Speech to text alternative to Dragon
Thread poster: alexpop
alexpop
alexpop
Russian Federation
Sep 16, 2016

You can use the voice to text notebook Speechpad.pw as alternative to Dragon. This program can be integrated in Windows and Linux OS, so you can dictate directly to your favorite applications. Also this program has a transcribing panel and you can convert mp3, mp4 and Youtube clips to text for free.

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:59
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Mac Dictation Sep 17, 2016

If you are using the MacOS you already have it. Go to System Preferences---->Dictation.

 
Anton Konashenok
Anton Konashenok  Identity Verified
Czech Republic
Local time: 17:59
French to English
+ ...
First impressions Sep 17, 2016

Just tested it, and here are my first impressions (your mileage may vary):
In English, it is fairly good, but not as good as the latest Dragon - I'd say on a par with Dragon 12 or 11. OK if the text is not too complex.
In French, it seems to be a bit more accurate than in English (possibly because of fewer homophones and quasi-homophones).
In Russian, it tends to skip some words altogether, sometimes even several words in a row (impossible to use without monitoring the output
... See more
Just tested it, and here are my first impressions (your mileage may vary):
In English, it is fairly good, but not as good as the latest Dragon - I'd say on a par with Dragon 12 or 11. OK if the text is not too complex.
In French, it seems to be a bit more accurate than in English (possibly because of fewer homophones and quasi-homophones).
In Russian, it tends to skip some words altogether, sometimes even several words in a row (impossible to use without monitoring the output while speaking). The vocabulary is very good, but there seems to be no checking for grammatical consistency of the phrases produced (e.g. wrong word forms). Not a professional quality conversion, some errors are totally counterintuitive.
In Czech, fairly poor, but it may be due to my non-native accent. Does not seem to take punctuation commands. Same consistency problems as with Russian.
In Danish, it seems fairly good for what I think is a near-impossible task due to the variety of Danish accents, but my own spoken Danish is too rusty to give a consistently good dictation.
In Hebrew, it seems to misunderstand the guttural (Ashkenazi) "R", as opposed to the Sephardic/Russian sound.

Finally, as with all online solutions, one may have to worry about confidentiality.
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alexpop
alexpop
Russian Federation
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you, more explanations Sep 17, 2016

Thank you Anton. Speechpad.pw use Google web speech API. Besides main punctuation marks, that Google must set automatically, you can define your own punctuations in the terms page of user account.

 
Vitals
Vitals  Identity Verified
Lithuania
Local time: 18:59
English to Lithuanian
+ ...
Confidentiality Sep 17, 2016

Totally agree.
Finally, as with all online solutions, one may have to worry about confidentiality


Any standalone (non-online) solution you can offer?


 
MollyRose
MollyRose  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:59
English to Spanish
+ ...
Mac dictation Sep 18, 2016

I have used Mac dictation a few times (only in English), and I believe I enunciate clearly. But I have to read everything and make a LOT of corrections because it just doesn't "hear" a lot of words right. It even types in words that don't sound like what I said. This happens several times in a paragraph, not just once in a while. I have tried repeating what I said, and it insists on typing what it already typed!

Any suggestions as to how I can get it to work better for me? Also, if
... See more
I have used Mac dictation a few times (only in English), and I believe I enunciate clearly. But I have to read everything and make a LOT of corrections because it just doesn't "hear" a lot of words right. It even types in words that don't sound like what I said. This happens several times in a paragraph, not just once in a while. I have tried repeating what I said, and it insists on typing what it already typed!

Any suggestions as to how I can get it to work better for me? Also, if I remember correctly, it didn't get a lot of the punctuation that I told it, either. I think I did say in Spanish "punto, aparte" for "period, new paragraph," but it didn't get that either.
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alexpop
alexpop
Russian Federation
TOPIC STARTER
confidentiality Sep 18, 2016

There is no connection between your computer and speechpad.pw site when you dictate text. But cetainly your speech go to Google sever and vise versa (you get data directly from Google via Google Speech API and javascript). So, if you text is very confidencial, you probably must not use the program.

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:59
Member (2008)
Italian to English
It needs to learn Sep 18, 2016

MollyRose wrote:

I have used Mac dictation a few times (only in English), and I believe I enunciate clearly. But I have to read everything and make a LOT of corrections because it just doesn't "hear" a lot of words right. It even types in words that don't sound like what I said. This happens several times in a paragraph, not just once in a while. I have tried repeating what I said, and it insists on typing what it already typed!

Any suggestions as to how I can get it to work better for me? Also, if I remember correctly, it didn't get a lot of the punctuation that I told it, either. I think I did say in Spanish "punto, aparte" for "period, new paragraph," but it didn't get that either.


It needs to learn your way of speaking. I've used it for quite a while now (only in English and Italian) and I find it very good but it does have its quirks. One is that it works much better if you speak quickly (which is counter-intuitive). Another is that it insists on typing "hi" instead of "high, and "program" instead of "programme" (even though I have it set to British English).

But still - there's nothing more gratifying than speaking a long sentence with a lot of complicated words in it, and seeing them appearing magically on screen without spelling mistakes or typos.

I don't think the perfect, error-free dictation software is possible but this one gets very close to it. I recently recommended it to an Italian colleague who had been using Dragon for a long time. She said that Mac Dictation is just as good and is better in some ways.

BTW to get the best results you must use Enhanced Dictation and you must be connected to the Internet. Persevere! It gets better the more you use it.

[Edited at 2016-09-18 08:05 GMT]


 
MollyRose
MollyRose  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:59
English to Spanish
+ ...
Thanks, Tom! Sep 19, 2016

I appreciate the encouragement. I suppose as I type the corrections it "learns" how to spell what I pronounced so it does better next time? Although I would think that it would learn by your correction to spell programme and high. (Just now when I typed "programme" the computer "corrected" it to program, so I had to go back and add the extra letters.)

I admit I haven't looked up any info as to how to use it; I just simply started using it. I'll do a search. Thanks again.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:59
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Integrated Sep 19, 2016

Here's one reason why it's good to have software that's compiled by the same people who compiled the operating system and is fully integrated with it:

http://www.proz.com/forum/speech_recognition/306653-dragon_professional_individual_15_and_trados_2015_totally_blocked.html


 
alexpop
alexpop
Russian Federation
TOPIC STARTER
Integration Sep 20, 2016

Https://speechpad.pw integration to Windows and Linux is very simple - only one executable file, no dll, no drivers.

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:59
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Update note Sep 20, 2016

In the latest version of the MacOS, called MacOS Sierra, the Dictation application has been moved to a different location. You will now find it at System Preferences ---> Keyboard and then it's the last button at the top right (as in this picture)

Screen Shot


 
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Speech to text alternative to Dragon






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