VIAVOICE v.10.0 Advanced Edition

Other products by Nuance Communications

Product Features

• Just speak into the microphone and dictate your documents or emails directly -- watch ViaVoice turns your spoken words into written text
• Set up your own custom voice commands -- voice-initiated macros handle all sorts of tasks that previously were handled with a keyboard
• Format your words and correct any errors in your text right away, with SpeakPad and the Corrections Window
• Compatible with Office XP and 2000, Outlook, Internet Explorer, AOL, Netscape Messenger, and other e-mail applications
• Built-in dictionary with over 300,000 words and definitions -- you can also add to it with your own slang terms, acronyms, nicknames and other terms

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• ASIN: B0000A58IW
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 21, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,095 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #16 in	Software > Utilities > Voice Recognition
  #70 in	Software > Business & Office > Communication
  #85 in	Software > Business & Office > Office Suites > Office Suites for Windows

• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

IBM ViaVoice Advanced Edition Release 10 is a feature-rich voice recognition product designed for experienced PC users. Advanced Edition contains many of the customizable features that can make Pro USB a powerful productivity tool, such as dictation and correction into SpeakPad and supported applications within Microsoft Office, and direct dictation into a host of other PC applications. Advanced Edition also includes cross-application use of customized macros, and support for selected digital handheld recorders.

On the Internet, dynamic navigation of the Web allows Advanced Edition users to access Web sites merely by speaking the link name, while navigating to bookmarks with a simple voice command. Natural Language Commands and Voice Navigation macros provide Command and Control to navigate within the supported operating system and within many popular Windows applications.

Surfing the Web with voice activated linkage and creating e-mail or voice chats are tools within Advanced Edition, which allow users to enjoy the comfort of these productivity features while working on the Web.

Features:

• Email and Web navigation--use your voice to create, manage, and send email, chat on the Internet, command your browser, launch URLs, and surf the Web.*
• Noise-canceling headset microphone included.
• Transcription support for digital handheld recorders.**
• 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.
• User control of background noise sensitivity for easier adjustment to your environment.
• Command and control IBM ViaVoice, your desktop, and PC applications with your voice--just say the command name to activate menu options, lists, and buttons.
• Customized "voice shortcut" commands can now be used in multiple PC programs.
• Dictate, edit, and format easily in IBM ViaVoice SpeakPad; Microsoft Office XP, 2000, and 97; Outlook; Internet Explorer; AOL and Netscape Messenger; and email applications.*
• Direct dictation in a variety of PC applications.
• Over 300,000 vocabulary and backup dictionary words.
• Add customized addresses, names, acronyms, terms, and colloquialisms to the vocabulary.

* Requires Internet or Intranet access, which must be obtained separately.
** Digital handheld recorders not included. Visit www.scansoft.com/viavoice/support/compatibility/ for a complete list of supported recorders.

Product Description

IBM ViaVoice Advanced Edition Release 10 is a feature-rich voice recognition product designed for experienced PC users. Windows XP Home and Professional, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Me are the supported operating systems for Advanced Edition.

Advanced Edition contains many of the customizable features that can make Pro USB a powerful productivity tool, such as dictation and correction into SpeakPad and supported applications within Microsoft Office, and direct dictation into a host of other PC applications. Advanced Edition also includes cross-application use of customized macros, and support for selected digital handheld recorders.

On the Internet, dynamic navigation of the Web allows Advanced Edition users to access Web sites merely by speaking the link name, while navigating to bookmarks with a simple voice command. Natural Language Commands and Voice Navigation macros provide Command and Control to navigate within the supported operating system and within many popular Windows applications. Surfing the Web with voice activated linkage, creating e-mail or voice chats are tools within Advanced Edition, which allow users to enjoy the comfort of these productivity features while working on the Web.

Main Features

Manufacturer: Nuance Communications, Inc

Manufacturer Part Number: H009A-G00-10.0

Manufacturer Website Address: www.nuance.com

Software Sub Type: Voice Recognition

Software Name: IBM VIAVOICE v.10.0 Advanced Edition - Complete Product

Features & Benefits:

Email and Web navigation-use your voice to create, manage, and send email, chat on the Internet, command your browser, launch URLs and surf the Web.

Noise-cancelling headset microphone included.

Transcription support for digital handheld recorders.

A new IBM speech engine with improved background noise adaptation, first used in the IBM ViaVoice for Windows product line in the Release 10 po

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dragon Preferred is better than ViaVoice 10, March 16, 2006

