[Athen] Voice recognition for Mac

Mary J. Ziegler maryz at MIT.EDU
Thu Mar 27 10:45:35 PDT 2008


We installed MacSpeech Dictate in our AT Lab a couple of weeks ago and a few
of us, including myself, have tried it out. We all seem to agree: as
reported, the speech engine provides terrific recognition accuracy.
However, the user interface is buggy and barebones. Correction and spelling
modes are not included in the current release. Also, voice dictation and
manual keyboard/mouse corrections/actions do not integrate well. Some
commands appear not to work, but because there is no manual or user
documentation yet, it's hard to tell what should be working in what way.

My current take / recommendation is:
- this product is a very promising development for Mac users, but not ready
yet. I'll likely be recommending it AFTER MacSpeech has added more
features (correction mode; spelling mode; and a manual) and fixed some bugs.

Mary

Mary J. Ziegler
Team Leader, Adaptive Technology Services
MIT Information Services and Technology (IS&T)
ATIC Lab Room 7-143
617-258-9328
maryz at mit.edu


----- Original Message -----
From: "Nusen, Michael" <Michael.Nusen at ppcc.edu>
To: "Access Technologists in Higher Education Network" <athen at athenpro.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 7:55 PM
Subject: Re: [Athen] Voice recognition for Mac


"MacSpeech Dictate"? Does anyone know if this is hype, an upgrade from
the "MacSpeech" application in the 9-26-07 e-mail noted below, or a new
product.

From: http://www.macspeech.com/article_info.php?articles_id=288
"MacSpeech Dictate Unveiled": It is heralded as follows:

"Revolutionary New Speech Recognition Solution for the Mac with
Unprecedented Accuracy Makes Using a Mac With Your Voice Easier Than
Ever
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., January 15, 2008 - Macworld Conference and Expo
2008, Booth #607 - MacSpeech, Inc. today debuted MacSpeech Dictate(tm),
a revolutionary new speech recognition solution for the Mac.... The
underlying speech recognition and dictation technology is powered by
dictation technology from Nuance Communications, Inc [the makers of
Dragon NaturallySpeaking]."

Thank you,

Michael Nusen
Coordinator, OASIS/CAC
(Office of Accommodative Services and Instructional Support/Computer
Access Center)
Pikes Peak Community College
michael.nusen at ppcc.edu
719-502-3022

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Gaeir Dietrich
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 4:59 PM
To: ea at emptech.info; 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'
Subject: Re: [Athen] Voice recognition for Mac

I just researched this information for a friend, and here is what I
discovered. Which voice recognition software to use for the Mac appears
to
comes down to which version of the Mac OS you have.

If you have OS X 10.3 or older (10.1, 10.2, 10.3) then you need
ViaVoice.

If you have OS X 10.4 or newer then you need iListen.

If anyone knows something different, please let me know, but this seems
to
be the breakdown for the two...


ViaVoice

Mac OS X version 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3

300 MHz G3 processor or higher*

192 MB RAM (256 RAM recommended)

600 MB of available hard drive space

USB port

Audio output jack or USB speakers

CD-ROM drive or DVD drive

Macintosh Computer Requirements

G3 and G4 Macintosh computers which support the system requirements
noted
above*.

Note to Mac OS X - Unix File System (UFS) users:

IBM ViaVoice for Mac OS X has been designed to take advantage of the
Extended File System, also known as HFS+. Installation of IBM ViaVoice
for
Mac OS X in a UFS volume is not supported.


iListen

Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer (Mac OS 10.4 or later recommended).

G4, G5 or Intel, (G5 or Intel recommended).

512MB RAM.

MacSpeech certified microphone required to receive technical support.


******************************************************
Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich
High Tech Center Training Unit of the
California Community Colleges
De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
www.htctu.net
408-996-6043

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of E.A. Draffan
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 3:48 PM
To: 'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'
Subject: Re: [Athen] Voice recognition for Mac

Have you heard of iListen http://www.macspeech.com/ it may be worth a
go -
I have used it with one student and although it does not have all the
features of Dragon Naturally Preferred and does not work in all
applications
it has improved in its recognition rates in recent times.


Best wishes E.A.

Mrs E.A. Draffan
Learning Societies Lab
ECS, University of Southampton
Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 7246
http://www.lexdis.ecs.soton.ac.uk
http://www.emptech.info/
-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Heidi Scher
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 9:01 PM
To: Athen at athenpro.org
Subject: [Athen] Voice recognition for Mac

Hi all!

OK - here it is - I'm not familiar with AT for the Mac. I admit it.
Hard to believe that I've not had students asking me until now. But
just
today, I've had a student in my office to discuss options. So, of
course, I
come to you, this oh-so-wise group, to gain knowledge and understanding.

Student is running Mac OS X, has Boot Camp, but not very familiar with
it.
Although he does use Word... Is willing to consider running something
PC-side, but he much more comfortable with the Mac environment. He is
desperate for voice recognition.

What are your suggestions???

Many thanks in advance to one and all!

Heidi

--

Heidi Scher, M.S., CRC
Interim Assistant Director
Center for Educational Access
University of Arkansas
1 University of Arkansas, ARKU 104
Fayetteville, AR 72701
(479) 575-3104 (voice)
(479) 575-7445 (fax)
(479) 575-3646 (tdd)

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