The Motivation Behind Dragon 11

See the post from Peter Mahoney for details about the launch of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 11.

The Motivation Behind Dragon 11

I'm extremely excited about the new release of Dragon – Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 11. We have been eagerly working on this innovative new release of Dragon ever since we launched Dragon 10 just about two years ago. With Dragon 10, we set a new standard for speech recognition performance on the desktop and added exciting new features like Dragon Voice Shortcuts. How in the world could we top that?

To answer that question, we went to the top-secret source for all Dragon product direction: you.

We've always relied heavily on customer feedback in our product development process – but the amount and quality of customer feedback that we have received during the lifetime of Dragon 10 was unprecedented. There were two major initiatives that drove significantly enhanced customer feedback over the past two years. The first is a feature that is built into the Dragon 10 product – an anonymous, opt-in data collection feature that allows us to analyze how our customers, in aggregate, use Dragon. The second initiative was our broad use of social media vehicles to communicate to our customer base. Through our blog, our Twitter feed, our Facebook page and our Web feedback form, we received an incredible amount of highly valuable customer feedback.

These two feedback mechanisms are far more powerful in combination than as standalone items. The data collection feature by itself could only tell us what was happening – but not why. The feedback from our social media channels provided a rich understanding of some of the requests, desires and concerns – but it is difficult to tell whether this feedback is unique to a vocal minority or something that represents a larger opportunity unless you pair this feedback with data.

One thing was clear – Dragon is an extremely powerful application, but many of the features and capabilities weren’t immediately obvious to some of our customers. We needed to think about the way we present information and capabilities to our customers so that it would be easier for them to discover the full power of Dragon. We also learned that not everybody was getting equally high accuracy using Dragon. When you look at the data, you realize that there are a few common things that contribute to lower accuracy in Dragon:

• First of all, the quality of the audio that Dragon hears is a significant contributor to accuracy. We knew we needed to provide better tools to help identify and diagnose problematic audio on computers.

• We also found that some people were speaking to Dragon in a very choppy manner – instead of speaking fluidly with longer utterances. Because of the way Dragon works, the more fluidly and consistently you speak, the more information Dragon has to determine the appropriate transcription for your voice.

When we watched people interacting with Dragon, we saw that some folks were distracted by the "results box" that showed the intermediate transcription results. So in Dragon 11, we have removed that results box and introduced a new user interface element designed to help people continue to focus on their work, versus constantly checking those intermediate results. That was an example of making part of the user interface "less visible" because we believe it was distracting (if you disagree, we left you the option to turn it back on).

Another major innovation in Dragon 11, known as the Dragon Sidebar, is designed to make the user interface "more visible" when you really need it. We created this element because we found that many of our customers did not know about the commands that Dragon understood – and they could not easily find those commands, or remember their own custom commands. A lot of people were actually taking their list of custom commands and attaching them to the side of their screen with a little sticky note. The new Dragon Sidebar is designed to provide intelligent user feedback when you need it – and get out of the way when you don't need it.

Of all the new features in Dragon 11, I think my favorite is the ability for Dragon to format or correct multiple instances of text in the same document. When I say "underline Dragon," all the instances of the word Dragon are highlighted and numbered on my screen. I can either select the instance that I want to change, or say "choose all" to make the change in every instance.

Perhaps the most exciting opportunity for us to involve our customers in the product development process happens during our beta test program. This is when we send pre-release versions of the software to some of our customers to get feedback on the product and its features. For Dragon 11, we had our most extensive beta program ever. We also focused not only on our "expert users," but we invited novice users to participate in the program. We also invited several of our customers who indicated that they were dissatisfied with previous versions of Dragon to participate in our beta program. This provided us with fantastic feedback about whether our efforts in the Dragon 11 program addressed the concerns of those users.

I hope you get the opportunity to learn more about Dragon 11 by visiting our website. For those of you who are not Dragon users, I would encourage you to give Dragon 11 a try – now is perhaps the best time ever for people to start using speech recognition. For those of you who are using Dragon 10 or earlier versions of Dragon, I encourage you to upgrade to take full advantage of these exciting new capabilities.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for your feedback and your participation in our product development process. I believe you all have helped us make the best Dragon ever.

Peter Mahoney
Senior Vice President and General Manager, Dragon

VoiceOver Support for Dragon Dictation 2.0

We wanted to take a moment to address the accessibility concerns surrounding Dragon Dictation 2.0 and the issue of VoiceOver support, which has caused some frustration among those who are visually impaired and have used Dragon Dictation.

