A question about speech-to-text software.

[Drum]

Where do things stand now in the evolution of this? I have a large amount of handwritten text that I want to convert typed-text in my computer (for editing) and the task of transcribing it all manually seems completely overwhelming. Scanning hundreds of pages and applying a text-recognition program is also totally impractical for me.

So it got me wondering...whether reading the pages into a mic and having the computer do the work might be an option. I know that there are always issues with pronunciation and one's own voice, things must be tweaked or corrected, but perhaps a V-to-T program could do the lion's share of this transcription process....

So what say you, diverse and experienced peeps? Does anyone know about this stuff? Is there a natural choice of program for this sort of thing...any recommendations? Naturally a freeware/beta/shareware would be nice, but if there's also a really dependable solution then the project is important enough to me to justify buying the software.

Any comments or suggestions?

(Will also cross-post this query in other DU fora and groups.)

Thanks for any and all assistance

[CreekDog]

1. there was a special on PBS about a girl going off to college who was disabled

She used that software. She was trying to write a paper and the voice recognition software kept turning what she said (unremarkable prose) into something highly suggestive and she and her friends were hysterical over this.

Nevertheless, long way to go.

[Drum]

2. kick

[NewHampster]

3. OCR vs Speech to text

Scanning the handwriting the using OCR is dicey but doable. Just like speech, you have to train the software to recognize your handwriting.

Speech to text has come along way and as far as I know is included in all advanced flavors of windows. Vista Premiums, XP Pro etc.

http://blogs.msdn.com/robch/archive/2007/04/23/windows-speech-recognition-in-vista-dictation-everywhere.aspx

The best product for many years is Dragon http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/home/

Your Windows XP or Vista may have handwriting ocr installed. It might require Office I can't remember but you can look under control panel, add remove programs, turn on or change windows features.

[Deja Q]

4. Dragon Dictation 9 is out... Windows Vista incorporates V-to-T as well.

Works fine in Vista, though anything beyond an assistant in Word makes it tricky. But that's why I use it. To save on typing.

[Drum]

5. Thank you!

I should've mentioned, I am on a PC with WinXPpro running.

Thanks folks, for the knowledge!

:hi:

[Drum]

6. Night-kick...

;)