Speech-to-text software, sometimes known as dictation software, is something that lets you talk to the computer in some form and have the computer react appropriately to what you are saying. This is totally different to text-to-speech software, which is software can read out text already in the computer.
Command and Control Software
There are two types of speech-to-text software available. One type is called “command and control” and it lets you speak commands to your computer to control it; hence the name. For example, a command that the computer understands might be, “go to the Apple website” or, “tell me the time”. Each command is pre-programmed and the computer will only recognise those commands it’s been programmed for; you can’t use this software to write an email or use iChat for example.
Command and control software for the Mac – known as “Speakable Items” (or sometimes, confusingly, “spoken commands”) – is already built into every OS X computer, although most people don’t know about it. You don’t need to download, buy, or install anything to get this software to work, just a microphone that works with your computer. The main drawback is that the Speakable Items software programmed for English with a standard American accent, and has significant trouble with any other accent. It doesn’t function at all with languages other than English.
Some resources for getting you up and running with Speakable Items include:
- Get Siri-like Functionality on your Mac with Speakable Items (video with full transcript available)
- Apple Support Articles about Speakable Items
Dictation Software
The other type of speech-to-text software is usually called “dictation” software. This is the type that lets you write an article like this one, type stuff to your friends in iChat, or type an email. The most common Windows software for speech to text dictation – you’ve probably heard of it – is Dragon NaturallySpeaking. There is only one dictation-capable speech-to-text software available for OS X which is being updated and developed and it’s MacSpeech Dictate. Dictate is the successor to a program named iListen which MacSpeech used to produce.
Like all dictation-capable text-to-speech products, MacSpeech Dictate works very well for some people and very badly for others. Whether it will work for you depends on many things including: how much effort you’re willing to put into learning it, how good your microphone is, your age (text to speech usually works less well for children), how much your accent matches what the program expects, and whether your voice changes a lot through the day.
MacSpeech Dictate is also still fairly new software – it was only released on the 15th of February, 2008. In comparison, the premiere speech recognition program for Windows is Dragon NaturallySpeaking which has been in development since the 1980s[1].
When MacSpeech Dictate was originally released it had several major problems which made it unusable for people with disabilities, but most of these have now been resolved:
- There was no good help functions inside the application – this was rectified in Dictate version 1.3
- It didn’t learn from corrections – this was rectified in Dictate version 1.2
- Couldn’t spell words out by voice – this was rectified in Dictate version 1.2
- Couldn’t request individual key presses (such as command-s or command-option-escape) by voice – this was rectified in Dictate version 1.3
- Couldn’t be taught new words, such as names or jargon specific to your profession – this was largely rectified in Dictate version 1.2, although some words still resist training
- There was no way to control the mouse by voice – this was finally rectified in Dictate version 2.0.
I tried using the old iListen program a few years ago and could not get results that were useful, an on-screen keyboard was the best solution at the time. Although MacSpeech Dictate is in its early days as a program, its recognition of my particular voice is hugely better than iListen’s was. This is not surprising though, as MacSpeech Dictate’s speech recognition engine is based on the same engine used by Windows’ Dragon NaturallySpeaking – widely recognised as the best consumer speech recognition available.
MacSpeech Dictate requires the requires Intel-based Macintosh hardware and requires Mac OS X 10.5.6 (Leopard) and higher. Thirteen English dialects/accents are supported, and US and UK spelling options. These are:
- US Spelling
- American
- American – Inland Northern
- American – Southern
- American – Teens
- Australian
- British
- Indian
- Latino
- Southeast Asian
- UK Spelling
- Australian
- British
- Indian
- Southeast Asian
Specialised versions – Dictate Medical and Dictate Legal – are available for dictating in these language areas, and Dictate International is now available and recognises speech in French, German, and Italian. MacSpeech have strongly hinted that Spanish language recognition is next on their agenda.
MacSpeech Dictate is a great program for dictation and some computer control, but it is not something that will let you control the computer completely “hands free”. For quadriplegic users and others who need full computer control, you will need to supplement Dictate with use of a mouth stick and keyboard, or a program such as SwitchXS for switch access to functions not available by voice. I highly recommend Dictate though, it’s part of my suite of accessibility technology and I use it whenever I am able to.
Website: MacSpeech Dictate
- Ricky Buchanan
If you are going to buy or upgrade any version of MacSpeech Dictate from the USA or UK.
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ALAN PURDY October 14, 2008 at 7:59 am
I am an old rascal (pilot WW II). I am in pretty good shape for my age, with one exception, I am profoundly deaf. What I need to communicate is something like an ipod with speech to text. I’m sure there are may people with the same problem. The problem is social isolation which lowers the quality of life.
HELP!
ALAN PURDY October 14, 2008 at 7:59 am
I am an old rascal (pilot WW II). I am in pretty good shape for my age, with one exception, I am profoundly deaf. What I need to communicate is something like an ipod with speech to text. I’m sure there are may people with the same problem. The problem is social isolation which lowers the quality of life.
HELP!
The Tips Guy February 23, 2011 at 1:56 pm
@AlanIf you have an iPod touch second generation with a microphone, an iphone, or iPad, you can download a FREE application called Dragon Dictation.
This app supports different languages. (link here: http://www.dragonmobileapps.com/
Another app is google translate (itunes link here – http://goo.gl/sZQJ6): it supports over 50 languages which includes english to english.
When you talk to the device and set it up to “translate” from english to english, it will write for you what you are saying… it is a lot faster than dragon!
Another one is “Multi lang Dictionary with Text-to-speech”, similar to the previous one. This one uses google dictionary and translation services, so it is as fast as the google translate, courtesy of google. (itunes link here – http://goo.gl/mMgiU)
The Tips Guy February 23, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Please ignore the “Multi lang Dictionary with Text-to-speech”…
I should have tested it prior.
it is NOT free.
Again, “Multi lang Dictionary with Text-to-speech” is not a free app. The text to speech feature is $1.99, the free portion of the app is the translation by typing…
Not good,
My apologies.
Google translate and Dragon are in my iPhone and work perfectly and they are 100 % FREE
ALAN PURDY October 14, 2008 at 7:59 am
I am an old rascal (pilot WW II). I am in pretty good shape for my age, with one exception, I am profoundly deaf. What I need to communicate is something like an ipod with speech to text. I’m sure there are may people with the same problem. The problem is social isolation which lowers the quality of life.
HELP!
Ricky Buchanan October 16, 2008 at 7:05 pm
@Alan: Unfortunately, the technology isn’t good enough for what you need yet. The iPods can’t do speech to text and even if you carried a laptop around it’s speech to text functions have to be trained for a specific person’s voice, and that person has to speak very clearly and carefully for the speech to text to work. So the sucky thing is that the computers just aren’t smart enough for you yet
I’m not sure there’s anything technology wise that can help you with chatting with a random person. I can’t think of anything that would really be better than a pencil and paper and getting people to write stuff down for you.
Weston November 15, 2008 at 4:57 am
I’m at Accessing Higher Ground and heard of a nice device called the Ubi Duo (demo at Grant Laird, Jr’s Blog).
It looks pretty cool!
Eleo April 11, 2009 at 11:31 am
I’m not sure is this is the right place to post this plea/request for help. I guess…in the 9 months or so I’ve developed what I thought was mild carpal tunnel…it probably was…but due to a downsizing and incompetent work environ ( i teach pro apps, etc)…It’s morphed into something…else.
Maybe fybromyalgia, who knows…
Point is. I can’t afford an intel mac, and my livelihood…and all my past 12 year docs and stuff are mac based.
So I’m really stuck in Leopard/PPc G4 land…
what do i do?
i do think ilisten or something would help a little even if it’s not great, but you can’t buy it anymore.
Any help you can think of would be much appreciated. I’ve looked … legacy sites, questionably legal torrents, memory maximizers, on and on…
And can’t do much more.
So anyway, if this sounds a little desperate, it is. And I’m definitely over my typing quotient for the day.
Thanks either way. This is a great site.
Eleo
Ricky Buchanan April 16, 2009 at 11:16 am
@Eleo: I suspect if you contacted the MacSpeech people they may be able to help get you an old copy of iListen, or there may be one available on eBay. You should also look into text expansion utilities such as TextExpander and TypeIt4Me where you can define shortcuts for words. There are several other free and low cost strategies listed in the article Seven ways to stop your arms hurting. Best of luck.
Jerry Witt May 21, 2011 at 8:21 am
Eleo, if you are having problems with your arms or wrists, I think it would be worth your time to take a look at this site: http://takefivemethod.com
There are free exercises designed to help with pain. It is not a cure, but these little 5-minute breaks can help.
Check out this video: http://takefivemethod.com/video/hand-arm-tutorial You can use it for free.
(Note to moderator — although I developed this site, I legitimatly think it would be a good resource for Eleo.)
gail johnston May 20, 2009 at 10:38 am
I have physical challenges that would make a good speech to text program very helpful to me as a writer. I’ve tried an old version of naturally speaking (4) but it doesn’t work very well for poetry as it doesn’t understand the form (line breaks instead of paragraphs, for example) and is more trouble than help in many ways- ok for a first draft of individual poem but no good for editing or a large manuscript.
Would Macspeech dictate be any better for me?
Ricky Buchanan May 31, 2009 at 11:09 pm
@Gail: I’ve never tried using Macspeech Dictate for poetry but I don’t think there would be a big problem with it. You could always use ‘keystroke shift enter’ for inserting line breaks, if the usual commands weren’t to your satisfaction. I don’t think you’ll really know unless you try it though, unfortunately.
vishnuvardanreddym September 17, 2009 at 3:07 pm
hello sir .
i want to do the project is microcontroller based remote monitoring using mobile through spoken commands..
so i want the voice to text convertor of voice recognization software…
kindly i request you…pls help me sir..
with regards vishnuvardanreddym
Ricky Buchanan September 18, 2009 at 1:28 pm
@Vishnuvardanreddym: Unless your controller is a Mac computer, I really can’t help you. Sorry.
Frank Fulchiero September 29, 2009 at 2:57 am
We need to convert some recorded audio lectures to text.
Would MacSpeech dictate work with pre-recorded files?
Or is there any other software that would do the trick?
Thanking anyone for advice.
Ricky Buchanan October 13, 2009 at 9:16 pm
@Frank: Sorry for the slow reply here. Dictate won’t work with pre-recorded files, no. There’s not any Mac OS X solution for this problem currently, I’m sorry to say.
Ronni October 10, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Hi,
Is there a trail version of Mac Speech available somewhere?
thanks,
Ricky Buchanan October 13, 2009 at 9:12 pm
@Ronni: There’s no trial version of MacSpeech Dictate available because it takes time to get used to the program and train it, and you need a suitable microphone which is usually purchased along with the program. They do have a 30 day money-back guarantee however, so it’s fairly safe to try out the program even if you aren’t sure you’ll be able to manage it.
Doug Kerr October 30, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I have Parkinson’s disease and make lots of typos. I plan use the internet to do some scholarly research in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, linguistics and genetics. To train the software to learn specialized vocabulary, it seems like reading words from technical dictionaries would be the way to do this. Do you agree or would you recommend a different approach? Is there a limit on the number of new words you can teach it? Can you teach it your “morning voice” and “daytime voice”? If so, how would you switch back and forth? Is there other text to speech software for the MAC that compares favorably?
Ricky Buchanan October 30, 2009 at 4:19 pm
@Doug: MacSpeech Dictate uses “profiles” which are sort of like a user account for Dictate. Each profile has its own vocabulary and pronunciation, so for different voice sounds at different times you’d set up two profiles. You can change between the profiles with just a few key strokes, although not with only voice commands at present. There is no other speech to text software for the Mac, so I can’t compare, but Dictate is very high quality.
About the specialised vocabulary I suggest you go over to the MacSpeech Forums and post there. There is a MacSpeech employee who answers questions. I suspect that you would need to read the words in context for MacSpeech to learn them properly, so reading straight from a dictionary would not be very effective. Teaching it the words as they appear in your speech/typing may be a better approach.
Glenn H Austin November 28, 2009 at 4:01 am
For what it is worth, I have done some research into speech to text for the Mac. The first thing to consider is to use the software Parallels or Bootcamp (which is part of the Mac 10.5, and installing Windows. That way you can use the Windows software (I have no idea whether the Windows software is any good) on your Mac.
I have also tried out an iPhone app called “Voice on the Go”. I will send a test email that I did using the iPhone App.
This is the original that I spoke into the iPhone.
Hi,
This is Glenn speaking and this is a test of the speech to email program on my iPhone. What I will do is to send an email to myself quoting from this text. That way I can compare the results with the original.
