SR comparisons, was:Re: [MV] IBM ViaVoice 3 and 10.4.7

[Chuck Rogers]

Valerie:

Thanks for your email.

My comments were in general, not specifics. iListen will indeed learn  
regarding possessives, and anything iListen can do in a browser,  
iListen can do - although you may have to write some of the scripts  
yourself to do it.

I would never presume to compare an out of the box iListen to an out  
of the box Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Not today, anyway. We have a  
long way to go before I would even be willing to submit to such a  
comparison.

But, if you AREN'T a dual-platform user and you ARE a Mac user - or  
you are simply willing and able to put in the extra work it takes to  
get iListen up to where things are "out of the box" with Dragon, then  
my comments stand true - again, in general.

There are trade offs. Dragon gives you complete speech control over  
itself. Because of some technical limitations in the Mac OS, we can't  
do that (we are working on partial control, however and we will  
continue to work on full control for a future version).

Please do not read anything into my comments that aren't there, and  
don't put words into my mouth or thoughts in my head (its  crowded  
enough in there already). In summary, I would submit iListen is  
better than ViaVoice in every way, which is what started this thread  
- accuracy, command and control, everything. Regarding Dragon, if you  
are willing to work, iListen can equal Dragon in most cases. In the  
remaining areas where iListen falls short (such as voice control of  
itself), it makes up for it in other areas (as with its ability to  
offer virtually complete control of any application and the Mac OS  
through scripting). Regarding scripting, you have to pay $800 for  
Dragon to get anything close to what iListen offers you for $99.

Best Regards,

Chuck Rogers


On Sep 2, 2006, at 12:16 AM, Valerie Maples wrote:

> Chuck;
>
> As a dual platform user I must respectfully disagree strongly.   
> Although I give iListen an edge in mousing with MouseAywhere over  
> grid and other options in DNS, the other two statements are  
> patently untrue.  Proper name and possessive recognition alone are  
> infinitely better in DNS, both out of the box and with training,  
> and command and control integrated into all dictation is seamless  
> without transitioning between two vocabularies.  Then when you look  
> at command and control in browsers, well, they are not even on the  
> same planet.
>
> I am a diehard Mac user and strong proponent of iListen and  
> continued development of SR for Macs.  I use my Mac for 95% of my  
> workload, but the simple fact iListen does not recognize nor offer  
> correction options of my last name capitalized (Maples) after every  
> conceivable training, teaching, and correction in addition to  
> issues mentioned with inconsistent ability to get words like period  
> or paragraph (slightly better in 1.7, but still not great) to spell  
> out handicap its performance considerably.
>
> Since I have used many products successfully for many years on both  
> platforms and still do to this day as well as having been a  
> professional trainer for Voc Rehab and being married to a  
> quadriplegic dependent on SR, I feel I have unique experience on  
> this topic.  I do not bash iListen for limitations due to OS  
> issues, speech engine limitations or a shorter development history,  
> but to say iListen surpasses DNS in any area (except my penchant  
> for MouseAnywhere)  has no merit in my 12 years of experience with SR.
>
> Valerie Maples
>
> Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5
> 2 GB DDR SDRAM
> OSX 10.4.7
> Sennheiser e835
> Andrea USB pod
> IListen 1.70
>
>
> On Sep 1, 2006, at 11:49 PM, Chuck Rogers wrote:
>
>> But with regard to the accuracy you can attain, it is only that  
>> they can get you more accurate *sooner,* not more accurate no  
>> matter what, forever. And when it comes to command and control of  
>> the interface, we win - hands down.
>
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