Home Forums Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12.5 Service Release Patch issued.

SUBJECT: The following is my recommendation for installing the Dragon 12.5 service release patch.

1. Open your Dragon options to the Miscellaneous tab and make certain that you don?t have NaturallySpeaking set the launch in QuickStart mode.
2. Download, do not run, the service release patch by clicking Check for Updates under the DragonBar Help menu.
3. Reboot your computer
4. Close any applications that you have in the startup folder. Most antivirus applications shouldn?t be a problem but if you?re using Windows 7/8, you may want to additionally disable the User Account Control.
5. Double-click the DNS12ServicePack1.exe download to install the patch and launch NaturallySpeaking.

oliver@hargray.com
Tom, we are thinking of starting to use Dragon in our primary care practice. Do you feel that you gained an advantage over time by using Dragon?

I am the practice manager and my wife is the physician and we are looking for way she could stay on top of her charts without working late every night.

Could you give some general pointers on how to approach the voice recognition issue altogether?

Thanks, Oliver

Tom, this 12.5 patch is just for the non-medical versions, right? Is there a version 12 medical yet?

Oliver,

I am a reseller, not a physician but we do use NaturallySpeaking to run much of our company. We use the program to launch shipping commands, answer E-mails, respond to posts on the KnowBrainer Speech Recognition Forum and countless other tasks. The best thing to do is call our office Mon - Fri 8:00 to 4:00 Central time and spend 15 minutes or so to get a full understanding. We like to discuss computer specs,microphones and a few other items.

John,

That is correct, it's just a non medical patch. I haven't heard a word about Medical 12 as of yet. When I do hear I'll share it here on the forum.

What does the patch do for us?
Is it useful if using only Win7?
Is it mostly for Win8?
Does a cell phone really produce a clear enough audio signal for speech recognition?

Ver. 12.5 introduces support for Office 2013 (Office 365), Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10 but keep in mind that many Windows 7 users will automatically be receiving Internet Explorer 10. More to the point, Nuance NEVER releases a patch unless it is absolutely necessary because the average patch typically takes Nuance development 9 months to release. There were a number of bug fixes from minor scrolling issues in Microsoft Outlook to a major problem in BestMatch V. Whenever you create a new profile, by default, if your computer is fast enough, it creates a profile based on BestMatch V algorithms. This is a complex architecture which has a tendency to run a little too a lot too slow on most computers. If you happen to have a large collection of commands, your dictation can take as long as 6 seconds to hit the page. While more work needs to be done, Nuance has managed to effectively reduce the time to about 3 seconds for heavy command users and about a 1 second delay for end-users with relatively few commands. This essentially equates to a 50% speed improvement on command deployment and short dictations. I highly recommend installing the 12.5 patch via the following approach:
1. Open your Dragon options to the Miscellaneous tab and make certain that you don?t have NaturallySpeaking set the launch in QuickStart mode. 2. Download, do not run, the service release patch by clicking Check for Updates under the DragonBar Help menu. 3. Reboot your computer 4. Close any applications that you have in the start menu. Most antivirus applications shouldn?t be a problem but if you?re using Windows 7/8, you may have an issue with the User Account Control. We recommend disabling the UAC. 5. Double-click the DNS12ServicePack1.exe download to install the patch and launch NaturallySpeaking.

You can use a cell phone as a microphone in Ver 12 but it's a bit clumsy and recognition accuracy is significantly lower.

Whenever Nuance issues a patch, it is always vital. Nuance typically takes 9 months to produce each patch and they are frequently, as in this case, repairing something that is broken. While the 12.5 patch includes support for Windows 8, Office 2013 and Internet Explorer 10, it also includes a number of bug fixes. The most important bug fix is a notable time lag in BestMatch V. While more work needs to be done on the BestMatch V algorithm, Nuance has reduced the initial latency by approximately 50%. This latency is most noticeable when dictating a short phrase or command.

Cell phone microphones are designed specifically for telephone conversation which requires no more than 4 kb the bandwidth. By comparison, Dragon Ver. 11 and higher feature an 11.025 kHz bandwidth (22 kHz sampling rate). Even if a cell phone microphone was of higher quality, it would still be impractical because of the extra labor required whenever you use a cell phone for this purpose. You can also use a cell phone for making digital recordings and transcribe those recordings in NaturallySpeaking or DMPE but for the same previously mentioned reasons, we wouldn?t recommend doing it. The cell phone concept is more of a speech recognition consumer grade toy (gimmick) than a work tool.

Tom, so this patch has no effect on V11, correct?
Wouldn't that suggest that V12 was actually a step backwards in speed, especially with regards to recognition of short phrases?

Thanks Tom.
I'll try it.