Voice To Text Software.

[Crossy]

I need some GOOD voice to text software, the idea being that we feed a recording of a meeting in and out pop the minutes ready for editing. Meetings are in English although we have Germans, French and Indians participating, they don't often degenerate into shouting matches (well once or twice per meeting).

A colleague has asked for this, personally I think it's a big ask but it's a loooong time since I played with this type of software.

Anyone know of an application that comes anywhere near doing what we want, whilst cost is relevant we are willing to pay for this stuff.

[SomNamNah]

the built in windows vista Windows Speech Recognition is one of the best i have seen.

I havent looked around for many years, thought about it for legal transcripts, but found the lawyers spent longer 'training' the recognition than was acceptable.

Playing in an audio file... hmm.. just jack in the recorder to the microphone socket.

sorry cant be more help

[SomNamNah]

They all seem to recommend 'dragon' software

however, this seems to be the cutting edge

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2023392.ece

[Crossy]

Hmmm, didn't even know Vista had this facility, I'll give it a go.

Others have suggested Dragon so we'll try that too.

As to the mechanical tottie, must be some reason she looks vaguely like my wife

[Guest Reimar]

Hmmm, didn't even know Vista had this facility, I'll give it a go.

Others have suggested Dragon so we'll try that too.

As to the mechanical tottie, must be some reason she looks vaguely like my wife

I think you should keep in mind that you must speak quite accurate and that any changes in voice bring a different result. Even the distance from the Mic to your mouth has some effect. You also need to teach to first the prog how YOU speak. And with different Languages you'll face more problems.

Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 is the most advanced Voice recognition software available.

Cheers

[Crossy]

I think you should keep in mind that you must speak quite accurate and that any changes in voice bring a different result. Even the distance from the Mic to your mouth has some effect. You also need to teach to first the prog how YOU speak. And with different Languages you'll face more problems.

Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 is the most advanced Voice recognition software available.

Yeah I know, unfortunately the chap who's asking is a Star Wars / Trek fan, believes every word

Hopefully letting him play with Dragon will convince him that the (cute) Indian lady who currently does the minutes is better than any machine

[SomNamNah]

LOL! haha, my old boss forced me to switch 40 lawyers to digital dictation, in the name of progress.

if they had been 40 YOUNG lawyers.. no problem... these were lawyers that had been lawyers for 40 years, and had just about mastered the basics of windows!!! hhhaaahaaarrgghhh!

I feel for you...

i think the plan was to have a pool of typists - sent the digital files by email...

it worked... but the pool never happened.. it just went through the email to the secretary a few feet away...

Edited December 11, 2008 by SomNamNah

[Crossy]

if they had been 40 YOUNG lawyers.. no problem... these were lawyers that had been lawyers for 40 years, and had just about mastered the basics of windows!!! hhhaaahaaarrgghhh!

Whilst the gentleman(?) in question is a great civil engineer, holding a pen without crushing it is a challenge (hence the requirement for something remotely automatic), Namrata (the Indian lady) does a remarkable job.

Windows, well those are things you look out of, yes?

[spacefruit]

Hmmm, didn't even know Vista had this facility, I'll give it a go.

Others have suggested Dragon so we'll try that too.

As to the mechanical tottie, must be some reason she looks vaguely like my wife

I think you should keep in mind that you must speak quite accurate and that any changes in voice bring a different result. Even the distance from the Mic to your mouth has some effect. You also need to teach to first the prog how YOU speak. And with different Languages you'll face more problems.

Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 is the most advanced Voice recognition software available.

Cheers

I second that. I use dragon a lot and even after training and maintaining/updating it is difficult to be accurate. I always have to re-read and correct, and that is after using as recommended, IE constant volume, consistent Mic/mouth distance and regular upkeep. It says in the recommendations that you must speak clearly and slightly unnaturally (My word, not theirs as name of software is Naturally Speaking - Ironic).

I cant believe anything can deal with multiple voices. Except a tape recorder!

[mac.wheeler]

I have used Dragon Naturally Speaking since version 7 and I have found it excellent, ok it makes the odd mistake but once you have trained it for a few months it's pretty well spot on.