• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Speech to Text Software

Northern Light

Northern Light

The Light of Truth
DP Veteran
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Messages
8,753
Reaction score
5,359
Gender
Undisclosed
Political Leaning
Independent
My neighbor has MS and is slowly losing control of her body. My partner and I have been bringing her food in the periods where her family isn't there to help her. She has expressed a desire to write down to her life story, but she can't really use her hands anymore. We suggested speech to text software, which of course now means I have to look into it because I've never used it myself before.

Actually that's not true. I tried some STT software around 2002 and it was horrible. It had about a 50% error rate. Must be my midwestern accent :)

Just thought I'd ask if anyone here has direct experience with this and could make some recommendations?
 
Dragon NaturallySpeaking works, I've used it, but it doesn't work nearly fast enough for my tastes so I don't bother with it. It might work for someone who can operate at a slower pace though.
 
Northern Light said:
My neighbor has MS and is slowly losing control of her body. My partner and I have been bringing her food in the periods where her family isn't there to help her. She has expressed a desire to write down to her life story, but she can't really use her hands anymore. We suggested speech to text software, which of course now means I have to look into it because I've never used it myself before.

Actually that's not true. I tried some STT software around 2002 and it was horrible. It had about a 50% error rate. Must be my midwestern accent :)

Just thought I'd ask if anyone here has direct experience with this and could make some recommendations?
Click to expand...

The software included on my Android Phone works fairly well, but does make some interesting word substitutions from time to time. It's not good with names.

Have you thought about an old fashioned tape recorder? Someone would have to transcribe it, but then, someone would have to proof it if you use voice to text software.
 
Northern Light said:
My neighbor has MS and is slowly losing control of her body. My partner and I have been bringing her food in the periods where her family isn't there to help her. She has expressed a desire to write down to her life story, but she can't really use her hands anymore. We suggested speech to text software, which of course now means I have to look into it because I've never used it myself before.

Actually that's not true. I tried some STT software around 2002 and it was horrible. It had about a 50% error rate. Must be my midwestern accent :)

Just thought I'd ask if anyone here has direct experience with this and could make some recommendations?
Click to expand...

A lawyer I worked for used Dragon. He and his secretary said it did the job good enough. She had to make corrections. Some words would be wrong and such. But he liked it. He spoke with his natural pace, and it could keep up. He couldn't type because of his eyesight or something, plus he just couldn't type well enough.

I have Dragon Assistant on my computer but have never used it.

It would have to be proofed, no matter which way it was done: by recorder or speech-to-text. Of course Word would have many of the mistakes highlighted or underlined, pointing them out.
 
Northern Light said:
My neighbor has MS and is slowly losing control of her body. My partner and I have been bringing her food in the periods where her family isn't there to help her. She has expressed a desire to write down to her life story, but she can't really use her hands anymore. We suggested speech to text software, which of course now means I have to look into it because I've never used it myself before.

Actually that's not true. I tried some STT software around 2002 and it was horrible. It had about a 50% error rate. Must be my midwestern accent :)

Just thought I'd ask if anyone here has direct experience with this and could make some recommendations?
Click to expand...
Dittohead not! said:
The software included on my Android Phone works fairly well, but does make some interesting word substitutions from time to time. It's not good with names.

Have you thought about an old fashioned tape recorder? Someone would have to transcribe it, but then, someone would have to proof it if you use voice to text software.
Click to expand...
I have a friend who does this for a living (actually as kind of a side job as she's semi-retired). She essentially meets with people and interviews them, as long as necessary, and records their history / life stories in written form.

I *think* she can also do a nice book-type thing of it, too, but am not sure about that part.

If you think your friend might be interested, and you/she lives anywhere near eastern Iowa, let me know and I can see if my friend would be interested.

(Any personal info can be done via PM)
 
Northern Light said:
My neighbor has MS and is slowly losing control of her body. My partner and I have been bringing her food in the periods where her family isn't there to help her. She has expressed a desire to write down to her life story, but she can't really use her hands anymore. We suggested speech to text software, which of course now means I have to look into it because I've never used it myself before.

Actually that's not true. I tried some STT software around 2002 and it was horrible. It had about a 50% error rate. Must be my midwestern accent :)

Just thought I'd ask if anyone here has direct experience with this and could make some recommendations?
Click to expand...

I still hate speech to text software when it was big around the win 95/98 era and had probably around a 90% fail rate, since the days of early speech to text and aol etc alot of people had no interest in it until things like siri, which again proved to be unreliable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom