Oct 29, 2018  In a move that is likely to anger and dismay Mac users, Nuance has dropped a bombshell. Dragon Professional Individual 6 has been discontinued with immediate effect; there will be no updates to the existing software and no further versions produced. In other words, Dragon for Mac is dead. Via a press release, Nuance stated.

• Dragon for Mac lets you customize words for the terms you use every day, insert frequently-used text or graphics and create command short cuts for repetitive tasks, so you can complete documentation faster than ever before. Speed through document creation 3x faster than typing. Enjoy increased accuracy as Dragon adapts to your voice.
• Dragon for Mac is among the best voice recognition software for Mac users. Read our review here.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking (also known as Dragon for PC, or DNS)^[1] is a speech recognition software package developed by Dragon Systems of Newton, Massachusetts, which was acquired first by Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products and later by Nuance Communications, formerly known as ScanSoft. It runs on Windowspersonal computers. Version 15 (Professional Individual and Legal Individual),^[2] which supports 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7, 8 and 10, was released in August 2016.^[3][4] The macOS version is called Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, version 6^[5] or Dragon for Mac.

Features[edit]

Dragon Naturally Speaking uses a minimal user interface. As an example, dictated words appear in a floating tooltip as they are spoken (though there is an option to suppress this display to increase speed), and when the speaker pauses, the program transcribes the words into the active window at the location of the cursor. (Dragon does not support dictating to background windows.) The software has three primary areas of functionality: voice recognition in dictation with speech transcribed as written text, recognition of spoken commands, and text-to-speech: speaking text content of a document. Voice profiles can be accessed by different computers in a networked environment, although the audio hardware and configuration must be identical to those of the machine generating the configuration. The Professional version allows creation of custom commands to control programs or functions not built into NaturallySpeaking.

History[edit]

Dr. James Baker laid out the description of a speech understanding system called DRAGON in 1975.^[6] In 1982 he and Dr. Janet M. Baker, his wife, founded Dragon Systems to release products centered around their voice recognition prototype.^[7] He was President of the company and she was CEO.

DragonDictate was first released for DOS, and utilized hidden Markov models, a probabilistic method for temporal pattern recognition. At the time, the hardware was not powerful enough to address the problem of word segmentation, and DragonDictate was unable to determine the boundaries of words during continuous speech input. Users were forced to enunciate one word at a time, clearly separated by a small pause after each word. DragonDictate was based on a trigram model, and is known as a discrete utterance speech recognition engine.^[8]

Dragon Systems released NaturallySpeaking 1.0 as their first continuous dictation product in 1997.^[9]

Joel Gould was the director of emerging technologies at Dragon Systems. Gould was the principal architect and lead engineer for the development of Dragon NaturallyOrganized (1.0), Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer (3.52), Dragon NaturallySpeaking (1.0 through 2.02), and DragonDictate for Windows (1.0). Gould also designed the tutorials in both DragonDictate for DOS version 2.0 and Dragon Talk.^{[citation needed]}

The company was then purchased in June 2000 by Lernout & Hauspie, a Belgium-based corporation that was subsequently found to have been perpetrating financial fraud.^[10] Following the all-share deal advised by Goldman Sachs, Lernout & Hauspie declared bankruptcy in November 2000. The deal was not originally supposed to be all stock and the unavailability of the Goldman Sachs team to advise concerning the change in terms was one of the grounds of the Bakers' subsequent lawsuit. The Bakers had received stock worth hundreds of millions of US dollars, but were only able to sell a few million dollars' worth before the stock lost all its value as a result of the accounting fraud. The Bakers sued Goldman Sachs for negligence, intentional misrepresentation and breach of fiduciary duty, which in January 2013 led to a 23-day trial in Boston. The jury cleared Goldman Sachs of all charges.^[11] Following the bankruptcy of Lernout & Hauspie, the rights to the Dragon product line were acquired by ScanSoft of Burlington, Massachusetts, also a Goldman Sachs client. In 2005 ScanSoft launched a de facto acquisition of Nuance Communications, and rebranded itself as Nuance.^[12]

From 2012 LG Smart TVs include voice recognition feature powered by the same speech engine as Dragon NaturallySpeaking.^[13]

Versions[edit]

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 is available in the following languages: UK English, US English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Japanese (aka 'Dragon Speech 11' in Japan).

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Sarnataro, Valerie (2012-11-08). 'Dragon NaturallySpeaking (DNS) 12 Review'. technologyguide.com. Technology Guide. Retrieved 2013-07-25.
2. ^'Nuance Announces Major New Releases of Dragon for Windows and Mac OS X'. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
3. ^'Nuance product support for Microsoft Windows Vista'. Archived from the original on 2009-12-15. Retrieved 2009-12-15.
4. ^'Nuance product support for Microsoft Windows 7'. 2010. Retrieved 16 Aug 2010.
5. ^'Nuance Announces Major New Releases of Dragon for Windows and Mac OS X'. 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
6. ^Baker, James K. (1975). 'The DRAGON System - An Overview'. IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. 23 (1): 24–29. doi:10.1109/TASSP.1975.1162650.
7. ^'History of Speech Recognition and Transcription Software'. Retrieved 2013-07-12.
8. ^'DragonDictate product information'. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
9. ^'Dragon NaturallySpeaking 1.0 released'. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
10. ^'Dragon Systems purchased by Lernout & Hauspie'. New York Times. 2001-05-07. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
11. ^'Goldman Is Cleared Over a Sale Gone Awry'. New York Times. 2013-01-23. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
12. ^'ScanSoft and Nuance to Merge'. 2005-05-09. Archived from the original on 2010-05-28. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
13. ^'Samsung and LG smart TVs share your voice data behind the fine print'. ConsumerReports. 2015-02-09. Retrieved 2016-06-10.

External links[edit]

• Official website for Nuance Communications

Dragon Professional Individual

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium (formerly Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred) was retired with the release of v15. Instead, for a more advanced version of Dragon, Dragon Professional will help you get a lot more done a lot quicker. Create documents, spreadsheets, reports, e-mails, and surf the web with simple shortcuts – just by speaking. Dragon Professional 15 is perfect for anyone who wants more than what Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home can provide. It is easy-to-use, and over three times faster than typing. If you are a Mac user, see Dragon Professional Individual for Mac.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium Key Features

• The world’s #1 speech software – Dragon NaturallySpeaking products have won over 175 major awards for accuracy and ease-of-use, and are used by millions of people around the world – more people than any other speech recognition software!
• Amazingly accurate – Dragon NaturallySpeaking is up to 99% accurate, and often more accurate than typing. Dragon NaturallySpeaking never makes a spelling mistake, and it gets smarter the more you use it. Compared to the previous version, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13 can show up to 15% improvement in out-of-box accuracy.
• 3 times faster than typing! – Most people speak over 120 words per minute, but type less than 40 words in the same amount of time. Dragon NaturallySpeaking lets you create letters and e-mails about three times faster than typing. The latest version boosts performance with easier correction and editing options, as well as by giving you more control over your command preferences. In fact, the time it takes for words to appear on your screen is now half of the previous couple of versions!
• Time-saving shortcuts – With the Dragon Voice Shortcuts, common tasks have been collapsed into time-saving shortcuts; simple commands that make using your computer faster than ever. Whether you want to schedule a meeting, send an email, or search Google, Wikipedia or a map for information, simply say it out loud and Dragon NaturallySpeaking will do all the work!
• Extremely easy-to-use! – With Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13, no script-reading is needed to get started. You can dictate letters, e-mails and surf the web by voice right away! A full set of on-screen tutorials and a Nuance-approved free noise-canceling microphone are included for FREE with the software (Headset only included in physical shipment purchase). To simplify your life even further, Dragon now also works with microphones built into many laptops.
• Use with any Windows program – Use your voice to dictate, edit and control programs like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Express, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, Excel, PowerPoint, Facebook, Twitter, and Corel WordPerfect. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 has also kept up with the most recent releases, supporting for example Windows 8, Office 2013, and Internet Explorer 10. It also gives you enhanced experience with Gmail and Hotmail/Outlook.com.
• Tools for your mobile life – Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 13 offers several ways to simplify your life also while away from the computer: The free Dragon Remote Microphone App turns your compatible iPhone, iPod touch (4th gen), iPad or Android device into a wireless microphone for use with Dragon over a WiFi network; and the free Dragon Recorder App lets you record high-quality audio files using your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch (4th gen). Wideband Bluetooth support provides outstanding wireless performance with no training required. Once back at your computer, Dragon will transcribe the audio files.

