IVR

For those of you who have ever considered voice recognition to be something of a detriment to a business or you are simply distrusting that this technology works as promised, MacSpeech Dictate may provide a different approach.

 

Announced and demonstrated at Macworld, this voice recognition program definitely put its reputation on the line. As reported by David Dahlquist, the MacSpeech Dictate was demonstrated in the middle of a busy trade show floor. While it may seem the most unlikely of ideal conditions to demonstrate something that relies on your voice – this product proved it could world.

This text-to-speech program was demonstrated to Expo attendees in a live demonstration throughout the week. A presenter was always in the booth, donning a headset and demonstrating the various features offered in the MacSpeech Dictate.

While the presenter was speaking – highlighting key points – the program ram on a projected screen behind him, writing out every word he said in real-time. Every phrase spoken during the presentation was written out as text with surprising accuracy.

Dahlquist is quick to note that he has always been wary of the effectiveness of voice recognition programs and the MacSpeech’s booth demonstrated to him just how advanced the technology has truly become.

The speaker led the audience through a demo, that included the writing of several paragraphs of text (stating punctuation where needed), opening and responding to e-mails and making small edits using only his voice. While a few inaccuracies were identified along the way, the vast majority was perfectly written out.

Dahlquist was impressed that the company was so confident in its program that they were willing to put it on display for all its perks and flaws to be known. MacSpeech Dictate is available for Intel (News - Alert)-based Macs running OS X 10.5.6 and up, for $199. MacSpeech also announced its Scribe product at the Expo. This software translates voice recordings into text.

In other MacSpeech news, Nuance (News - Alert) has announced the acquisition of the company today. The agreement will allow Nuance to extend the Dragon NaturallySpeaking family of products to the growing community of Mac users as a native Mac application.