Nuance Launches Voice-powered Dragon Search App For iPhone
Cool technologies impacting life
In 1998, I got to speak at a Palm developers’ conference. I’m no programmer, so I thought I’d entertain the audience with some dazzling new apps for the PalmPilot. One of them was Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the Palm.
I leaned over to the palmtop and said, “You are witnessing an alpha copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Palm (period). Now (comma), for the first time (comma), I can type as fast as I can speak (comma), while my trusty hand-held secretary takes it all down (period).”
The crowd of programmers was flabbergasted. Remember, this was 1998. The Palm had a black-and-white screen, no microphone and about as much computing power as a pocket calculator—and it could transcribe spoken text?
Well, no, actually. The whole thing was a hoax. I’d had a friend create what was actually a simple animation showing words appearing on the screen as though being transcribed in real time. Then I rehearsed my speech until the timing of my words was perfect.
I couldn’t help remembering that moment this week as I tried out Dragon Dictation, a new, free, very real app for the iPhone from Nuance
Speech-to-text translation isn’t a new idea, but Dragon Dictation for the iPhone [iTunes Link] turns the concept into a functional reality. The app makes it easy for you to dictate notes, e-mails or text messages, which are then instantly converted to text.
With a click of the button, you can go on to send your dictated text via e-mail or SMS, or to save it to the clipboard. Best of all, Dragon Dictation is completely free (for a limited time).
The application itself has a minimalist design: When you launch it, you’ll be able to hit a button and record your dictation — but that’s it. After the initial voice-to-text transcription, you can also edit via text or voice, replace poorly transcriped words with suggested alternatives and select words or phrases to delete.
When testing in a noisy environment (i.e. a coffee shop), I noticed that the speech-to-text conversion is nowhere near as accurate as when dictations are recorded in a quiet place. Still, the application is impressive and may offer the fastest and most convenient way to turn your words into actionable text.
[via TUAW]
