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5 MacSpeech DictateChapter 1 — Introduction
What Is MacSpeech Dictate?
MacSpeech Dictate is a new way to interact with your Mac.
Instead of typing your input, and clicking your mouse for
commands, now you can dictate your input and speak your
commands.
When you dictate words and phrases, what you say will ap-
pear on the screen, in virtually any Macintosh application.
The technology that enables this amazing feat translates
speech to text and characters almost anywhere you would
normally type.
MacSpeech Dictate can be used as a “third hand” to control
your Mac without using the mouse or keyboard. Speaking to
your computer is faster and can help you accomplish tasks
more easily than constantly moving your hands from key-
board to mouse.
MacSpeech Dictate is speaker dependent speech recognition
software. This means that in order to recognize your speech
so accurately, MacSpeech Dictate will be trained to recognize
your unique speech patterns.
Fortunately, MacSpeech Dictate is a quick learner. Initial
training can happen in a few short sessions, and the program
continues to learn as you go. Training data is stored in a profile
along with other things such as the type of microphone you
are using. MacSpeech Dictate can handle multiple profiles,
so others in your family or workgroup can use it, too (on the
same computer).
Who Should Use MacSpeech Dictate?
MacSpeech Dictate works well for many different people.
For a busy Mac user, MacSpeech Dictate can speed up
work when creating documents such as memos, reports, and
e-mails, or surfing the web and chatting.
Creative Professionals will love MacSpeech Dictate’s ability
to control the Mac interface, effectively allowing them to use
their voice as a “third hand.” MacSpeech Dictate can help
overcome mobility problems that make using a keyboard
difficult or impossible to use. Finally, those who have little or
no typing skills will benefit from MacSpeech Dictate’s ability
to free them from the “hunt and peck” method of typing.
No matter what type of user you are, you need to spend a
little time teaching MacSpeech Dictate the unique qualities
of your voice so the program can understand you better. As
you use MacSpeech Dictate it learns how your voice sounds,
your vocabulary and how you pronounce things. The more
you use the program, the better it will become at recognizing
your speech.
Will MacSpeech Dictate Replace My
Mouse And Keyboard?
Speech is a useful addition to the way you work with your
computer, but it isn’t a replacement. Some tasks will still be
efficiently performed using your mouse or keyboard. While
using MacSpeech Dictate, you will discover what combination
of speech, mouse, and keyboard use is appropriate for your
tasks.
Who Is MacSpeech, Inc.?
MacSpeech, Inc. people are passionate about the Macintosh
and experienced creators of speech recognition technology.
MacSpeech’s founder and senior engineers were key mem-
bers of the teams that produced some of the first and some of
the best speech recognition products for Macintosh, including
Voice Navigator, PowerSecretary and iListen.
Being Mac-only means not having hands and creativity
tied by a requirement to maintain a common code-base
across computer platforms. As a uniquely Macintosh-based
company, MacSpeech, Inc. can take advantage of all the
Macintosh has to offer.
MacSpeech Dictate System
Requirements
MacSpeech Dictate has the following minimum system
requirements:
• MacOSXversion10.5.2orgreater(“Leopard”)
or Mac OS X version 10.4.11 or greater (“Tiger”)
• 1GB(ormore)RAM.
• Intelprocessor-basedMac.
• 2GBoffreeharddrivespace.
• AMacSpeech-certiedUSBnoise-canceling
microphone.
Speech recognition takes a lot of horsepower. In order to
decipher what you are saying, your Mac needs to perform
thousands of calculations every second. Slow machines just
can’t keep up with the demand. So if you ever needed a
reason for buying that new top-of-the line computer with loads
of RAM, now you have one.
Chapter 1: Introduion