CounseltoCounsel Blog

I have been experimenting with voice recognition software since 1997 when I first launched my own consulting firm.  I was pretty accustomed to doing a lot of my writing with a Dictaphone; but now that I was out on my own, I was eager to control my costs and a secretary was just not in the budget.

My early experience with Dragon NaturallySpeaking was pretty good (I believe I came in at Version 3 or 4), though not quite good enough to justify sticking with it.   Over the next 10 years, I would upgrade to the next version each time hoping that accuracy would finally reach an acceptable level.   But each time, I stopped using the product within a few months of installing the upgrade.   I finally gave up at version 8.

Fortunately for Nuance, the current owner of Dragon, I finally succumbed to their incessant advertising and I have purchased Version 11 (having skipped versions nine and 10).  If my experience in the first 15 minutes is indicative of what it will be like to use this upgrade, I am very excited.   the number of recognition errors being made is minuscule.  I have found the Holy Grail – I will be dramatically increasing my typing speed in the coming months.  I’m just hoping that this post is not premature. But this time I think I have found the real deal.

  ·   Categories:  technology in the law