On December 7th, Nuance, a software company with years of experience in providing speech-to-text solutions to consumers, released an iPhone application that fills the void left wide open by standard voice memo applications. Dragon Dictation (Free, as of this article’s publication) is an iPhone speech-to-text application from the makers of the popular desktop dictation software, Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Dragon Dictation’s EULA
Upon starting the application, the user is greeted by an End User License Agreement (EULA), which must be accepted only once in order to proceed to the recording screen. Please read this EULA carefully, as it clearly states the user is allowing Nuance to collect private data from the iPhone, specifically names. Nuance claims that it only does this to better improve the software’s performance and further development.
When asked about the security of the data sent upon acceptance of the license agreement on Nuance’s Dragon-focused Twitter account, @DragonTweets, Nuance responded with, “We use names only, no email addresses, so we recognize them when you speak. Privacy safe”.
Dragon Dictation - the Next Best Thing to a Personal Assistant
After the EULA is accepted, a black screen with a silver and red “record” button (as found in iPhone Voice Memo app) is displayed. Using this program really is as easy as pushing the big red button and talking into the microphone. Drivers will love the simplicity of Dragon Dictation, since they won’t have to fumble through menu options to make a quick recording.
When Dragon Dictation is in recording mode, the controls change from the lone “Record” button to a small “Cancel” button in the middle of the screen and an enormous, red “DONE” button on the bottom. Just above the “DONE” button is an equalizer that visualizes the volume of the user’s voice as words are spoken into the microphone. The equalizer doesn’t seem to have any bearing on the quality of the input, but it’s a nice animation for an otherwise “bells and whistles”-less application.
A single click of the “DONE” button and up comes a white screen with the text output of what was just spoken. Dragon Dictation is quite accurate in its interpretation of the human voice, but this is unsurprising since it is a product by Nuance Software.
As long as the user speaks clearly into the iPhone, the application has little to no trouble printing the correct text to the screen. If the user slurs their words or speaks too quickly, accuracy drops. As a demonstration, the words “I am using Dragon Dictation to do this review for Suite101” were spoken into the mic. The application returned with the text, “I am using dragon dictation to do this review for suite 101.” Obviously, Dragon Dictation wasn’t familiar with Suite101 as a proper name, but most words were interpreted with near-perfect accuracy.
The application will try to distinguish where punctuation is supposed to be placed, but if you like to control where your exclamation points go, just say the words “exclamation point” anywhere in your sentence and Dragon Dictation will input the furious little punctuation mark in the desired spot. This also works with periods, commas, and most other punctuation symbols.
Let the Dragon Fly Your Text Anywhere
Dragon Dictation allows users to select onscreen text and send it to a new email, SMS message, or to the clipboard to paste in any iPhone application. The user taps a word on the screen and then drags up or down to select a passage for use. It’s similar to the native copy and paste function built into the iPhone, but with an added benefit; tapping a word or phrase reveals an action menu that suggests a different word or phrase to use in its place.
For example, if the user taps the word “using”, the options “using a” and “using the” are offered to replace the selected word. Should the user want to replace “using”, but not with either option provided, an onscreen keyboard can be utilized to edit the text as desired.
Nuance’s Dragon Dictation is likely going to become a “must-have” app for iPhone users. The application’s speech-to-text accuracy is much better than anything else available on the iPhone and as the database of names is updated, accuracy will only improve. Currently, the app is free in the iTunes App Store, but Nuance has said that this is only temporary. A price has not been announced yet. Also, the application only works on the iPhone - not the iPod Touch. However, those who have a serious need for mobile dictation software will find Dragon Dictation indispensable and well worth the money.
UPDATE: As of December 15, 2009, Nuance has updated the application to make contact name upload optional.
Harry Marks - Harry Marks is a writer, teacher, and web developer from New Jersey. When he's not screaming at his computer because of ASP errors or ...