When we launched Dragon Dictation, we intended it to be a dictation application to make it easier for users who struggled entering lengthy text with the keypad. Although we did not explicitly design Dragon Dictation to be a VoiceOver-compatible application, we were pleasantly surprised to hear that some among the visually impaired community had worked around its limitations and found it a useful application nevertheless. We received a lot of feedback on how to truly design it for such use, and were considering these for a future releases.

We had not yet scheduled the enhancements necessary to make Dragon Dictation a truly accessible VoiceOver compatible application. And, when we released Dragon Dictation 2.0, some of the enhancements we made to the visual interface inadvertently degraded our existing compatibility with VoiceOver. The new toolbar, which adds integration to several iPhone applications, does not support VoiceOver tags.

We therefore commit the following:

First, we will make some quick enhancements to Dragon Dictation to restore it to similar capabilities as it had before. We will submit these fixes in the next few weeks and will keep everyone posted as to when they will likely become available.

Second, we welcome your continued feedback on the right long-term solution for making Dragon Dictation fully compatible. We are researching optimal use of voice correction and text-to-speech for optimal eyes-free use and would love real user feedback.

As always – we love the feedback we get from our user community as in many ways it’s made this latest version of Dragon Dictation what it is today. So if there are ways you feel we can make Dragon Dictation even better, let us know – we’re listening.

Scott Taylor
Vice President of Marketing and Mobile Solutions

Dragon Dictation 2.0 Is Here!

It’s hard to believe it has been more than six months since we launched Dragon Dictation for iPhone – and it has been so exciting to hear all of the tremendous feedback from so many enthusiastic Dragon Dictation users out there. Thanks to all of you for your support, comments and, of course, suggestions!

And the thunder keeps on rolling, as today we unveil Dragon Dictation 2.0!

With Dragon Dictation 2.0 you get all of the convenient features of Dragon Dictation plus new enhancements that will make using the app even more fun and convenient to use. This latest version is iOS4-compatible, delivers multi-language support and delivers a new easy-to-use interface that features a great pop-up toolbar for speaking text messages, emails and social media status updates - without ever leaving the app. This new productivity enhancing toolbar comes equipped with app icons that enable you to speak a status update and send it directly to Facebook or Twitter, or speak any text and send it directly to the text messaging client or clipboard.

And taking multi-tasking to a whole new level - Dragon Dictation 2.0 now features an Auto Save function that automatically saves draft message content when switching out of an application to answer an incoming phone call. So, let’s say you are in the middle of dictating a to-do list on the clipboard, you receive a call, answer it, speak for a few minutes and then hang up. Once the call is completed just go back to the clipboard and pick up dictation of your to-do list right from where you left off. So easy!

Now about that multi-language support. Dragon Dictation 2.0 now supports both U.S. and U.K. English -- and soon German (available in late July). In fact, we’ve made Dragon Dictation available in the UK Apple App Store today – a request that many of our friends across the pond have been clamoring for. What’s more is that you’ll be able to easily switch back and forth between available app languages whenever you desire. And that’s not all. Be sure to stay tuned to this blog for more language addition updates through the end of 2010!

So what are you waiting for?! Dragon Dictation 2.0 is available for immediate download in the iTunes store – and it is still free for a limited time! Happy Dictating…!


Michael Thompson

Senior Vice President & General Manager, Nuance Mobile

Dragon Dictation compatibility with iOS 4

We would like to acknowledge to our user base that there is a compatibility issue with Dragon Dictation working on iOS 4. We are actively working to address this and make available an updated version of Dragon Dictation in the Apple App Store shortly. We will keep you informed as soon as the updated application is available.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

DragonMobileApps Team

Where Will We Find Dragon Next?

Dragon NaturallySpeaking has long been synonymous with speech recognition. It’s hard to believe that Version 1.0 was introduced in April 1997! As the first general-purpose continuous-speech recognition solution for the PC, Dragon’s revolutionary feature was to enable users to, literally, speak naturally – eliminating the tedious word-at-a-time approach that was then state-of-the-art.

When Dragon was first introduced, its primary use was as an assistive technology, helping folks with physical challenges to access the PC. But over the years, Dragon has shown its worth to millions of people the world over in all walks of life, helping them to do more with the PC, faster and more easily.

Who really uses Dragon? To name just a few, we’ve heard from writers, teachers, students, moms and dads, grandmothers and grandfathers, insurance professionals, genealogists, pastors, lawyers and doctors who are using Dragon, and the list goes on. Despite their different circumstances and reasons for using Dragon, each has an amazing story to share about how it has fundamentally changed how they work with their PC.

