Hands-free typing is convenient, but users want to be able to navigate their computers in a more intuitive way than with a keyboard and mouse. In addition, he was also able to apply styles, like bolding a particular word, as well as make more complicated edits like moving an entire phrase around, without reaching for his mouse or keyboard.
There was a slight lag between the time he would stop talking and when the text appeared on the computer, but the rep told us the delay was due to the program working extra hard to distill his words from the background noise.
The Nuance rep, who had a headset on his head when he started talking to us about the software, would end his sentences by saying punctuation marks like “period” and “exclamation mark.” As it turns out, whatever he was saying into the headset was appearing onscreen in Word on his Windows 8-running Surface Pro preloaded with the Dragon software (as pictured). We got the chance to see the latest version of NaturallySpeaking 12 in action at the CEA Line Show in NYC last week and were floored by how accurate it was at typing out what was said in the noisy showroom. In addition to its line of dictation software for consumers and professionals, Nuance powers the voice recognition in TomTom GPS, most smartphones, and hands-free control in cars. You may not have heard of Nuance before, but you probably use its technology every day. You can even use the software to control your PC using just your voice. If you tend to think faster than you can type, have mobility issues that make it hard to use a mouse and keyboard, or just want to live in the future with hands-free computing, the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 software from Nuance can take what you say and automatically turn it into text on your computer.