This week I have been researching dragons – not the scaly, fire breathing ones Amber would prefer but Dragon voice recognition. I have had it on my laptop since 2009 when I hoped it would help with an OU course. It didn’t. After several frustrating hours of swearing, misspelt words and bizarre interpretation of my speech I declared my adventure into voice recognition a failure. The program lay unused, gathering dust in an unused folder on my desktop until this week.
My laptop is a dinosaur. It protests loudly at being woken up and groans when in use so despite defragging and dejunking it, this will have an effect on dragon performance so please don’t take this as a review. I am no techie. The version I have is also only v11 and there are newer, updated versions available.
I set up my profile as instructed and completed the test. Reading text out loud was hard work as I had memories of being a nervous school kid, scared of being pointed at. After watching a helpful podcast I read some of my own work to begin with. This worked better than expected but long delay of seeing words form on the screen was frustrating . I struggled to speak freely as I stared at the flashing cursor. Maybe in time and as I gain confidence in its performance, I will be able to close eyes and ignore the lag.
As a test text I used the blurb of one of my new favourite books The Path Keeper*.
Results of the blurb of The Path Keeper was:
The first in a thrilling new wife a fantasy series by NJ Simmonds, the pack keypad is the town of first loves and second chances, and the invisible thread that binders.
What if every coincidence was a tiny miracle? What if our life was already mapped out before birth? What if someone had the power to change the path we were destined to follow?
LO hates a new life in London. She misses Spain and she’s struggling to get over her past until she meets that stop he was always loved her but he isn’t meant to be part of Ellis story. Not this time. Not ever. Little did she know that his secret is the one thing that will tear them apart and will force her to live in a world that no longer make sense? The world more dangerous than she could ever imagine stop
This version of Dragon definitely needs time spent on its training to deal with my accent and voice.
I downloaded Dragon Anywhere on my Android phone. The results were:
The first in a thrilling new why a fantasy series by NJ Simmons, the past keeper is a tale of first love and second chances, and invisible threads that bind us.
What if every coincidence with tiny miracle? What if I life was already mapped out before birth? What if someone had the power to change the path we were destined to follow?
Ella hates her new life in London. She misses Spain and she is struggling to get over her past until she meets Zac. He has always loved her but he isn’t meant to be part of valour story. Not this time.
Not ever. Little did she know that his secret is the one thing that will tear them apart and will force her to live in a world that is no longer makes sense, a world more dangerous than she could ever imagine.
Now I was impressed. No training was required for this and straight off, it had a high accuracy and no lag. I could just speak when I overcame my shyness and it felt more natural. In a press of a couple of buttons, I was able to successfully download the blurb to Evernote (my lifesaver and main writing tool). I am in love with this app but it has one major stumbling block – the price. As a penniless, would be writer £9.99 a month subscription is out of my league. It has given me confidence in the Nuance products and if newer versions of Dragon for PCs works just as well I will be saving up for an upgrade and a new laptop. I have found a backup for failing hand – Dragon
*Original blurb of The Path Keeper.
What if every coincidence was a tiny miracle? What if our life was already mapped out before birth? What if someone had the power to change the path we were destined to follow?
Ella hates her new life in London, she misses Spain and she’s struggling to get over her past until she meets Zac. He has always loved her but he isn’t meant to be part of Ella’s story. Not this time. Not ever. Little does she know that his secret is the one thing that will tear them apart and will force her to live in a world that no longer makes sense, a world more dangerous than she could ever imagine.
The first in a thrilling new YA fantasy series, The Path Keeper is a tale of passion and secrets, of first loves and second chances, and the invisible threads that bind us. Can love ever be stronger than fate?
Kate Kenzie Writes 