I’m not sure how much the service costs. I downloaded the free Iphone app and it included a 30 day free trial. It is a call in number where one can say “compose email”. The software then asks you for a contact name for the email which is drawn from a set of contacts previously set up by the application.
I will send both the original and the Speech to Text result.
Glenn
This is the resulting email sent to me.
Hi this is Glen speaking and this a test of the speech to email program on my iPhone. What will I do is to send an email to my cell according from this text. In that way I can compare the results with the original. I’m not sure how much the service cost. I downloaded the free iPhone app and it included a 30-day free trial. It is a calling number where one can save, compose email. The software then asked you for a contact name for the email which is drawn from the set of contacts previously set up by the application. I will send both the original and the speech to text result. Thank you. Glen.
You can see that the results are not perfect, but the message is coherent
Ricky Buchanan December 8, 2009 at 12:45 pm
@Glenn: Thanks for the “Voice on the Go” review. Just for reference, people should know that the speech-to-text that it does isn’t done on the iPhone itself – it sends the audio file to a remote server which converts the audio to text and emails you back the text. That’s why Voice on the Go can be used by all different types of phones. It’s certainly a useful capability though.
Kelly December 2, 2009 at 1:59 am
Hi, my 8 yr old son has CP. He also has ataxia in his hands and although he *can* use the keyboard to type, his thoughts/ideas are way too fast for his hands to type! (lucky boy is quite bright) His school has Naturally Speaking in the resource room but they think that it would have issues learning his speech pattern (has some speech issues to go along w/his fine motor stuff) My question is would Dictate be able to learn his voice?? He isn’t writing complex stuff right now. Just stories that are age appropriate for an 8 yr. old.
Ricky Buchanan December 8, 2009 at 12:48 pm
@Kelly: In general, Naturally Speaking seems to be better with dictation than Dictate is so he might be able to try that. It would be a fairly sure bet that if Naturally Speaking couldn’t learn his voice than it wouldn’t be worth trying Dictate at this point. Unfortunately pretty much all dictation programs have trouble with many young children’s voices even when they don’t have speech difficulties. It’s worth a try, but I suspect your resource room people may be right. Have they looked into alternate keyboards which may be easier and quicker for him to use, and things like keyguards? Best of luck!
Ray December 8, 2009 at 10:55 am
Ricky, I just want to mention something about deaf people and speaking ability which was brought up in the very first comment on this blog. You are correct about precise speech being necessary but that isn’t a problem for all deaf people. For example, the gentleman who initiated that question once had good hearing. One does not lose the ability to speak with clarity and precision AFTER the have acquired a mastery of English (or any language). The only people who ARE limited are those who were BORN deaf, or became deaf BEFORE they mastered English. So I, for example, am deaf, speak with as clear a speaking voice as anyone – so much so that people often simply won’t believe I’m deaf since they think one’s speech goes to hell once a person becames deaf. That has never been true. I’ve investigated speech to text software for years for the simple reason that I ALWAYS have to type things like my end of the conversation when I use a TTY, or I have to type a great deal online. But my speech is crystal clear with a slight southern accent.
Are you saying that the ability to hear is **essential** for using Mac Dictate? That’s really what the first commenter is asking. He was in the Armed Forces so that indicates he had a mastery of English before he became deaf. I had very similar circumstance but I’ve given oral presentations for 20 years and the only problem anyone ever had with my speech was that I had a problem known how loud I spoke. Late-deafened people STILL know how to modulate the volume and we want to know about this stuff because our HANDS are exhausted from having to type so much. We think that if we have well-formed speech, we can adjust our volumn to this software because we’ll have Visual feedback as we are speaking.
What do you think? Is this a viable product for the deaf under such circumstance as exist with deaf people who speak standard English normally?
Ricky Buchanan December 8, 2009 at 12:57 pm
@Ray: You are, of course, entirely right about most late deafened people having great speech and I see no reason why these people could not use MacSpeech Dictate as well as a hearing person. The ability to hear is not necessary for using MacSpeech Dictate – it’s feedback is given in a visual manner, not audibly, so access to the program would not be a problem.
I understood the first commenter to be asking if there was a program which would recognise the speech of other people so he could better access conversations in social situations. That solution does not yet exist unfortunately. Upon re-reading, the question is indeed somewhat ambiguous but I can’t see how using MacSpeech Dictate to recognise his own speech would help with social isolation in public situations.
