Just wondering if there is such thing as voice to text recognition software out there. You know for people with no arms 
Just kidding. I was typing late the other night, working on NNII - Novel Number 2 - and I was thinking to myself how wondrous it would be if there were software wout there, that I could use instead of typing. Just speak into the little microphone and POW the words show up on the screen…
So does such software exist? Or anything remotely close?
Plenty of programs! Only thing is, I’ve heard they’re very inaccurate; technology has yet to catch up with the concept.
I have ViaVoice, and I had to quit using it, as it never really was good enough.
There have been a few other threads here in this forum discussing pluses and minuses of a few packages - you should try using Search to find them, as there was some good info.
There’s also Dragon Naturally Speaking :
http://www.dragonsys.com/naturallyspeaking/
I used voice to text software for a while before being frustrated by their inaccuracy (a few yeats back… perhaps they are more accurate now).
Now I use FlashPeak’s UltimaShell. Not a voice to text software, but it increases my typing speed tremendously. It completes words and sentences for me as I type. Easy to use and very flexible.
Dragon Naturally Speaking…I don’t have a link because I get it site-licensed through my University but its an excellent piece of software as far as I can tell.
OK I just ordered the upgrade for ViaVoice for Windows, Pro USB Edition. It is the latest upgrade and I can write off all IBM products:) Thanks all !!!
I used Dragon Natural Speaking for awhile, and it worked pretty well, but I eventually stopped using it when I figured out that I can type much faster than I can talk.
I’ve used Dragon, ViaVoice and a few others. Dragon was the most accurate of all the ones I tried.
Many people get frustrated because you have to train the program to recognise your voice, which can take a few hours of tedious reading of provided scripts.
They are great if you have difficulty typing once you get it trained and get used to all the commands.
I’m looking forward to putting it on my fairly new puter and giving it a go again. My hands are getting too knackered to type much anymore 
Dragon Systems, sadly, is no more. I worked for a company that did some subcontracting work for them, and had a friend who worked there. Listening to him tell the stories of how Lernout & Hauspie were going down the tubes was entertaining, but sad at the same time.
Wired did a nice story on what happened and where the code ended up.
Dragon (as was) is the best of the various ones I have tried. It is almost the only one that has worked with a non-american accent.
I read to it in training mode for a half an hour every week, just to make it happy We bonded. It depends what you want to use it for, most people will find typing faster, but for those with injuries or disabilities that don’t allow them to use a keyboard, it must be a godsend.
Been around in at least a rudimentary form for quite a while now. Hence the “Wreck a Nice Beach” tee shirts.
Dragon was purchased by ScanSoft after the L&H Bankrupcy.
ScanSoft sells Paperport and other scanning/imaging products.
Version 7 of Naturally Speaking was released today.
I have Version 5 Pro.
Versions 5 and beyond train fast, just 10 - 15 minutes for initial training, then you can process a bunch of your writing to have it learn your phrasing etc for more accuracy. Additional training during use improves it more.
You can buy a Preferred edition of Naturally Speaking for a reasonable price. Comes with an okay mike. If you decide you want to be able to write your own speech macros, then you could upgrade to the Pro version and prob. get upgrade credit.
Your computer’s horsepower and the quality of your mike and sound card are very important for recognition accuracy. Crappy mike or noise sound system (like many laptops on AC power, or built in motherboard sound systems on some systems) can really affect accuracy.
I thank that beach recollection software is steadily availible but it is not grape.
Seriously, there are a fair few programs out there and they do work suprisingly well. However, you do need a high quality microphone correctly placed more than anything else which is why many people complain of poor results. Office XP comes with built in speech recognition.