It’s been a long time coming. It started 15 years ago when I got repetitive strain injuries in my hands. I first used the Kurzweil speech engine, and then, when it came out, the first Windows version of DragonDictate, the precursor to Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

After several years of writing macros that were similar to everyone else’s — and that I often forgot — I started thinking about the way the brain works with language and started working on a more consistent system. Sometime after that we decided to make a general product out of it. We were thinking it would take six months. It’s taken five years.

One of the reasons it took so long is we’ve produced thorough, cross-referenced documentation. Every command is explained. Many thanks to our beta testers, trainers, and presales customers for using and commenting on the UC command system, applets and documentation as we were developing and refining them. Special thanks to Laurie, our VP of QA, and Bill theTrainer for many reads through the documentation and many trips through the self-guided tours.

And special thanks to Wren, a programmer who worked with us in the early days. The bird that appears in our logo is the Painted Redstart (we’d already named the company when Wren, also named for a bird, joined us). 

Note to presales customers: you should have received your general release copy of Utter Command. Contact us via the support email or Make a Comment contact form if you haven’t.

In December, 2003 the Boston Voice users group (BVUG) and its New York City counterpart (NYPC) did top 10 lists of what they would like to see in speech recognition engines. At the time both Dragon NaturallySpeaking and IBM’s ViaVoice were available.

Here’s my version for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10. This list is also posted on the UC Exchange Wiki so I can keep track of whether and when they’re implemented.

1. I’d like a default user option that would let me start the program hands-free.

2. I’d like the ability to check audio settings hands-free.

3. I’d also like ability to save and switch Check Audio settings — this is useful if you travel a lot. I do an audio check whenever I land someplace new, but there’s no reason I should have to do another audio check rather than go back to a saved once I’m back in the office. I have a couple more minor suggestions for the Check Audio dialog box. First, it’s important enough to deserve its own menu item rather than only being buried in the Accuracy menu. Second, there’s an interface gotcha. Once you’ve finished checking the microphone, the focus is still on the go button. If you’re not thinking and click without moving the focus you find yourself checking the microphone again instead of going onto the accuracy check, which at best makes the process longer, and at worst is confusing.

4. I’d like separate the controls for buttons and menus. I’d like to be able to say whatever’s on the button — “yes”, “no”. But at the same time I want a longer command for menu items, e.g. “File Menu” rather than just “File”, because menu options are often active when I’m writing text.

5. The Dragon NaturallySpeaking engine should understand that when I say “Cap” what I’m looking for is a written word, not a number or symbol. “Cap Sixty” should return “Sixty”, not “60″. And “Cap Ampersand” should return “Ampersand” not “&”.

6. In the Spell Correction dialog box, I’d like a way to tell NatSpeak to type a a whole word. I’d like to say the word “Word” to indicate that the rest of the phrase is going to be a word just like I can say “Spell” to indicate that the rest of the phrase is going to be spelled.

7. The old Dragon Dictate where you could say separate words was better for people who have some types of disabilities. Putting a “speak words separately” mode in NaturallySpeaking would help a lot of people.

8. I’d like the option to be able to train the NatSpeak speech engine by repeating audio read to me through headphones rather than reading from text. This would also make training easier for younger kids.

9. I’d like a simple way to duplicate a user. Right now you can do this, but it’s a multistep and confusing process. To make a copy of the current user you have to backup, then restore. A separate menu item for duplicating would take the confusion out of the process.

10. Bring back the Dragon logo:-). The Dragon was much cooler then the green spiky blob.

What do you think of my top 10 list for NaturallySpeaking? What’s yours? Reply here or let me know at info@ this website address.

Redstart Systems was born of user frustration and disappointment with speech software that seemed to fall far short of its potential.

In 1993 the heavy computer use of a deadline journalist caught up with me in the form of severe repetitive stress injuries in both hands. The good news was desktop speech recognition had just arrived. The bad news was it wasn’t really practical to use. Recognition wasn’t great, commands were difficult to remember and commanding a computer using speech was just plain slow.

More than a decade later recognition has improved dramatically — the NaturallySpeaking speech engine makes dictating to a computer quite accurate. Commands, however, are still difficult to remember and often slower than the keyboard and mouse, making things like bringing up files, editing and formatting, cutting and pasting, setting up email messages, and Web research more than a little tedious.

Utter Command is the product of a decade of frustration and experimentation with a component of speech-recognition that has lagged behind efforts to improve dictation accuracy — the speech user interface, or words you use to control the computer.

Utter Command works the way your brain does and makes controlling your computer using speech commands cognitively easy and blazingly fast. Really. Commands are underpinned by an organized grammar system informed by cutting edge research in cognition, linguistics, networking and human behavior. This makes commands easy to remember and, more importantly, gives you the ability to combine commands, which not only speeds everything up but enables more than is possible using just the keyboard and mouse.

Instead of following in the footsteps of the keyboard and mouse, Utter Command allows you to fly along by carrying out many computer steps at once. Take a look at someone humming along on the keyboard and mouse and notice how many steps everything takes. Most of these steps are only necessary because keys and screen space are limited. If you don’t have to think between steps, there’s no need for separate steps other than to accommodate the computer.

Here’s a quiz for you:

How many steps should you have to go through to

a. Navigate to a folder you already know the name of

b. Navigate to a file you already know the name of

c. Set up an email message to a couple of friends and CC a couple more

d. Search for the definition of “prosody” on a particular Web site

(Our answers are at the bottom of this post.)

It’s high time we stopped accommodating the computer.

We’re getting ready — interface-wise — to cross over to a world where speech commands will untether you from the keyboard and kick your computer use into high gear.

In this world you’ll have choices — for everything you do on the computer you can use speech, the keyboard, or the mouse. And if you need to use speech all the time, Utter Command allows you to do everything by speech that you can using the mouse and keyboard.

a. 1 step b. 1 step c. 1 step d. 1 step

Redstart Systems makes speech interface software that speeds computer use. We’ve just launched a pre-release version of Utter Command for NaturallySpeaking Professional.

Utter Command is the culmination of more than a decade of using and thinking about the speech interface. Utter Command is based on Human-Machine Grammar, a system of words and rules that follows the way the brain works. UC commands are concise, consistent and combinable, which makes for powerful, easy-to-use speech software.

There’s lots more to think about, as technological improvements to speech engine software and microphones, faster computers, smaller computers, and new technologies like portable projectors and electronic paper make it more and more practical to use speech to control machines.

In this blog I’ll explore all aspects of using speech to control a computer.