I am testing a new software package I just bought called Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which I was lured into buying due to a substantial discount offered by a spam e-mail that I accidentally looked at -- a real success for the spam industry. It's turning out to be very successful at translating my voice into text.
I tried out voice-to-text software in the late 1990s, and decided then that it was not ready for prime time. This is one example of the kinds of interfaces and affordances I wrote about in my last blog post. If voice-to-text software is working as well as this seems to, and thus far I have had to make only a couple of corrections in this post, I can envision situations in which a keyboard is not feasible as an input device today, but where voice-to-text would be a very acceptable substitute, for example as an aid to surgery where no one in the operating room can spare their hands for a keyboard, least of all the surgeon.
I am still a complete novice at using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which means I am still spending a lot of time learning how to use my voice to do a number of things that come naturally when using a mouse -- or at least naturally to someone who has used a mouse for as many years as I have. The program actually seems to work quite well at navigating through and selecting text in word processing programs, including Microsoft Word and the Firefox page where I am creating this blog post.
What I have written so far has taken me most of an hour, mostly due to the learning curve that is a natural part of learning an entirely new way of using a very familiar technology. What it reminds me of most, though I haven't done it in many years, is training a dog. In training a dog, part of what happens is you training the dog, and the other part is the dog training you. With respect to Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the bulk of the time is spent on the second part; that is, the dog is training me most of the time.
The most encouraging thing about the experience of the past hour or so is that Dragon NaturallySpeaking has failed to recognize only two words out of what I have written. Most of what I am learning is how to revise text as I write, and the vast bulk of the revisions are due to me changing my mind about what to say rather than errors on the part of the voice-to-text program. [I did find 3 or 4 more misrecognitions on reviewing the text.] When I watch closely what I do with the mouse under similar circumstances, I expect I will find that the ratio holds there as well; at this point, after using a mouse for more than 25 years, using the mouse is second nature to me. If I keep using Dragon NaturallySpeaking on a regular basis, and especially if I use it exclusively for some period of time, I suspect that its way of doing things will become second nature to me as well.
I don't think I will be able to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking on his regular a basis as I would like, though. I do a lot of work in circumstances where I am surrounded by other people, and where speech is not encouraged -- our open plan office at the University, for example, or at the public library. I can imagine using it in a coffee shop, but I suspect it will look very strange to the others around me. Then again, they already think I'm pretty strange, so maybe it won't matter. :-)
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