Editing Dragon Dictate (section)

=== '''Commercialize Continuous Speech Recognition''' ===
Dragon Systems was one of the first companies to successfully commercialize speech recognition technology for personal computer users. They made it accessible to a broader audience beyond research and specialized industries. Before, Dragon Dictate uses discrete speech and is speaker-dependent, adapting to the speaker’s voice and language model with every word. In 1990, Dragon demonstrated a 5,000-word continuous speech system for PCs and introduced Dragon Dictate 30K, the first large-vocabulary, speech-to-text system for general-purpose dictation. It allowed control of a PC using voice commands only and found acceptance among the disabled. The system had limited appeal in the broader marketplace because it required users to pause between words. And late in 1993, the Bakers realized that improvements in desktop computers would soon allow continuous voice recognition. By July 1997, Dragon had launched Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a continuous speech & voice recognition program for general-purpose use with a vocabulary of 23,000 words. The package won rave reviews and numerous awards.