Today, however, we are no longer connected just to the PC. The world is more mobile than ever before, and we’re all capable of connecting, working, and creating content 24-7 from our mobile devices. That’s why, starting last year, Dragon spread its wings and landed on the iPhone and iPod Touch as Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search, and why this year Dragon Dictation was also one of the first apps available for the iPad, and why Dragon for Email was introduced for the BlackBerry!

In much the same way that Dragon can make working with a PC easier and more effective, so can it create a much more natural interface to these mobile devices. The emails, tweets and comments that we’ve received from folks using Dragon Dictation have been overwhelming, and it’s great to hear how people are changing how they work and play with Dragon right in the palm of their hand.

What lies ahead for Dragon? I think it’s safe to say that the possibilities are truly endless. Where do you want to see Dragon? Drop us a line and let us know!

Thanks!

Peter Mahoney

Senior Vice President & General Manager, Dragon Business Unit

Nuance Powered Genius Button Smarts Up T-Mo Android Smartphone

Today we are proud to announce an industry first with our partner T-Mobile – it’s called the Genius Button soon available on the new T-Mobile® myTouch 3G™ Slide, Android™-based smartphone.  The Genius Button is the first fully integrated hybrid speech solution, with speech recognition on the device and in the cloud, seamlessly working together.

Based on our intuitive Nuance speech platform, the Genius Button delivers users one-button voice access to control the phone and dictate one-shot commands to make calls, dictate emails and text messages, search the Web, find businesses and directions, open the calendar, etc. So, now it is faster and easier than ever to use your favorite apps!

For example, Genius Button one-shot commands include things like:

• “Call Alex Jones at Home.”
• “Send Text to John Smith. I’ve got tickets to the Dodgers game tonight, you in?”
• “Search for Recipes for Chocolate Cake.”
• “Find Sushi Restaurants near me”
• “Find Directions to 1 Wayside Drive, Burlington, Massachusetts.”
• “Show me the Calendar”

Some other super convenient features on the phone leverage our Dragon for easy text dictation in any text field - and there’s also a text-to-speech powered feature for readback of incoming messages.  So whenever manually reading messages isn’t convenient – just enable the text-to-speech mode and the phone will alert you when messages are received and you can advise verbally whether or not you want to hear the message read aloud and/or if you’d like to respond. All with just the power of your voice!

We’ll have more to share on the Genius Button in the coming weeks. So, stay tuned to this blog for more updates soon!

And as always – we want your feedback. Let us know what you think in the comments below, on our Facebook Fan Page or on Twitter @DragonTweets or @NuanceMobile.

Thanks!

Michael Thompson

Senior Vice President & General Manager, Nuance Mobile

Tip of the Day: Use Commands and Punctuations within your Dictation

Did you know with Dragon Dictation mobile apps you can dictate commands and punctuation with your message and have it all transcribed such that it looks like you typed it? For example, when dictating a sentence just say "comma" or "period" and they will appear in the sentence where you spoke them. You can also perform basic text commands such as saying “New Paragraph” whereas a new paragraph is started – all by the power of your voice!

Want to know more? Here’s a list of commonly used commands and punctuations for quick dictation reference...

Commonly used commands

"New Line" or "Next Line"	Press the enter key once, capitalize next word
"New Paragraph" or "Next Paragraph"	Press the enter key twice, capitalize next word
" Caps <word> "	Type with an initial capital
"All Caps <word> "	Type in all uppercase
"Caps On"	Start typing words with initial capitals
"Caps Off"	Stop typing words with initial capitals

Commonly used Punctuations

&	"ampersand" or "and sign"	.	"period"
:	"colon"	?	"question mark"
!	"exclamation point"	,	"comma"
=	"equal sign"	@	"at sign"
/	"forward slash" or "slash"	-	"hyphen"
'	"begin single quote" or "open single quote"	'	"end single quote" or "close single quote"
"	"begin quote" or "open quote"	"	"close quote" or "end quote"
(	"left parenthesis" or "open parenthesis"	)	"right parenthesis" or "close parenthesis"
%	"percent sign"	$	"dollar sign"
#	"pound sign"	°	"degree sign"

Dictating commands and punctuation is not only fun- but an incredibly efficient way to compose messages simply and efficiently! We hope you find this cheat sheet helpful – and, happy dictating with Dragon!

- Dragon Mobile Apps Team