Sangeetha,

Dragon Naturally Speaking is certainly the most advanced and widely  
used speech recognition software available. I wish they would bring  
out a Mac version that was on par with the Windows version. Like all  
similar products, it needs to be trained to the speaker's voice, and  
the user, too, needs to be trained somewhat also. Nevertheless, there  
are plenty of fans and advocates for the product.

As for machine transcription, just this fall I purchased a USB foot  
pedal from Executive Communication Systems http://tvps.com (very  
affordable) and a license from Inqscribe http://www.inqscribe.com/ for  
their transcription and subtitling software. It is available for Macs  
and Windows. I have not had a major project to put it through its  
paces yet, but in my testing with the foot pedal things worked very  
well. Open the software, open your audio or video file, pedal to  
control playback and keep your hands free for typing.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Anthony

On Dec 10, 2008, at 12:05 AM, LLTI automatic digest system wrote:

> Subject: #9021 Speech recognition
>
> Greetings!
>
>
>
> I have two different, but related, questions:
>
> 1.      We are thinking of acquiring a Speech Recognition software  
> such as
> Dragon Naturally Speaking. Has anyone experimented with it? Pros and  
> Cons?
>
> 2.      We are looking to acquire a machine for transcription (with  
> foot
> controls), and one that works with digital files (not cassette- 
> tapes). Has
> anyone found a good, digital, one that they are satisfied with?
>
> Thanks for your input!
>
> And Happy Holidays!
>
> Sangeetha
>

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