By	Old enough to know better - See all my reviews

I am a physician and dictate multiple letters every day. I was spending thousands of dollars (literally) a year for a transcriptionist to type my letters for me in the early 1990's. Not only that, there was about a one week turnaround time from when I dictated the letters into my tape recorder until the time they were typed and ready to be signed. When IBM first came out with speech recognition, I called IBM and actually spoke to the person who was the head of their R&D for speech recognition. From what he told me, I felt this new technology might save me a lot of time and money. I have used IBM for speech recognition since 1995 when they had Voice Dictation which was run off their own IBM OS2-Warp operating system. That required that you speak each word distinctly and separately. You needed a computer with a dual operating system (OS2 Warp and Windows 3.1). After dictating a letter into the OS2-Warp platform, you copied it, opened Windows and pasted it onto a Works letterhead. Lots of futzing around, but hey, it worked. When ViaVoice came out (in 1998, I think) I got their Executive 98 edition and have used it until recently. It worked fine, but my eight year-old computer finally died, and when I got a new Dell I figured I'd try the new ViaVoice 10. Big mistake!!! Initially it worked, but it was always kind of quirky. Made me wish I still had my old Executive 98 version. Anyway, one day, after spending a weekend programing in a bunch of macros, it totally died. I called IBM ViaVoice support and they had me do this thing and that to the computer, all to no avail. Finally, the technician asked what operating system I was using. I told him Windows XP service pack 2. He said that ViaVoice 10 is not compatible with service pack 2 - something about a "hostile environment". I asked him what I should do and he said return ViaVoice to Amazon (which they took back for a full credit even though the package had obviously been opened) and to get Dragon. That's right - the IBM technician said Dragon is a better product. Well, I ordered Dragon Preferred from Amazon and set-up was a breeze compared to ViaVoice. About 5 minutes of reading to the computer to adjust to my voice vs. 35 minutes for ViaVoice. Installing macros (addresses, common phrases, etc. where you say a couple of words and the whole address or paragraph comes up) was easy. One annoyance with the macros is that you always have to reset the font and size for each macro. I use Times New Roman 12-point and had to set it every time. The default font is something weird and the default size is 8-point. If you don't reset it, the macros show up in your letter in the 8-point size. Training new words is very simple and quick. Dragon says it is 99% accurate - I think that's a bit of a stretch, but I find that Dragon will make maybe 2-3 mistakes in a typical 3-4 paragraph letter that I dictate, including all the medical jargon. I can live with that - it is comparable to what I was used to with my old ViaVoice program. Correction is easy - either say Select _ and then choose the correct spelling from the dropdown list, or highlight the misspelled word and push the minus (-) sign on the numeric keypad. Dragon is very good when you have to correct a single word; not as hot if you have to correct a phrase or macro. It takes maybe 15-30 seconds to make corrections to the letter once I have finished dictating. Another annoyance is that Dragon doesn't seem to learn from it's mistakes. If, for example, I say Andersen, it will type Anderson no matter how many times I run the correction window, spelling the word ending with -sen not -son. ViaVoice, at least my old version, would usually spell the word correctly after I had corrected it once or twice. Another annoyance is that when I am dictating, often Dragon seems to hold back on typing, then suddenly an entire sentence will appear. It does show what you are dictating in a little box at the top of the screen though. ViaVoice shows every word as soon as you dictate it. I have had no problems with the microphone that came with Dragon - it's not the most comfortable, but it doesn't seem to be adversely affecting the dictation quality. Unless you have money to burn, there's probably no reason to buy a more expensive microphone. Overall, I am pretty happy with Dragon Preferred. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now, and it does what I need it to do. It is a definite improvement over my old IBM ViaVoice Executive 98 version. I am not sure I can accurately rate ViaVoice 10 because of my computer's "hostile environment". However, even the IBM technician said Dragon is a better product. If you have Windows XP service pack 2, don't even think of getting ViaVoice.

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good recognition, but very unstable program, May 13, 2004

By A Customer

This is my first experience with dictation software, so I don't have anything to compare it to. All I can do is offer observations on how this one has worked for me.

Training this software takes quite a long time; a few hours if you want to get maximum performance. I actually wouldn't mind so much, except that you need to retrain it every time you buy a new microphone or work in an environment with a different sound level. For me, this has meant having to train the software several times. Reading the provided material so the software can sample your voice is actually kind of fun, but after you've done it a few times (reading the same passages to train for different microphones or environments), it is exceptionally tedious. I wish they had provided a larger selection of reading material.

The headphones which come with the software are adequate, but I heard you can get better recognition with a higher quality set. (I upgraded to a Plantronics Audio 90, which is better, but not one I'd recommend.)

My biggest complaint about the software is that it consumes a tremendous amount of system resources on your computer. I can not be running any other programs at the same time, or it crashes. I am using a computer with a 1.40 GHz Centrino processor with 512MB of RAM. Even when I am running only IBM ViaVoice and MS Word, I clearly run into performance issues. After a while my computer starts to bog down and I have to restart it. My computer's specs are way above what IBM recommends, so that *shouldn't* have been an issue. If a beefier computer would solve my problems, I think IBM should specify "minimal" and "optimal" system requirements. I don't mind if a program is a system hog if the developer is willing to *admit* it and tell me what I need.

More complaints: ViaVoice types with unusual quirks which it seems would have been easy for IBM to have prevented. For example, it often fails to capitalize the first word in a sentence, especially when dictating in chat software. When you dictate for a passage to be in quotation marks, it leaves a space between the quotation marks and the words inside the quote. For some words, it seems impossible to get the software to recognize that you are dictating a word, and not issuing a command.

IBM's ViaVoice is considerably cheaper than the competition. Unfortunately, I have no idea if the higher price of the competing product (Dragon) is justified by being a higher-quality product. ViaVoice is probably adequate for most casual dictating needs. If you've never used dictation software before, it's really impressive the way it can usually understand what you're saying. The more you use it, the better it gets at recognizing what you are saying, and the better you will get at enunciating in a way it can understand. After a few months of casual usage, I would say my software is hitting 90 to 95% accuracy (higher under ideal conditions with simple words).

The bottom line is, for the price, this is pretty good software (though I sure do wish it was more stable). If you use dictation a lot and know that the competing products are better quality, they would be worth the price. But for a casual user, this software is fine.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Continuous speech recognition needs a VERY fast CPU and RAM, September 13, 2004

By	FERNANDO CASSIA "-Writer and Computer Geek-" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Those that say this software is "unstable" do not take into consideration the VERY high cpu usage needed to perform continuous speech recognition (as ooposed to "discrete" speech dictation used in IBM VoiceType, which was possible on a Pentium 1 233 Mhz, and required users to pause between words).

In short: get a gigabyte of ram, specially if you're using WinXP. If you run Win2000 with 512MB ram, try to add an extra 256mb stick.

And your cpu should be at the very least a 2Ghz Pentium 4, or higher, despite what the box claims. With these requirements in mind, the software works as advertised in my experience.