System Requirements | Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium

In order to install Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium v13, your computer must meet the following system requirements. Please note that the Nuance install process will check that your system meets the minimum requirements; if it doesn’t, Dragon will not be installed.

Dragon Naturallyspeaking For Mac Free Trial

• Supported Operating Systems:
  Windows 10, 32-bit and 64-bit
  Windows 8 and 8.1 32-bit and 64-bit
  Windows 7, 32-bit and 64-bit
  Windows Server 2008 R2, 64-bit
  Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition, 64-bit.

• CPU: Nuance recommends 2.2 GHz Intel® dual core or equivalent AMD processor, where a faster processors will yield faster performance.
• RAM: Nuance recommends minimum 2 GB for 32-bit Windows 7, Windows 8 and 8.1, Windows 10; 4 GB for 64-bit Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 10.
• Processor Cache: Minimum: 512 KB. Recommendation: 2 MB L2 cache.
• Free hard disk space: 4 GB. If installing from a download: Three times as much space needed initially (temporary files can be removed from the system once the download is unpacked and installation completed).
• Internet Explorer® 9 or higher, or the current version of Chrome™ or Firefox® to view the software’s Online Help.
• Sound card supporting 16-bit recording.
• DVD-ROM drive required for installation from disk.
• Internet connection for product activation (quick and anonymous).

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home vs Dragon Professional

The comparison below outlines the features of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home v15 ($150) and Dragon Professional Individual ($300), both for PCs. Interested in the Mac version of Dragon? See Dragon Professional Individual for Mac.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 15 Home & Dragon Professional editions both have an up to 99% voice recognition accuracy rate when turning voice into text. The software also adapts to your voice and writing style, and will get better and more accurate over time. Dragon can also be personalized with a custom vocabulary of acronyms, proper names, and other unique phrases you frequently use.

Most people speak over 120 words per minute, but type less than 40 words in the same amount of time. Dragon NaturallySpeaking lets you create letters and e-mails about three times faster than typing. Boost performance further with easier correction and editing options, as well as more control over your command preferences.

Dragon v15 comes with built-in laptop microphone support, providing you with the convenience and freedom from traditional wired microphone headsets.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking has great out-of-the-box accuracy, and gets smarter the more you use it; however, if needed, you can make corrections to your texts by speaking. More – as well as more likely – word choice options have been included to make changes both quicker and easier. You can also format text by voice; e.g. using commands to delete/bold/underline/italicize/capitalize/copy/cut the specified words. Dragon can even adapt its format rules by detecting your format corrections, e.g. abbreviations, numbers, and more, to make sure your dictated text looks the way you want it to every time. New in v15 is a Playback feature that lets you select a block of text and play it back for easy proofreading and editing, by listening to what you dictated.

Use Dragon to search the web in Microsoft Internet Explorer®, Mozilla® Firefox® or Google Chrome™; compose emails in Gmail™ and Hotmail®/Outlook.com; or post updates to your favorite social networking site, including Facebook and Twitter. Use Dragon Voice Shortcuts to send email to multiple friends by saying e.g. “Send email to Sarah Peterson and Robert Cole”, or locate anything on the Internet using simple commands like “Search the Web for coffee shops in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to dictate documents in Microsoft® Word, NotePad, WordPad, OpenOffice™ Writer, Corel® WordPerfect®, or DragonPad (Dragon’s own word processor, included with the software). School work, projects for work, or any other document that needs to be put on paper will be a breeze.

Nuance’s next-generation “Deep Learning” speech engine will continuously adjust to your voice – even if you have an accent or are in an environment where there is slight background noise.