In any case to answer your question clearly: Anybody who can speak standard English in a fairly constant fashion should be able to use MacSpeech Dictate, regardless of their hearing status or any other disabilities they may have.
Grant December 23, 2009 at 11:39 pm
My decreasing vision has my lousy keyboarding skills coming home to roost. In response to the original iPod question in this thread… There’s a surprisingly quick and accurate speech to text app for the iPhone just out recently. Its based on the Dragon software. Search the app store for Dragon Dictation.
Peg January 2, 2010 at 5:34 am
Is Dragon Dictation available for the iPod Touch? I’d rather not get an iPhone if I can avoid it…
Georgie January 6, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Olympus provide a range of digital voice recorders compatible with Dragon Naturally Speaking – Voice to Text, there is also the new DM range developed specifically for assistive technology users i.e. blind, visually impaired, dyslexic etc – features include intuitive buttons and voice guidance for usability. Many deaf users also find Olympus dictation products beneficial when played through earphones and prefer this method as it is less obvious.
Georgie January 6, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Please notify me of follow up comments
Kendra Bowling January 11, 2010 at 9:07 am
Hello Ricky, I am writing on behalf of my friend Lisa who has numerous chronic diseases (e.g. fibromyalgia, Type II diabetes, diabetic background retinopathy, cardiomyopathy, COPD, asthma,obstrutive sleep apnea, pulmonary hypertension,venous insufficiency & cellulitis of lower extremities, early diabetic nephropathy, bilateral distal sensory-motor neuropathy, cervical & lumbosacral polyradiculopathy, lumbar degenerative disc disease,hypertrophic changes of the lower thoracic spine with minimal interior wedging of several thoracic vertebrae, bilateral median nerve entrapment across wrist and repeated ganglion cysts on right wrist). She has other health ilnesses, but I could not name them all. Lisa is disabled and would love to have an iMAC computer so she can attempt to communicate with family & friends and the outside world via the internet. Would she be eligible for any discounts on iMAC All-In-One computer or MAC laptop and/or software that would help her with activities of daily living? She likes the iMAC computers because of the ease of use & the minium upkeep. Typing would be the major obstacle that Lisa would face with any computer. However, I read on this page & during some recent research that there is a voice recognition software, “Dragon Naturally Speaking, version 10″ for Windows and “MAC Speech Dictate” for the MAC. Is it possible to download Windows 7 on an iMAC with the Parallel software, then download the Dragon Naturally Speaking software? I read that the Parallel software syncs the Windows’ OS Windows 7 & the iMAC OS X Snow Leopard 10.6. I did not know if the MAC Speech Dictate software runs on the iMAC, nor is it as good as the Naturally Speaking software. Please let me know if you have any information regarding these 2 Speech to Text or Speech Recognition software. Also, let me know if she could receive any help or aid towards obtaining an iMAC and/or software since she is disabled & lives on a fixed income. I want to thank you in advance for your help, Kendra
Ricky Buchanan January 14, 2010 at 3:02 pm
@Kendra: Scott did a pretty good job of answering most of your questions. Just a note: It’s “Mac” computers not “MAC” with all capitals. Not that it really matters, but it looks better when it’s right
The Parallels software (and there’s similar software called VMWare) doesn’t allow you to use Windows software like it’s Mac software, it just lets you use Windows programs on the Mac which is a bit different. Basically, using Dragon Dictate on a Mac isn’t a good idea and won’t let you do things like dictate into a regular Mac program.
The MacSpeech Dictate software has speech recognition that’s just as good as Dragon Dictate’s, but at the moment it doesn’t have as many commands for controlling the computer (stuff like moving the mouse, executing commands, etc.) as the Dragon software does. But if Lisa can use a trackball or joystick or mouse or some other mouse substitute like a head pointing mouse then she would be able to use the computer easily with just MacSpeech Dictate and the mouse substitute.
As for the cost, there are small discounts (10% I think?) for students who are buying Mac computers but nothing for people who are disabled or poor. The best option is to contact local charities and service organisations and explain the situation and see if they can help some amount towards the cost. If there are any disability organisations appropriate to the disabilties Lisa has they might also contribute towards the cost. I know this sucks – I’m disabled and on a fixed income myself and I was lucky enough to have my Mac donated by a bunch of friends who are better off than me. I couldn’t have afforded it by myself either.
