NaturallySpeaking Version 7 Announced March
3, 2003
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is your Nuance Gold Certified Partner -- your source for
NaturallySpeaking products.
NOTE: This is
NOT the current version of NaturallySpeaking. Please
click here for information about the current version of
NaturallySpeaking!
ScanSoft March 3
Press Release describing Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 7
ScanSoft Ships Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7; Speech
Recognition Goes Mainstream with Most Accurate and Fastest Release Ever
Significant New Features and Enhancements Result in 50
Percent Improvement in Performance; Accuracy Rates as High as 99 Percent,
Making Speech Recognition Valuable for all Users
PEABODY, Mass., March 3, 2003
- ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), a leading supplier of imaging, speech and
language solutions, today announced the availability of Dragon
NaturallySpeaking version 7, a new release of the world's best-selling
speech recognition application for Microsoft Windows. Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 7 delivers the accuracy, speed, ease-of-use and innovative
features needed to make speech recognition a mainstream application, in the
home and at the office.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 is a significant improvement
over the previous release, increasing accuracy by 15 percent and enabling
users to achieve accuracy levels of up to 99 percent. Its speed has been
improved by more than 50 percent for dictation initialization. Accuracy and
performance are further enhanced by new features such as the Vocabulary
Optimizer, which evaluates previously authored emails and documents to
personalize itself to the writing style of the user, and the Performance
Assistant, which optimizes the efficiency of speech recognition based on a
user's workflow. In total, the accuracy and performance improvements within
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 deliver an unmatched level of productivity and
ease of use for speech recognition products.
"Dragon NaturallySpeaking has been a boon to those who
need to limit their typing or who are familiar with dictation," noted Bill
Meisel, President, TMA Associates, a speech market research firm. "ScanSoft's
new release has addressed the issues that deterred less-motivated users--
getting started, accuracy, and ease-of-use. NaturallySpeaking fills a need
beyond dictation-- idea and information capture. A new category of customers
will use it to convert ideas in their heads into searchable and editable
text. It's the ultimate cure for writer's block--thought-to-text."
Dragon NaturallySpeaking turns speech into text at up to
160 words-per-minute, and allows users to control Microsoft Windows and
their PC applications completely by voice. The product is tightly integrated
with Microsoft Office, which allows users to create new documents, or change
the layout of existing documents, using their voice. The product's new
Natural Punctuation feature offers automatic insertion of periods and commas
in applications such as e-mails, instant messages and Web-based forms.
"The accuracy and ease-of-use advancements in Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 7 represent a step forward in speech recognition
technology for users at home and in the office. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7
was designed and optimized to take advantage of Inte® Pentium® 4 processor
based PCs," said David L. Brown, General Manager of Intel's Software
Enabling Division. "Intel is pleased to have worked with ScanSoft, a member
of the Inte® Early Access Program, to deliver the performance needed to make
speech recognition a valuable solution for all PC users."
The new release also includes expanded network tools for
installation, maintenance and use of Dragon NaturallySpeaking throughout an
enterprise, a key requirement for large healthcare organizations and
corporations looking to implement speech recognition solutions.
"Many years of leadership in imaging, and more recently
speech technologies, have provided ScanSoft with a keen understanding of
what it takes to move recognition products into the mainstream," said Paul
Ricci, chief executive officer and chairman for ScanSoft. "The enhancements
and features in Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 demonstrate the implementation of
that blueprint - create a highly accurate, innovative and easy to use
product that enhances productivity in applications that people already use.
This exciting product represents the most robust speech solution in ScanSoft
history, with functionality that is unmatched on the market."
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New Levels of Accuracy,
Speed and Functionality
To help home and office users achieve an increased level
of productivity - and a more seamless interaction with their personal
computer - ScanSoft has added a number of key capabilities to Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 7:
 | Most Accurate Ever - Significant improvements to
the Dragon NaturallySpeaking recognition system has yielded an
unprecedented accuracy improvement of up to 15% over the previous release,
resulting in speech recognition accuracy levels as high as 99 percent.
|
| Fastest Ever - More than 50 percent improvement
in the initialization time of Dragon Naturally Speaking 7 enables "10
seconds to dictation" on baseline systems. Users can train the software on
their voice patterns in just five minutes. |
| Mainstream Dictation Through Natural Punctuation
- While professionals are accustomed to speaking punctuations, Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 7 brings speech recognition to mainstream users by
eliminating the need to say "period" or "comma" when creating e-mail
messages, sending instant message text or completing Web-based forms by
voice. |
| Mobile Dictation with Pocket PC Devices - Users
can now "talk-and-dock" using standard Pocket PC devices, in addition to
handheld digital recorders, to record mobile dictation for automatic
transcription when they synch to their PCs. |
| New Vocabulary Optimizer - Users can instruct
Dragon NaturallySpeaking to instantly analyze sentence structure and word
use frequency in previously created documents. Dragon NaturallySpeaking
then automatically adjusts the recognition engine to match the user's
unique writing patterns, thereby further increasing accuracy. |
| Most Accessible Ever - Dragon NaturallySpeaking
7 is the first desktop speech recognition solution to be certified as
compliant with U.S. Section 508, which is focused on enabling the
use of PC applications by persons with disabilities. The product supports
Section 508 screen readers, and also adds voice control capabilities to
Microsoft Windows XP/NT/2000 and all standard PC applications. |
| Improved Proofing - The time and effort needed
to proofread a document created by voice has been significantly reduced
with ScanSoft RealSpeak Proofing, which reads email and document text
aloud in a human-sounding synthesized voice. |
| New Performance Assistant - Dragon
NaturallySpeaking now optimizes itself for each user's application usage
patterns. |
| Accurate Voice Control of the PC - Dragon
NaturallySpeaking has improved voice command and control capabilities,
which allows users to use their voice to interact with the PC operating
system and control application menus. Most applications gain voice control
capabilities by simply installing Dragon NaturallySpeaking onto the PC. |
| Expanded Custom Voice Shortcuts - The ability to
create custom voice shortcuts, where a word or phrase will trigger the
insertion of standardized text, has been expanded to support inserting
text blocks and graphics. Users can now create a custom voice shortcut for
standard letter closings -including a graphic of their signature - and
have it automatically added to their email or Microsoft Word
correspondence by simply saying the shortcut command (i.e. "Add
signature".)
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