Dragon Home and Professional are both Bluetooth enabled for superior wireless dictation accuracy.

During installation, Dragon NaturallySpeaking automatically detects available PC resources (CPU, Processor Cache, and RAM) and configures your system for optimal use.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking comes with Acoustic and Language Model Optimizer features. For instance, use the “Nothing But Speech” filter to automatically eliminate um/ah sounds. The software can now remind you to analyze documents and sent emails, as well as to run Language Optimization upon file save to boost accuracy even further.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking includes a comprehensive help system and tutorials to introduce you to the software, including fun exercises showing best practices when it comes to dictation, editing, and formatting.

Use Dragon Professional edition to create spreadsheets and work in Microsoft® Excel. Also dictate presentations in PowerPoint. Please note that support for Excel and PowerPoint is not included in the Home edition.

Dragon Voice Shortcuts™ turn common multi-step tasks into simple voice commands. Use Shortcuts to quickly and easily create and send emails, schedule appointments, post to Facebook or Twitter, search your desktop (e.g. “Search Computer for Annual Budget”) or the Internet (e.g. “Search news for ”).

With Dragon Professional, you have the ability to create multiple audio sources (more than one type of audio input device) sharing a vocabulary within the same profile. This feature is not available in Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home.

Dragon Professional gives you the ability to import and export custom word lists and user profiles. For example, if you often use specialized vocabulary in your documents, maybe for a profession or a hobby, you can save a custom word list as a .txt file and easily import it directly into Dragon Professional. Depending on the size of your list, this can prove to be a tremendous timesaver.

Dragon Professional lets you capture notes and ideas while they are still fresh in your mind — no matter where you are— using Dragon Anywhere (available separately). Dictate content at work, home, school or on the go; then let your Dragon Professional software automatically transcribe the audio files to text once back at your PC. For additional freedom and flexibility, simply use your iPhone®, iPad® or compatible Android™ device as a remote microphone.

In addition to the commands included in Dragon Voice Shortcuts, Dragon Professional lets you create custom commands to insert frequently used text and/or graphics by voice. As an example, you can add a command to insert your full address when you say “home address”. Routine computer-related tasks will be quicker than ever. Custom commands are not supported in Dragon Home.

With Dragon Professional you can work faster creating time-saving custom commands to automate tedious tasks and multi-step processes.

With Dragon Professional you can work faster creating time-saving custom commands to automate tedious tasks and multi-step processes.

Contextual guidance in Dragon Home provides simple tips prompted by usage to help accelerate user productivity.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home v15 has been optimized for touchscreen PCs, allowing you to you to interact with Dragon by Touch.

What do users say?

“I just got myself a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 Premium, and so far, I am really impressed. The accuracy was great from start, and I love that I can use my iPhone as a microphone!” – Michelle

“There is a reason why Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the most popular speech recognition software in the world!” – Ben

“I started using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home Edition v11, and upgraded to version 12 as soon as it came out. Dragon 12 seems much faster to me, and also a bit more accurate (even though 11 was great too). For the most part, I use the software to create emails, and also quite a bit when “writing” documents in Microsoft Word, so the Home Edition has been enough so far.” – Elizabeth

“Having used Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the last few versions, I can’t wait to try new Dragon Naturally Speaking 10! Even more accurate, faster, and with new shortcuts. Sign me up!” – Joel

“I’ve used Dragon in the past, and now that I have switched to a Mac I was happy to see that there is a Dragon product for the Mac too. So far, Dragon Dictate definitely lives up to my expectations of Dragon speech recognition. Very, very happy with it!” – Nick

“I have been a long time user of Dragon and Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 is the best version yet. The included headset is great and has improved accuracy even more”. – Robert

“I honestly don’t know what I would do without Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It has improved my productivity (and spelling!) tremendously!” – Sarah

“I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking both at home and at work; it saves me a lot of time, as well as makes every-day tasks a bit more fun” – Joyce

After using Dragon for a while I can really vouch for the fact that it gets “smarter” the more you use it. My accuracy has improved so much that it is virtually perfect. – Daniel

Dragon For Mac Free