Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The New Involuntary Era: Voice Recognition

I mentioned several times that I had forearm tendinitis, and it's been incredibly tenacious.

However, I'm not sure it's forearm tendinitis anymore. In the last few weeks, it's borne more than a passing resemblance to carpal tunnel syndrome.

I had already stopped swimming and playing Rock Band, and I realized the only stressor left was the time I spent on the keyboard. I spend a lot of time on the keyboard--several hours a day--and even though I've never had any problems before, I strongly suspect that it's finally caught up with me.

I've been considering using voice recognition software for several years, but the learning curve always stopped me. This time, though, I didn't really have a choice--I needed to get off the keyboard.

So I did, at least for now. I'm using Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.5, and I'm shocked by how effective it is to use. And the learning curve is reasonable--in terms of what it can do, getting 80% out the program only takes a few minutes of training. That last 20% is much more complex, but it's manageable.

One thing I do need to do is get Eli 6.10 to knock on my study door before he comes in so that I can turn off the microphone. Today, he burst in, and by the time I got the microphone turned off, this had been inserted into the post I was writing:
and and and and and and and 80 and I buy a 58-year-old widow at

I don't remember exactly what he was saying, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't it.

So if I send you an e-mail and you see an odd phrase or two, you know who was in my study.

Site Meter