Speech recognition for MAC

[forumuser]

Is there a speech recognition program for Macintosh that works as well as Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Windows?  I tried Via Voice a few years ago and it was too much trouble for unsatisfactory results.

[Jerry]

Hello Forumuser.  Thanks for registering on our new AT discussion forum.  MacSpeech recently purchased the rights to use the Dragon NaturallySpeaking (DNS) speech recognition engine.  They used this speech recognition engine to create MacSpeech Dictate.  I have had limited experience with it but so far that experience has been very positive.  In fact, I would say that the recognition accuracy is about as good as DNS.  I can't say whether or not it has all the same powerful features as DNS. I haven't explored the program in that much detail.

Jerry C.

[judy.schaad]

I tried MacSpeech Dictate with two elementary age boys (9 and 10). One could not train it at all, the other cold train it but cold not dictate accurately. When I contacted the company they told me they do not support the program for users under age 14. However, I have heard of other people using this successfully with students (not sure of the ages). Perhaps it was my limited knowledge and experience with the program that made these two trials unsuccessful. As an addition: the 9 year old boy was able to train Dragon (running on a PC) successfully as well as dictate accurately.

[efranz]

MacSpeech has all the features same as Dragon Speak.  But you need to have a Mac that is running Mac OS X 10.5.2  When you run the program with Mac OS X 10.4.11 or less it will not work properly.  As long as you are using Mac OS X 10.4.11 or greater it works fine.  I have not used the program before but knowing people who have they told me that it is important to be running the appropriate OS system.

[Jerry]

I have found the MacSpeech program to be very accurate with my voice but it does seem to lack some of the features of NaturallySpeaking.  We have just ordered the upgrade to MacSpeech 1.5 and I am anxious to see what improvements have been made.  I'll share what I learn at a later time.

Jerry C.