The cheapest way to get a Mac, especially if she already has a screen that she can use, is to buy a Mac Mini. They aren’t as “sexy” as the all-in-one iMac computers or the laptops but because you aren’t paying for the screen/keyboard/mouse as well they’re cheaper and in 5 years or whenever you need to upgrade to a new computer you don’t have to toss out the screen and buy a new one all over again. So if you DO need a new screen you can get it at a different time than you upgrade the main computer which spreads out the cost and that helps a lot for us low-income types!
I’d love to get to know Lisa when she is online – I love using Skype to chat with friends using voice
Scott Coletti January 12, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Goodness Kendra, It appears as if you are asking quite a few questions at the same time which is perfectly sensible as you are just starting out helping Lisa. I do not know of any disability discounts, so I would suggest Lisa get an Intel MacMini, and run the latest flavor of MacSpeech Dictate if she wants to use a Macintosh. Make sure to mate the Mac mini with a monitor appropriately sized to the environment where Lisa wants to park her new (or used) computer, and her visual acuity.
If she is cash-strapped, it makes no sense to buy a Mac, AND a Windows operating system and run it on the Mac, so she can buy and use Dragon naturally speaking (DNS) preferred version 10 or greater. BTW, DNS is a much more mature software package which is logical as it is in version 10 and MacSpeech Dictate is in version 1.5.X. With used hardware, the total cost for using MacSpeech Dictate will be in the neighborhood of $400.00 to $600.00 (the education discount for Dictate is pathetic- 175.ish dollars).
The cheapest road, while still offering a little security that the computer won’t break, would be to buy some name brand used Windows computer, made in 2004 or later, with an XP Pro service pac 2 operating system, from a reputable used computer dealer with their warranty (usually 90 days). This will cost you between 120 and $250 (advertised today on craigslist in the San Francisco bay area) (The companies have truckloads of these things off lease, and it is better to keep them out of the waste stream). Add to this cost, a small 15 inch LCD panel from the same company for about 60 bucks, and you’ve got the ability to run Dragon naturally speaking preferred 10.x. if Lisa is a student, DNS education price including an inexpensive, but certified microphone, is 80 bucks. The total cost, with used hardware, for using a Windows computer and Dragon naturally speaking preferred version 10 or greater will be in the neighborhood of $300.00 to $400.00.
As an education technology coordinator with almost 20 years of experience starting in the classroom as well as supporting 125,000 kids across five counties and 92 school districts in Northern California, I would recommend regular folks with little to no Windows support built into their family, save pennies and get the Mac solution. The caveat is that as you grow in your ability to use voice to text, which has literally been liberating for myself (and will change the face of fifth grade composition standards forever for my kids and grandkids), MacSpeech Dictate will be growing as well, being fine tuned and enriched with features already found, or stable, on Dragon NaturallySpeaking (dictated into textedit using MacSpeech on a spring 09 24 inch iMac running snow leopard).
kkkaiser January 19, 2010 at 9:08 am
how would this software be for the following text,
went to risk, met with Mr homeowner, roof, 30 year architectual shingle, wind and hail damage to house and garage roof. Hail damage also noted on gutters, screens, siding on all elevations. Other damage from hail noted to windows, downspouts, shutters and ac unit. Completed inspection, advised mr homeownner of damages, discussed esitmate totals and claim details. file to close, no priors to apply to the loss.
Coverage A Loss 10,540.00
coverage b loss 500.00
deductible 500.00
payment due 10040.00
coverage c none
close claim yes
close referreal yes
As one can see, I am trying to speed up the “paper work”involved in completeing insurance claims. While it seems short, they are repetitive and eat up a lot of sitting time. If this stuff would work while driving or sitting in car and then pasting in the dos program, it would really be helpful. Does the language above appear to be the type that would bog it down,
StahT January 30, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Hey, I found a guide to use this on my macbook with my built in microphone: http://firstsearchblue.com/speech-to-text-on-an-mac-laptop-using-the-internal-mic/
Brian Pinkowski March 2, 2010 at 10:51 am
Ricky,
Thanks for the good data on the MacSpeech dictation software. I am looking for the next step – taking a digital recording of a speech, and having the file translated to text. It’s not clear to me if MacSpeech will do that. Any thoughts?
