Voice Recognition with HomeGauge Using Dragon Naturally Speaking 9

Prior to Using with HomeGauge:

First, you would need to have Nuance's Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 installed and set up on your computer. For more about Dragon Naturally Speaking 9, click here. If you have any problems or questions getting started with Naturally Speaking, click here. Note: HomeGauge is not affiliated with Nuance.

The Basics
Opening HomeGauge - Getting the program to run.
Entering Customer Information - A quick example of how to use Dragon with HomeGauge
Recommended Approach and Tips - Some further guidance to making the most of voice recognition.
Minimum System Requirements - What you will need to properly run Dragon on your computer.

The Basics Back to Top

This program is going to turn your voice commands into actions that can be done on the computer. Imagine you are actually telling the keyboard and mouse what to do, instead of manually doing it. Navigation is probably the most complicated to get used to, but if you get in the habit of using words like "Move Up" or "Move Down" and then say the number of spaces to move, you'll move naturally along. There's also the feature of the MouseGrid, and you can always say "What can I say?" or "Help" whenever you need a little assistance. There's also "Switch to *program, like HomeGauge or Internet Explorer*", "Close Window", "Tab", along with a host of others. A list of commands is at the bottom of this page, or click here.

If you need to speak outside of the computer, say "Go To Sleep" and the program will. Say "Wake Up" or click to turn the mic back on.

It is not a perfect science, since people do not always have perfect diction and no accent, but the more you use it, the more it will learn your voice and your vocabulary/tendencies. If you make a mistake you can either say "Scratch That" to erase what you just said, or something like "Select That" or "Select *mistake words*" and then "Spell That" or "Choose..." (it will display 5 choices that match closest to what you said that you can quickly choose from).

Don't feel overwhelmed, it is all very intuitive and will feel natural the more you use the program.

Also, it is not built to put in perfect grammar for you, so you will have to say the punctuation marks you want it to put in. Although it can recognize inflection of your voice, so you may see an exclamation point or question mark from time to time. For example, to say this sentence, you'd say: "For example comma to say this sentence comma you apostrophe d say colon."

The best way to learn is by experience and trying it out yourself, to get started just keep reading. Make sure you have Dragon running and your mic is on. To get started in HomeGauge, keep reading.

Opening HomeGauge Back to Top

All you have to do to get started would be to say "Start Menu" to bring up the Windows Start Menu. If HomeGauge is listed, just say "Launch Homegauge 3". If it isn't, just say what you see that you'd like to click on, in this case "All Programs", and then "HomeGauge 3", and then "Launch Homegauge 3".

If you want to run it directly from a desktop shortcut (icon), simply say "Launch Homegauge 3" and after the program highlights the icon, say "Press Enter". If HomeGauge is in none of those places, it might be easier to run it manually the same way you have in the past.

Now, we'll look at an example within the program.

Entering Customer Information Back to Top

If you're starting a brand new report from scratch, say "File", "New Report", "Customer".

If you are opening a report, follow the same steps as the previous sentence, only say "Open Report" instead of "New Report" and select the report you can say "Move Up" or "Move Down" or "Move Up/Down *# of spaces* ", once the correct report is highlighted, say "Open", then say "Customer".

You should now be able to say the customer's first name. After the first name, say "Tab" to go to the last name. Continue to say "Tab" to move between bits of information as you say the last name, address, city, state, etc. There are other ways of navigating here, but "Tab" appears to be one of the easier and quicker methods.

Being familiar with Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 will come in handy here, as, say for instance you want to enter Sean Moore, but it types Shawn more. By saying "Select Shawn" it will highlight the word and make some suggestions for you, say "Choose #" to select the change. Or you can say things like "Spell That", "Delete That", "Backspace", "Press Enter" or "Capitalize That" to change what is entered automatically. Again, for help with Dragon, click here.

Recommended Approach and Tips Back to Top

The recommended approach: Keep your methods the same as they are now, except whenever you would use just the keyboard, speak the words instead. Odds are you speak faster than you type, and on the same token you probably can point and click faster than you can dictate directions. Of course, every inspector is different, the objective is to find what fits you the best.

Here are some other tips for you. We're always looking for ideas and feedback, so let us know if you would like to add to this list.

• Make things smarter, not harder. If you're having a hard time navigating the entire report using voice commands, utilize both techniques - the mouse and the mic. The idea is not to make this report take longer or more difficult.
  
• The MouseGrid is a very handy tool if the item you are trying to select is either out of reach of the voice software or would require too many "Tab" remarks or too long with typing. If you are not using a mouse this also would be very effective. The nine-section grid is in numerical order, 1-9, with 5 in the middle (think tic-tac-toe). Just say a short series of numbers, and then the action you'd like to take (i.e. "left click", "click" (left by default), "double click", "drag" etc.).
• Read their full list of commands to learn other shortcuts and methods, that list is available whenever you say "What can I say?"
• "Scratch that", "Select that", "Undo that" are all very helpful whenever you need to make quick changes. You can also say "Capitalize that", "lowercase that".
• Patience is the key when the program is first starting to learn your voice patterns. It will reach nearly 99% accuracy if you use it and work with it.
• Avoid as much ambient noise as possible.
• Always save your profile when you are done using the program, otherwise you would lose any progress the program has made in learning your voice.
• Use the program in other applications, not just HomeGauge. The more you use a tool, the better you become with it.

Good luck!

PLEASE NOTE: Voice recognition requires quite a bit of computing power, and we recommend using it only where it is necessary and only on the more powerful machines. Here are the minimum system requirements from Nuance:

• Intel® Pentium® / 1 GHz processor (for example, Pentium® M, Pentium® 4), or equivalent AMD® processor - Faster processors will yield faster performance (HomeGauge tested using a 2.66 GHz machine, and recommend faster)
• 512 MB RAM (HomeGauge tested with 1024 MB RAM, and feel this is more than adequate)
• 1 GB free hard disk space
• Microsoft® Windows® XP (SP1 or higher) Home and Professional, 2000 (SP4 or higher)
• Creative® Labs Sound Blaster® 16 or equivalent sound card supporting 16-bit recording
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5 or higher (free download available at www.microsoft.com)
• CD-ROM drive (required for installation)
• Nuance-approved noise-canceling headset microphone (included)
• Speakers (required for playback of recorded speech and text to speech features)
• A web connection is required for activation
• For Bluetooth wireless microphone support, please visit http://support.nuance.com/compatibility/