IBM ViaVoice 10 Pro USB Edition

By Dale Farris, Secretary Golden Triangle PC Club August 2005 IBM ViaVoice 10 Pro USB Edition is the flagship offering of the ViaVoice for Windows, Release 10 product line. It represents the merger of high-productivity software with advanced microphone technology. The Pro USB Edition offers great dictation versatility. Dictate, edit, and correct text in SpeakPad, the resident speech-enabled word processor, or in Word, Excel, and other applications within the Microsoft Office product suites, including Office XP, or directly into a variety of other PC applications. The Pro USB edition supports Windows XP Professional and Home, Windows 98SE, Me and 2000 operating systems. Pro USB Edition expands the usefulness of the powerful Navigation Macro Center found in earlier generations of IBM ViaVoice for Windows. With Pro USB, users can create macros that will run across multiple applications. In addition, users can now control the speed at which their macros run. Pro USB Edition supports the use of select digital handheld recorders. Pro USB Edition is the IBM desktop voice recognition product that features IBM ViaVoice Documents -- Microsoft Word-based customized templates for letters, reports, faxes, and e-mails -- and VoiceMarks, which can read the name of a customized navigation macro to the user as an audio confirmation that the macro is being run correctly. Key Features A new IBM speech engine with improved background noise adaptation, first used in the IBM ViaVoice for Windows product line in the Release 10 portfolio, can result in greater dictation and voice command accuracy. Noise-canceling USB headset microphone included. Transcription support for selected digital handheld recorders. Customized "voice shortcut" commands can now be used in multiple PC programs. Voice command and control of your applications, desktop, IBM ViaVoice and the Internet. IBM ViaVoice Document templates through Microsoft Word for quick and easy creation of business letters, reports, memos and faxes. Quick response to dictation and voice commands-you say it, and the screen responds. Voice marks for audio confirmations during completion of your macro commands. Over 300,000 vocabulary and back up dictionary words. Add customized addresses, names, acronyms, terms and colloquialisms to the vocabulary. Specialized vocabulary topics such as Computers and Business & Finance can lead to greater dictation accuracy. Dictate, edit, format and correct in IBM ViaVoice SpeakPad, Microsoft Office XP & 2000, Outlook®, Internet Explorer, AOL and Netscape® Messenger and email applications Dictate directly and say customized voice commands in a host of other popular PC applications. Digital handheld recorders not included. Recommendations IBM's ViaVoice product uses a setup process similar to ScanSoft's other super voice activated application, Dragon Naturally Speaking. You should have no problems customizing the program when working in a quiet room. In addition, the program will likely also set up as expected even in a noisy room that contains a lot of background noise. ViaVoice instructs you to speak in your normal tone of voice and at the pace you would typically use. The program also encourages you to pronounce your words clearly and distinctly to help the recognition process. You need to become accustomed to watching text appear on the screen while speaking. Depending on your configuration and how fast you talk, you could speak an entire sentence before anything shows up on the screen. ViaVoice does a good job of recognizing the difference between words such as "see" and "sea" using the context of the sentence. If the software misunderstands a word or phrase, you can correct the mistake so that it won't happen again. ViaVoice uses a correction pop-up menu activated by selecting the wrong word and speaking "Correct < text >." The menu then presents a list of possible replacements. If you find the right word in the list, you say, "Pick < n >" to select that word. You can also type in the correct word if the program can't figure it out. You should remember to add punctuation to your speech when dictating. ViaVoice recognizes keywords such as "period" to mean end the sentence and insert a period. Other phrases such as "new paragraph" instruct the software to end the sentence and start a new paragraph. To get the software to recognize a keyword as text, you must speak the word as part of a sentence without pausing. There's also a spell mode that lets you spell out license plate numbers or proper names with multiple capital letters. ViaVoice uses a toolbar that loads at the top of your screen by default. The toolbar displays what it thinks you said and to communicate error messages if it doesn't understand you. ViaVoice includes a macro command feature to define new commands to insert special text or automate a particular function. One feature exclusive to ViaVoice is the ability to create a macro template form that you can fill out later. ViaVoice's documentation uses the example of a form for a doctor's office that always includes patient information, symptoms and diagnoses. It also allows you to import and export those custom commands or macros for other users or computers. With a new speech engine that's better at filtering out background noise and a top-notch stereo USB microphone, IBM ViaVoice for Windows Release 10 Pro USB Edition is a fine choice for seasoned speech application users. In this release, IBM has focused more on dictation accuracy and less on attaining complete hands-free operation of a PC. Several new and improved wizards make training and using ViaVoice quicker and easier than before. The Recognition wizard dutifully guides you through resolving audio problems or other difficulties. And the new VoiceCenter toolbar can be parked on application menus or float in full or minimal views anywhere on the workspace. Several "topics" help you fine-tune accuracy further by forcing the ViaVoice engine to pay special attention to words and phrases common to those topics. Price $189.99 retail price $  99.00 upgrade price System Configuration Requirements For Windows 98SE, 2000 Professional (Service Pack 2) and XP Home & Professional Editions: Pentium 300MHz processor and 256K L2 cache or equivalent AMD-K6 with 256K L2 cache For Microsoft Windows Me: Intel Pentium III 600MHz processor and 256K L2 cache AMD Athlon TM 600 MHz with 256 L2 on-chip cache 64MB RAM for Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Me 96MB RAM for Windows 2000 192MB RAM for Win XP Home and Professional 510MB free hard disk space USB port for USB microphone input 4x CD-ROM drive or faster Included in the Box IBM ViaVoice for Windows Pro USB Edition Release 10 on CD-ROM Noise-canceling USB headset microphone included User's Guide Command Reference Card IBM ViaVoice for Windows Pro USB Edition does not support Windows 98 First Edition. About ScanSoft, Inc. ScanSoft, Inc. develops digital imaging software that enables users to leverage the power of their scanners, digital cameras, and other electronic devices. The product line now includes several well known applications, in addition to OmniPage Pro 14, including OmniPage Pro Scan Suite Plus, OmniForm 4, PagisPro, TextBridge Pro, , PageKeeper, Kai's PhotoSoap2, Kai's SuperGoo, Kai's PowerShow, PhotoFactory, along with PaperPort Deluxe. If many of these programs sound familiar, you would be right in thinking these used to be developed and sold by other companies. At this point, ScanSoft now dominates this market with their full line of programs, many formerly developed by other companies, and only time will tell if this multi-product line will merge into fewer applications. With this dominance, don't be surprised to find ScanSoft software bundled with newly purchased scanners or digital cameras in the future. Also, Microsoft has licensed ScanSoft OCR software for use in future Microsoft products, a feat that will be of keen interest to any computer owner. Contact ScanSoft, Inc. 9 Centennial Drive Peabody, Massachusetts 01960 978-977-2000 800-443-7077 FAX 978-977-2412 www.scansoft.com