Ricky Buchanan March 2, 2010 at 6:00 pm
@Brian: Your timing is perfect – MacSpeech have just released a product called Scribe which does exactly what you described. Read about New MacSpeech Scribe For Transcription.
Linda April 15, 2010 at 3:29 am
I am a Special Education teacher and I have several students that have difficulties with paper and pencil assignments (their brains work faster than their hands writing). Our school district uses Macs in class. Would the MacSpeech Dictate be something a Special Ed student with learning disabilites be able to learn and use easily?
Ricky Buchanan April 18, 2010 at 12:14 pm
@Linda: All dictation software has trouble with children’s voices, or voices that are variable (such as a boy’s voice when it’s breaking) or non-standard (such as anybody with any type of speech impairment or significant variation from the norm). You have to learn to speak quite smoothly and without much emotion in your voice to manage dictation, which may be a problem for special ed kids.
If these kids are able to manage pencil and paper, could teaching them touch typing be an answer? I think it would be in the same order of difficulty as learning to manage MacSpeech Dictate, for many kids, and it’s certainly a skill that has more use over time!
On the other hand, in certain cases MacSpeech Dictate may suit a student perfectly – it’s fairly cheap to get a single copy which you could use to learn it yourself and then for kids to try out, perhaps trying would be the best answer. Best of luck, whatever your decision.
Craig June 11, 2010 at 12:38 am
The above discussion about Parallels on a Mac leads to this question: Which is better – Dragon Naturally Speaking (which I already own) or MacSpeech Dictate?
I haven’t used Naturally Speaking in ove a year, since I got the Mac, but still have the software.
Najma Heptulla August 3, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Hi, I would like to know that dictate or speech to text for Mac can be trained for Indians as we pronounce more with British accent and not American. I read your replies and they are very informative thanks for that.
Najma
Ricky Buchanan August 3, 2010 at 9:10 pm
@Najma: Yes! Indian English is one of the dialects MacSpeech Dictate specifically supports, so it should work well with your voice.
Gavin Hoult September 1, 2010 at 2:44 pm
We have an education program with many different speakers. is there any software that will recogise any voice and transfer to text for the deaf. Rather than a pre recorded voice recognition.?
Ricky Buchanan September 24, 2010 at 7:40 pm
@Gavin: Unfortunately there’s nothing that does the equivalent of “real-time captioning” at the moment except human beings, as far as I know.
Wade Gibbs September 4, 2010 at 2:57 am
I am looking for software that can help me transcribe an office meeting to a word document. Appears that this software was developed for specific one person, one microphone… any suggestions??
Ricky Buchanan September 24, 2010 at 12:41 pm
@Wade: Unfortunately the state of the technology today is that all voice recognition software is still specific to one voice – you’ll need to pay somebody to transcribe your office meeting by hand as far as I know.
Thomas September 7, 2010 at 12:12 am
Hi. Does anyone know of a speech to text dictate program for Mac which understands Spanish? I looked at the MacSpeech dictate international version, but Spanish is not included in the languages.
Ricky Buchanan September 24, 2010 at 8:15 pm
@Thomas: You’re right, none of the speech-to-text programs understand Spanish yet, but going on past events it’s probably going to be the next language that Nuance adds to Dragon Dictate so stay tuned!
Laura Harvey March 2, 2011 at 8:59 am
I am deaf video editor. I use Mac. I have been using hearing people to listen the video with audio that I interview and they type words. I am tried to avoid the fee. Will Dragon Dictate work to convert to text? So I can read what they have said. How does that work?
The Tips Guy March 2, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Hello and thank you for your question.
1) Dragon Dictate for small devices (free)
Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragon-dictation/id341446764?mt=8
The Dragon Dictate iPhone, iPod, iPad application allows you (or them) to talk to the device’s microphone (just but putting them close to them or attaching an external microphone to it). Once they talk to it, the device connects itself to the web (you need to be connected via wifi or 3G if you have an iPhone or 3G iPad) and brings back the text of what they “said” to it.
I use it to write text messages while driving (not recommended because you need to copy and paste the text into the text app and therefore you can have an accident) I only recommend this while in a traffic light or before you start driving.
2) Dragon dictate for MAC (not free)
This program is more powerful. You talk to the computer and it types all for you. You say commands like “new paragraph” to add a character return and therefore a new paragraph or “scratch that” to undo a mistake made by you or the program.
