Dragon Dictate

Group Members

Lin Introduction

Erin Historical Context

Eva Key Innovations

Chenyi Impact

Soogyeong Future Research

Introduction

1990 - The company, Dragon came out with the software, Dragon Dictate, which was a dictation software that could recognize human speech and dictate it into a word processing program. It is also one of the first commercially successful speech recognition software packages for personal computers, making speech recognition more accessible. In 1997, Dragon NaturallySpeaking was released at the World Trade Center, becoming the world’s first continuous speech dictation system for consumers.

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)

To better understand dragon dictate, we first need to understand what automatic speech recognition technology is. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is a “machine-based process of decoding and transcribingoral speech”(Levis & Suvorov, 2012, p. l) that is built into numerous technologies such asautomated call centers and dictation programs.

Much of the early interest in ASR focused on dictation programs. Dictation programs were developed for native speakers of a given language and are built into both Windows and Mac operating systems as part of their accessibility services. Dictation programs use ASR to interpretwhat the user has said and provide the spoken utterance in written form.

Dragon Dictate's Development Steps

As one of the first commercially successful speech recognition software packages for personal computers, dragon dictate used discrete speech where the user must pause between speaking each word. The first version, 1.0 was available only through a few distribution and support partners. It included a Shure cardioid microphone headset.

Later it was replaced by Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which allows continuous speech recognition and correction and training of words via the keyboard.

Now dragondictate has more and more comprehensive features, that enables users to use their voice to interact with their own computers. Specifically, we can use Dragon Dictate to do the following things:

• Dictate text to be automatically typed into a document.
• Use verbal commands to edit text.
• Speak application commands to control computer operations.
• Use verbal commands to manipulate the pointer to perform commands.

In order to help you better understand dragon dictate, in this wiki, we will elaborate on its historical context, key innovations, impact, and future research.

Historical Context

The release of Dragon Dictate in 1990 was a turning point in the evolution of speech recognition technology. It is critical to take into account the technological status of the time as well as the larger socio-economic climate in order to provide historical context.

• Growth of personal computing: This time period corresponded with the increasing popularity of personal computers. Dragon Dictate was released to customers who owned computers, making voice recognition more accessible.
• Advancements in hardware: advancements in computer hardware during the late 1980s and early 1990s in terms of processor power and memory capacity allowed for more advanced voice recognition systems.
• Vocabulary restrictions: Dragon Dictate, like many early voice recognition systems, had a limited vocabulary when compared to contemporary systems. It performed well in dictation tasks but struggled to recognize a large variety of words and phrases.