking.

What's behind this growing trend? For starters, U.S. laws mandate support services for students with physical and learning disabilities. Dragon provides accessibility for students with a wide range of physical impairments that make traditional keyboard typing painful, if not impossible. By enabling them to create documents and emails up to three times faster than typing, Dragon helps special education students keep up with their non-disabled peers - even in a mainstream education setting.

Dragon has proven especially helpful for students with language-based learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, because it enables them to transfer their ideas into print more easily. Research also suggests that speech recognition can help dyslexic students achieve significant improvements in reading, decoding, spelling and comprehension by giving them the opportunity to practice their reading skills and positively influencing sound-character awareness. What's more, Dragon has been shown to improve core reading and writing skills for students of all abilities through heightened strategic engagement with print and language while dictating and correcting errors.

Speech recognition is gaining traction as an integral part of business education curricula too. With industry pundits like Bill Gates hailing speech and touch as the interfaces of the future, many forward-looking schools are integrating speech recognition into traditional middle school, secondary and post-secondary business courses to prepare students for the 21^st century. What makes Dragon the ideal speech recognition choice for these courses? It's remarkably easy to use. It's highly accurate - even for non-native speakers or students who speak with strong regional accents. And it's available in many languages to help students receiving bilingual education services.

Teachers love Dragon because it dramatically streamlines the assessment of student assignments. Consider this: for each assignment, teachers can spend up to 20 minutes handwriting comments on each paper. With 25 students or more per class, this can easily add up to 8 hours per assignment. With Dragon, teachers can read and respond to student assignments quickly and easily because they're not constrained by time-consuming handwritten feedback. It's a win-win for everyone; teachers enjoy better work-life balance and students benefit from more comprehensive and detailed assessments.

Interested in learning more? Download our information-packed whitepaper, "Dragon NaturallySpeaking: Helping All Students Reach their Full Potential."

Dragon Making a Difference: Heraldo's Story

2009-09-09T03:09:00Z

I just received this great story today from a woman named Carol Roche. Carol teaches students with learning disabilities and she has been using Dragon to help some of her students with writing. The attached story was written by a gentleman by the name of Heraldo who recently finished her class.

Congratulations, Heraldo, and thanks for sharing your story!

Peter

Heraldo’s Story

Written By Heraldo 7/28/09 Using Dragon Naturally Speaking Software

I would like to invite you to take a look at the class from which I’m graduating. I’ve never been very good at spelling but now, because of this class, I can do a lot of spelling, and different things that I never was able to do. The class was hard, yes, I have several disabilities but the class was well worth it. I really do feel that if there’s anyone out there listening who may have a disability like me or a series of disabilities, they really should take this class because it helps build self-esteem. This class also gives them the tools that they need to do a lot of writing, so they can improve like me.

Before this class, I couldn’t spell and I couldn’t hear the words clearly to learn. Now Dragon Speak Naturally does most of that for me and now I can write letters and send email. I can do my class assignments using spellchecker and also other tools I have in Dragon Speak Naturally or either in Word Perfect. I’m very glad that I’ve been involved in this class.

There was many jobs I really wanted but couldn’t get them. I was quite capable of doing the jobs but I couldn’t put things down on paper because of a lack of spelling and writing skills. I’m learning a lot of these things through this class and now that I’m graduating from this class, I plan to buy this program and I am also going to come back regularly. I want to continue to learn to do things like what I’ve been doing in this class for a long time.

I went to many organizations in the school district and even went to adult rehabilitation and asked for help. I couldn’t get any help at all. I even went to the library and signed up for the special programs that they have. I was put on the waiting list for a year and then I was sent a letter saying that there was no one there who could help me.

Now I have an outstanding teacher. At the same time I am trying to acquire my GED. One of my teachers believed enough in me to encourage me to take the Dragon Speak Naturally class out at Pikes Peak Community College. She pushed me and after a bunch of tests and speaking with a lot of people, I finally came to Pikes Peak Community College. I’m so glad that she pushed me and even drove me out here to speak to the people who know all the information to get into this class. I’m so very glad that all of these things happened and she believed enough in me to push me.

