Sony ICD-BP150VTP Dragon Naturally Speaking 6 Users Guide - Page 153

CHAPTER 12 Speaking and Dictating Speak with inflection When talking to the computer, people tend to imitate the robotic voices of computers in old science fiction movies. But using a flat monotone voice will reduce your accuracy as well as put you to sleep. Speak with your natural tone and volume of voice, as if speaking to a friend. Breathe fully Breathing fully and sitting up straight will help you speak clearly. If you slouch while dictating, your lungs will be compressed and your voice constrained, making it harder for the computer to understand your words. TIP For tips on maintaining good vocal health, see page 176. Close your eyes Dictating while looking at the screen tends to be distracting-it makes your speech more hesitant and less natural. Try dictating with your eyes closed. Many people get significantly better results this way. Or, if you prefer to keep your eyes open, try looking out of a window or at photos of friends. Be alert When it's 4:00 a.m. and you're still dictating the proposal that's due tomorrow, your recognition results will suffer as much as you're suffering. Tired people tend to mumble and speak without energy. You'll get your best results when you're most alert. Relax Stress and tension may change voice quality and degrade recognition accuracy. When you're new to speech-recognition software, you might be a bit anxious as you speak, anticipating that the program will make mistakes. The program does, of course, and frustration may kick in as you see the mistakes proliferate. Frustration makes you more tense, changing your voice, which generates more mistakes, more frustration, and still more mistakes. Errors are inherent in computer transcription (as in human transcription). The software takes its best guess at what you say and it sometimes guesses incorrectly. Correcting mistakes is part of the normal process of Dragon NaturallySpeaking User's Guide 145