6.

6. More tips on improving accuracy

Subject: How to Improve Accuracy in Dragon NaturallySpeaking or Dragon Point & Speak
Product: Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Dragon Point & Speak
Version: all

Description:
How do I improve the accuracy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking or Dragon Point & Speak?

Solution:
The following are suggestions for improving recognition accuracy. As accuracy improves, so too should the response speed of your speech recognition software.

1. A good sound card is the most important part of your computer system when you run Dragon NaturallySpeaking/Dragon Point & Speak. Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to define what makes a good sound card.

For NaturallySpeaking/Point & Speak, and speech recognition in general, the important part of your sound card its the input channel. That is, the microphone input, amplifiers and A/D converters. Yet, this is not what the sound card companies spend money on. To most sound card companies, a good sound card means that the sound output of your favorite computer games or music composing system sounds very good. Just because a sound card produces good output does not mean that the sound card produces good input.

If you want a sound card which has been tested and certified to work well with Dragon NaturallySpeaking/Dragon Point & Speak, visit the hardware compatibility list. Dragon tests a variety of sound cards and lists those which are known to work adequately.
2. Review correct microphone placement. Especially if you get extra small words like "to" and "a" added to your sentences. This usually means the microphone is in the path of the air stream and should be a little higher or off the corner of your mouth. Make sure that the microphone is also consistently located during your dictation session and in subsequent sessions. Consistent microphone placement in the correct position is essential for high accuracy.

3. Another possible cause for the insertion of extra small words into your dictation, or the incorrect splitting of larger words into smaller words, is the "Pause between phrases" option being too short. From the Tools menu, choose Options, then select the Miscellaneous tab. The default pause setting is 250 milliseconds. This may have been adjusted to be shorter for faster response. If you are seeing the above-mentioned problem, try lengthening the pause between phrases setting.

4. Tips on how to Dictate:
o Verbalize every word, avoiding slurred pronunciation or swallowing of sounds. (For example: "to", which people tend to pronounce like "tuh".) NaturallySpeaking cannot read your mind. If you want NaturallySpeaking to recognize a word, you must say the word. In conversations between people, speakers can sometime drop words or slur words together. If you drop a word, do not expect NaturallySpeaking/Point & Speak to find it. That said, NaturallySpeaking/Point & Speak does include shortened pronunciations of some small function words like "n" for "and".
o Talk at a normal pace. You do not have to talk slowly to NaturallySpeaking/Point & Speak even if you have a slow machine. Talking slower will actually degrade recognition accuracy. Practice by reading out loud - this will help you come closest to the best way to dictate to Dragon NaturallySpeaking/Dragon Point & Speak.
o Talk continuously. NaturallySpeaking/Point & Speak recognizes longer utterances much better than shorter ones. Avoid speaking one word at time since this does not help accuracy.
o Talk the way you trained. When you ran General Training, you spoke a certain way and Dragon NaturallySpeaking/Dragon Point & Speak learned the way you talk from those samples. If you speak like you are reading something, your accuracy may improve. Similarly, you can rerun General Training, further adapting NaturallySpeaking/Point & Speak to the way you dictate.
o Think first, talk second. Composing while dictating is a new skill for many people. The trick is to think ahead. Try to think about what you are going to say before you say it. Then, when you say it, your dictation will be clearer because you already know what you are going to say. If you talk without thinking about it first, you will find that your words get mumbled as you change your mind while you speak. Dragon NaturallySpeaking will understand "natural" speech but not "conversational" speech. Pretend that you are a broadcast journalist reading the news from behind an anchor desk. Not like you are talking to your friend over coffee.

5. Make sure that you correct misrecognized words. For best results select the word just before and just after the misrecognized word as well, and correct them as a phrase from the "Correction" dialog box. Also train the word or words that were recognized instead of what you intended.

IF YOU DO NOT USE THE CORRECTION DIALOG BOX TO CORRECT & TRAIN, YOUR ACCURACY WILL NOT IMPROVE!

6. Run the Vocabulary Builder. (Called "Topic Builder" in NaturallySpeaking Deluxe v.2.02.) This will add words you tend to use to the active vocabulary and update its word usage modeling. For detailed information on the behavior and optimal use of the Vocabulary/Topic Builder, see our Technote entitled "Getting the most from Vocabulary/Topic Builder" and "How do I use Vocabulary Builder? Why should I use it" .

7. If you have the Deluxe Edition, use the 55,000 word active vocabulary. If you have the Professional Edition, use the BestMatch acoustic file and the BestMatch or BestMatch 64+ vocabulary files. These files contain not only more words, but also additional language modeling that will improve accuracy. We recommend a fast computer and at least 64 MB RAM to use the larger acoustics and active vocabularies efficiently.

8. If a word you never use is recognized for a word you use often, delete the unused word in the Vocabulary Editor.

9. If you have trouble with acronyms use the Vocabulary Editor to assign it an alternative pronunciation. In the "spoken form" box enter the words you will say, in the "written form" box type the word as it will print. For example if you say "USA" and if comes up as "usually" you could write the spoken form as "American acronym" and the written form as "USA".

This also works for "sounds like" pronunciations. For example, if you pronounce the word "record" as "rickert", use Vocabulary Editor to enter the spoken form of the word "record" as "rickert".

10. Run an additional General Training from the "Tools" menu, especially if the background noise in your environment has changed or if you have a cold.

11. If you're experiencing recognition trouble with commands, you can hold the control key (Ctrl) down to force NaturallySpeaking to recognize only commands.

Additionally, when a command is misrecognized you can use the Correction Dialog to correct the phrase to its constituent words. When you do this, the words will be entered into your document on confirmation, but they can then be deleted and the command should be more accurately recognized.

Example:
You said "Go To Sleep"
NaturallySpeaking typed "gouda sleep"
Select the words "gouda sleep" and, using the Correction Dialog, correct it to read "Go To Sleep"
Click OK and the command will be better recognized next time.
(You can delete the words "Go To Sleep" it typed at that point.)

Remember that commands require a brief pause before and after they are spoken to distinguish them from dictation words. If the length of this pause appears to be a cause of recognition difficulty, try adjusting the "Pause between phrases" slider on the Miscellaneous tab of the Options dialog from NaturallySpeaking's Tools menu.

12. After correcting misrecognitions and training words be sure to save your speech files before closing NaturallySpeaking/Point & Speak.

13. Voice training or singing instruction can improve your voice strength and enunciation, leading to better accuracy in NaturallySpeaking/Point & Speak.

14. A number of people have indicated that when they use the Correction Dialog and spell using the natural alphabet, sometimes their letters (especially the letter "e") are doubled. Naturally, most users react to this inaccuracy during spelling by spelling more slowly. However, in Dragon NaturallySpeaking/Dragon Point & Speak, spelling more slowly will actually aggravate the problem.

If you use natural spelling in the Correction Dialog, then you'll get the best performance by spelling succinctly. If you still have problems, then you can also spell using the alpha-bravo "military" alphabet. However, you must pause when switching between the natural alphabet ("a", "b", etc.) and the military alphabet ("alpha", "bravo", etc.)

A complete list of the International Communications Alphabet (AKA the alpha-bravo "military" alphabet) can be found in our Technote entitled "The International Communications Alphabet".

For tips on spelling acronyms or strings of letters and numbers during dictation, see our Technote entitled "Spelling During Dictation".

15. Finally, check the "Multimedia:" entry in the dragon.log file found in the NATSPEAK directory to see if "Game Compatible Device" drivers are being used. They may work, but recognition usually improves when drivers more specific to your sound card are used. Contact your sound card manufacturer for their latest drivers.