I’ve been trying for so long to learn how to spell and how to write and to learn about punctuation and writing. I know I’m a lot closer than I used to be and I’m so glad I’ve come here. I’ve had so many good and bad experiences in my life that I’ve always wanted to share with other people, but I wasn’t able to because I couldn’t spell out words. I couldn’t put them on paper, but now I can and obviously it has allowed me to learn and I’m looking forward to learning more.

I’m so very happy that I’ve been a part of this class. I worked hard and I will continue to work even harder to get better. I want to thank everyone involved with me, especially the outstanding instructors who have helped me to get here. Thank you so much and I’ll continue to work hard and make you proud of me.

Now Pitching For Team Dragon, Former Boston Pitching Ace Curt Schilling

2009-08-04T15:20:00Z

Starting this August, radio listeners in the greater Boston area will hear former Boston Red Sox pitching ace Curt Schilling talking about Dragon NaturallySpeaking. For those of you who aren't that close to baseball, Curt was the pitcher for the Boston Red Sox who famously pitched through a painful Achilles tendon injury to win one of the key games on the way to the Boston 2004 World Series championship.

Now retired from baseball, Curt is a successful entrepreneur in the Boston area who is working on a large scale multiplayer videogame at his company based in Maynard Massachusetts. Curt was excited about this opportunity to work with Dragon since he is a fan of speech recognition and has been looking at it as part of his videogame development.

We had a lot of fun putting these commercials together and it was great to get a chance to meet Curt in person in the radio studio. Like most professional athletes, Curt was a lot bigger than I imagined. I bet it was pretty intimidating to face Curt's pitching, especially if your baseball skills are like mine and limited to Little League where we faced pitchers who threw the ball at a blazing 35 mph.

We are planning more radio commercials for other regions of the country (don't worry New Yorkers, we won't make you listen to Curt...), so keep your ears out for Dragon on the radio.

There are at least six versions of the commercial playing in the Boston area, but here is the long form for your listening pleasure:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Dragon and Windows 7

2009-07-29T19:47:00Z

The newest version of the Windows operating system, Windows 7, was released to manufacturing last week, with general retail availability expected in October. Nuance performed preliminary testing on the release candidate of Windows 7 and found that Dragon installed and ran on this operating system with no major issues. Our preliminary testing of the release candidate of Windows 7 included both English and Spanish.

So for anyone who is wondering if Dragon will run on Windows 7, the short answer is yes. But there is some fine print you should keep in mind: Although Windows 7 may include some new features and functionality, these items have not been reviewed and tested within Nuance labs. You should also note that we tested the "release candidate" so additional testing will be necessary when Windows 7 is formally released as Microsoft may have made changes to the final version of the release that may impact compatibility with Dragon.

"I Speak Dragon" contest deadline extended

2009-07-01T18:54:00Z

Due to overwhelming interest and demand, we have decided to extend the deadline for this year's I Speak Dragon contest to July 15th. That means more time for some great stories to be shared!

If you haven't yet, please drop by ispeakdragon.nuance.com and tell us your own Dragon story!

The People Behind The Scenes of Dragon NaturallySpeaking - Meet Megan McAnulty

2009-06-17T15:04:00Z

(Please visit the site to view this media)Meet Megan McAnulty. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Programmer

New Instructional Videos for Dragon

2009-06-06T13:19:00Z

I'm very excited about a new series of videos that we are producing to help users get the most out of Dragon. We just posted the first video in our customer portal area - it can be found here: http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/customer-portal/dragon-naturallyspeaking-training-videos.asp

We've only released one for now, but we have a few more in production and we have a list of topics that we are considering for videos. If you have any feedback on what you would like to see, please let us know.

Peter

The People Behind The Scenes of Dragon NaturallySpeaking - Meet Oscar Soto Mayorga

2009-05-29T12:53:00Z

Oscar Soto Mayorga
Dragon Sales & SDK Support Engineer
Dragon NaturallySpeaking

(Please visit the site to view this media)