Even though you can not hear this video, please watch it. The man talks to the MAC and “she” writes the text for him – again, very powerful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z7cQVxem9w
3) Google translate for iphone, iPad, iPod (free)
Set it up to translate from English to English.
talk to it
It writes all what you said in english.
Pam March 9, 2011 at 8:54 pm
I have a Mac G5 running OS 10.4. I have audio files recorded from a Sony voice recorder that I’d like to be automatically transcribed. What would be my best options? An older version of MacSpeech Dictate? Or Scribe? I’m confused as to the differences between the two. Anyone know?
Philip Blair March 18, 2011 at 3:10 am
Neither MacSpeech or Dragon dictate will translate an audio file but Scribe will.
Pam March 18, 2011 at 4:08 pm
Thanks! Do you know of a good source of getting outdated software? I didn’t find anything on eBay, and I’ve posted to Craigslist in my area. So far, no luck. Anyone?
Sti September 15, 2011 at 10:12 am
Hi, I don’t know about a good source for that, but I’d recommend you to use a software enabling to redirect audio output from one application to the input of another, as if it were microphone input; I can’t remember a name but I know such software exists for mac and already used it with success, although I didn’t try the suggested use case (but don’t see any reason that it wouldn’t work).
JOHN March 16, 2011 at 12:36 am
I push the microphone on my droid x, speak into it, and it spells for me, is there an application I can get for the iphone 4 that will do to same, if you know the name of the application would you please tell me, thank you very much.
Pam March 18, 2011 at 4:07 pm
A friend was just telling me about Dragon Dictate. You can download that for free thru iTunes for the iPhone. There are a few others too, that you can compare. Search for voice recognition in the apps store to get a long list of them. I haven’t tried any of them yet, but they’re there! Good luck.
Dancam1 August 4, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Hello,
I am disabled and find it almost impossible to sit up for long periods of time and type on my computer. Are there any good MAC voice to text software that can be used to create a story?
A second related question, are there any Mac programs that can be used (also voice to text) for screenplays?
thanx
Dan
Dancam1 August 6, 2011 at 11:04 pm
Hi there, I am disabled and need help to write stories and screenplays. Does anyone know of any free software that can achieve this? If not (and that’s okay), can anyone tell me if this product can be used to write stories? If anyone has written stories, it would need to be able to have dialog, description etc, lots of paragraphs. Can this product do that?
Second question, are there templates that can be added to it that would allow me to write screenplays? I refuse to let my dreams die just b/c my body is bad. Please help if u can.
thanx in advance for any help. I really appreciate it.
Dan
Erin August 11, 2011 at 7:45 am
I am trying to find something that will work in a class room setting. I have auditory processing problems so i am horrible at taking notes so i am looking for something that will help me with this. I will be using this for more then one class with more then one teacher does anyone know if this will work? I am at a small college so its at most 20 people in my classes. thanks for any help
Caleb October 19, 2011 at 9:28 am
MacSpeech Scribe (http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/69437.html)has a feature that allows you to upload audio files (for instance, a recorded lecture) and turn them into typed transcripts. You could theoretically use a digital audio recorder to record the lecture and then use this software to convert it.
PLEASE NOTE: you are legally obligated to ask your professor for permission before recording lectures. If you were to explain your difficulty to the professor in person and explain the purpose of the recording, it seems extremely likely that they would allow it. Good luck!
Mohammad August 24, 2011 at 4:33 am
Hello ricky
I am Persian and I need to speak and write (text to voice and Vice versa).
I will be very grateful if you can help me.
I have Mac and Mac-pro.
regards
Mohammad
Winter October 11, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Just wondering, can any of these softwares run as background processes?
For example like how the default mac voice interface works (in snow leopard, haven’t used lion yet) i.e. you can run it while other applications are running and it still works.
My only quarrel with the default setting is that I can’t seem to find how to use the speak-to-text as a variable that can be placed wherever (sorry, kind of fail at programming) but just wondering if this would help solve the problem.
hans March 9, 2012 at 6:26 am
Audio file + Scribe vs Dragon Dictate/Mac Speech??
What are the pros and cons? Seems to me if I can just dictate into device stored as .wav or whatever, and give it to Scribe to transcribe, why would I go to the trouble of training the speech-to-text softwares?? Isn;t this just as easy or easier on me?