Dragon Naturally Speaking

What works

DragonPad dictation box works.  Configuration works.  Microphone calibration works.  Improving DNS10 works using Accuracy Center.  I use DragonPad to dictate and then cut and paste into my application (Firefox in this case, as I am dictating into a data entry web program).

What does not

Nothing else tried

Workarounds

What was not tested

Didn't try controlling the computer using DNS nor did I try using DNS to "use the internet".  I only use DNS to dictate into DragonPad and for that it works very well.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

Installed according to instructions posted on this site for Ubuntu. Followed them with the exception of actually running DNS10. I use the menu from Wine to run the program - it doesn't want to start from the command line, for unknown reasons. Program works very well using DragonPad and follows my fast speech pattern. I'm using Ubuntu 10.10 on a 5 year old Dell laptop w 1GB RAM running Firefox and DNS10 and it works very well. I bought DNS10 from Amazon.com for $20 it was definitely worth the expense.

There are more complete installation and setup notes on the version 7 entry, many of which will also apply to v10 though expect some differences due to changes in WINE as well as DNS. 

 This should however be a useful reference.

 The following notes were contributed by Gurdil to set up DNS 10 and Wine to work with Pulse Audio on *buntu . Not tested elsewhere but may well have broader application.

padsp command is the key and is pulse audio specific.

1. wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks

sh winetricks fontfix fontsmooth-gray gecko sound=oss gdiplus

2. Insert the installation CD then copy contents to the hard disk, ~/DNS for example

3. cd ~/DNS/issetupprerequisites, run "wine vcruntime.exe"

4. cd ~/DNS and run "wine setup". Proceed with the installation. At the end choose to register with printing something

5. run "padsp winecfg". Go to audio and choose alsa.

6. run DNS with: "padsp wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Nuance/NaturallySpeaking10/Program/natspeak.exe" If it crashes, run it again.

7. Now it should work. If it does not detect your microphome (or explains that sound is too low), try to configure your input device (menu>sound and video>pulse audio control)

Some editing commands work in notepad, and the recognition is still almost as fast as in DictationBox. For right now, I recommend dictating directly into Notepad.

The program no longer freezes when using Notepad. It sometimes still does after using DictationBox extensively. For instance, I dictate 4-6 paragraphs at a time, and after about the third session of that, the program sometimes behaves strangely. Usually what happens first is that the command "Transfer" does not drop text automatically into the other program.

Solution, just go to the other application -- be it wine or Linux -- and hit CTL-V and the text will drop.

Interesting note, unrelated to Wine... Dictation accuracy changes when switching from Notepad to DictationBox. Usually drops a bit at first.

These instructions are primarily for Ubuntu / Debian but should be helpful to other distros. 

In terminal:

wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks

sh winetricks fontfix fontsmooth-gray gecko sound=oss

(also add gdiplus if you want a prettier DragonBar.)

winecfg

(in winecfg, go to audio tab and check oss driver only, then bump the default sample rate to 48000)

navigate to CD rom and type

wine setup

When evaluating install-menu options, remember that the program will need to run simply. Disable options that require searching your hard drive, automatic updating, sending data to Nuance, etc. Don't install or enable training.

The way to get fast, accurate dictation is to use Notepad or DictationBox. DragonPad works and has some extra commands but it is not as fast. It also has some quirks. Default font cannot be changed, for instance.

Once you have the program up and running, you should be able to use Dictation Box, say "Transfer that" and then use CTL-V to paste into any running Linux application. To enable this feature, open Dictation Box / Settings, and check the box to keep transferred text on the clipboard.

Note: I compiled wine from git using ./configure --enable-win64 and NatSpeak ran just fine. (However, check your Natspeak version. Only 10.1 is 64-bit enabled.)

Additional Instructions:

As of 10.10 Ubuntu, pulseaudio is enabled by default. I have not had luck getting wine programs running with pulse. To disable it, edit /etc/pulse/client.conf to change # autospawn = yes to autospawn = no.

Then System/preferences/startup applications, uncheck everything that says pulse. Then reboot.

If you want to use a USB device, this must be set as the default device. So add to your home directory a file called .asoundrc that contains the following text. (This assumes that you have only two devices, that card 0 is your on-board and card 1 is your usb.)

pcm.!default {
    type hw
    card 1
}
ctl.!default {
    type hw
    card 1
}

It is my experience that the Nuance licensing daemon now counts each new version of wine as a "new operating system." Upgrades between, say Ubuntu Karmic and Ubuntu Lucid, also use up a license. And you also lose a license when you have NatSpeak installed twice on the same computer.

I had been installing test versions daily, always on the same machine, always using the latest wine git, and now can no longer do so. So new users may not want to install or test casually. 

Note: Changing the Windows Version in winecfg counts as an operating system upgrade. For this reason, it is recommended to install DNS10 under an alternate $WINEPREFIX and leave it alone. Nuance recommends un-installing the software with an active internet connection before upgrading. This is supposed to prevent the activation count from incrementing. The "active internet connection" seems to require the optional winbind (samba-winbind) package available through your distro. If the license loss continues after un-installation, bug report it. http://nuance.custhelp.com