I'm dictating this blog entry with new speech recognition software that I've picked up over the last week. One of the worst things that I do for my posture is spend a lot of time at a computer, or rather at a keyboard. I hunched forward, my shoulders droop, my chin moves forward. I developed some serious neck pain over a period of several months which was fairly debilitating. I ended up seeing a neurosurgeon who did an MRI and told me that all my problems had to do with poor posture. So in my quest to stand up straight, I did some research on voice recognition software.
Because I have an Apple computer, I got the only speech recognition software that is compatible with it: MacSpeech Dictate. It is based upon the best voice recognition software out there, Dragon Naturally Speaking, which is designed exclusively for PCs. I've had it a few hours, and it's working great. I've had to make a few corrections as I dictated this entry, but I've made them all with voice navigation and commands. My arms are folded across my chest and I'm sitting up straight.
Of course it's not perfect, but it's pretty accurate. I will read a sentence from an article that is sitting in front of me: "Combining genetic risk markers with clinical risk factors makes for very complex translational challenges with diagnostic, clinical and therapeutic implications for treatment."
Wow! It got it 100% correct, and those are not typical words you'd usually dictate. I'm impressed. MacSpeech Dictate gets five stars from me.
2 comments:
I straightened up as I read your post, David, realizing that I was hunched over, chin out thrust, back bent and arms outstretched to the keyboard.
Luckily, I don't have any of the neck pain symptoms you mentioned but that kind of slack muscled poor posture has got to create problems somewhere along the line.
I tried voice recognition software for PCs about a decade ago and it wasn't very good. I'll take another look based on your recommendation. Thanks.
Did you have a book balanced on your head while you dictated?
Seriously, though it sounds interesting.
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