Speaking to your computer, naturally.Over the years I have observed how lawyers have hoped against hope that a continuous speech voice recognition product would come to market. Many lawyers have told me they would buy such a product if it worked reasonably well and if it were priced at under $2,000. The great news today is that voice recognition technology designed for law office use is now available, and at a price under $1,000. Here are the details. There are a number of products on the market, but the one I like best is Dragon NaturallySpeaking by Dragon Systems Dragon Systems, Inc., was the company that created DragonDictate and Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It was founded in 1982 by Drs. James and Janet Baker and bought by Lernout & Hauspie in 2000. , Inc., of Newton, Massachusetts The City of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, is an important residential suburb of Boston, which abuts it on the east. According to the 2000 census, the population of the Newton was 83,829, making it the tenth largest city in the state. . Introduced last March, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the first software product specifically designed to allow legal professionals to create briefs, correspondence, and other documents just by speaking naturally to PCs running Corel WordPerfect See WordPerfect Office and WordPerfect Corporation. , Microsoft Word A full-featured word processing program for Windows and the Macintosh from Microsoft. Included in the Microsoft application suite, it is a sophisticated program with rudimentary desktop publishing capabilities that has become the most widely used word processing application on the market. , and other popular Windows applications. The Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Suite, as the vendor calls it, has enhancements made specifically for the legal profession, including a comprehensive legal vocabulary and other features designed to increase productivity for attorneys. Installation of the program from one CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). is simple. Once the program is installed, an easy-to-follow tutorial walks you through some editing commands and directs you to read an extensive text file aloud into a microphone attached to your computer. This allows Dragon NaturallySpeaking to "learn" your voice patterns and how you speak. After about 20 minutes, you are ready to start using the product. Macro language (1) A special-purpose command language used to automate sequences within an application such as a spreadsheet or word processor. Macro languages often include programming controls (IF THEN, GOTO, WHILE, etc.), but rarely have the capabilities of a full-blown programming language. allows you to customize the product by creating boilerplate A phrase or body of text used verbatim in different documents such as a signature at the end of a letter. Boilerplate is widely used in the legal profession as many paragraphs are used over and over in agreements with little modification or no modification. text that can be inserted when you issue a command phrase, such as "insert standard close." More sophisticated macros allow you to enter text, retrieve information from other applications, and place text into other applications. These macros can be created by using a BASIC-like programming language. Most law offices will find that some form of customization with macros will come easily, and large law firms This list of the world's largest law firms by revenue is taken from The Lawyer and The American Lawyer and is ordered by 2006 revenue:[1]
Features Accurate continuous speech recognition. You can dictate text continuously without pausing between words. As you speak into the microphone, words appear immediately on the screen--with words almost always spelled correctly. Easy-to-use, intuitive commands allow you to edit and format the text quickly and efficiently by voice. Independent studies report that Dragon NaturallySpeaking accurately records the words spoken by the user between 95 percent and 98 percent of the time. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the output when I first started to use this product. The results were not perfect, but the more I used the software, the better it got as it learned my speech patterns. Comprehensive legal vocabulary. The program's 230,000-word legal dictionary contains an extensive collection of legal terms, phrases, and abbreviations compiled from briefs, court opinions, and other legal texts. The vocabulary includes spelling, pronunciation, and language usage information that tells the software how each word is used in context. This increases the accuracy of the system. You can customize the vocabulary using the program's Vocabulary Builder. This feature automatically analyzes documents already stored in the computer in order to introduce new terms See suggestions for new terms. into the system. The terms might refer to legal specialties, geographic locations, client names, or personal interests. The Vocabulary Builder adds the spelling, pronunciation, and language usage information for the terms in the document. Speech playback. Recorded speech playback allows you or someone else to listen to what you said for easy proofreading Proofreading traditionally means reading a proof copy of a text in order to detect and correct any errors. Modern proofreading often requires reading copy at earlier stages as well. and editing. If you don't want to do your own editing, you can dictate the document and then have your secretary or paralegal play back your voice and make corrections. The audio playback of what you dictated may vary from the words that appear on the screen and in your text file, but that's the idea behind this feature. Even if the program did not pick up your words with perfect accuracy, you or your staff person will hear what you actually said and can make the necessary corrections. Text to speech. Using this feature, you can have the computer "read aloud" the words that appear on the screen, thanks to high-quality text-to-speech technology from ELAN Informatique. This is handy when you want to hear what you have dictated while attending to another task. Perhaps more important, this feature makes Dragon NaturallySpeaking an excellent way for firms to make reasonable accommodations reasonable accommodations A standard of providing for a worker's or customer's needs, as mandated by the ADA, which requires that a business make appropriate changes in the environment to accommodate those with mental or physical disabilities as long as such , as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act Americans with Disabilities Act, U.S. civil-rights law, enacted 1990, that forbids discrimination of various sorts against persons with physical or mental handicaps. , for employees who have visual or other impairments that significantly restrict their typing abilities. System requirements To be used efficiently, all computer software needs certain hardware components or other software resources to be present on a computer system. These pre-requisites are known as (computer) system requirements and are often used as a guideline as opposed to an absolute rule. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Suite can be used with Microsoft Windows See Windows. (operating system) Microsoft Windows - Microsoft's proprietary window system and user interface software released in 1985 to run on top of MS-DOS. Widely criticised for being too slow (hence "Windoze", "Microsloth Windows") on the machines available then. 95 and Windows NT (Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. NT is the core technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (see Windows). Available in separate client and server versions, it includes built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. 4.0. It requires a minimum of a 133 MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. Pentium, 32 MB RAM for Windows 95, and 48 MB RAM for Windows NT. You'll need 120 MB hard disk space for installation. With voice recognition software, the speed of your computer and the amount of memory it has are important--and more is better. I recommend that you use at least a 300-MHz machine with 128 MB RAM, which is not a high-end computer these days. If you want to invest for the future, go with the 450-MHz computers that are now available. It is important to choose the proper hardware devices to make this product work well. Skimping 'skimping' Managed care The delaying or denial of services to members of a prepaid or 'capped' health plan, to control costs–because the monies received by the health plan remain constant, providing 'extra' services is more costly to the plan. See Skimming, Capitation. is not appropriate when you plan to use voice recognition technology. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Suite can be used with a broad range of built-in audio and industry-standard sound cards, as well as with built-in 16-bit cards in notebook computers. Proprietary speech cards (those made by Dragon Systems) are not required for either desktop or portable PCs. Dragon Systems recommends using only hardware certified by the company, as listed in the technical support section of its Web site (www.naturalspeech.com). Users should consult the company's Internet site before making any decisions on hardware purchases. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Legal Suite is available through Dragon Systems' value-added reseller A value-added reseller (VAR) is a company that adds some feature(s) to an existing product(s), then resells it (usually to end-users) as an integrated product or complete "turn-key" solution. (VAR) channel at a suggested list price of $995. I've heard that you can get it for less from responsible mail-order vendors. New version Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 3.0, announced in June 1998, incorporates new BestMatch technology from Dragon Systems. The company estimates that the new version is about 25 percent more accurate than version 2.0. Other enhancements include new Natural Language Commands, which allow users to edit and format documents by speaking commands in a more natural way; an enlarged active vocabulary; and Dragon NaturallyMobile software, which makes it easy to create documents using a hand-held recorder. The Natural Language Commands feature builds on Dragon Systems' Select-and-Say editing and formatting feature. Instead of requiring users to memorize a specific command, such as "bold that," the new Natural Language Commands recognize a wide variety of ways in which a user may issue a command. "Make that bold," "bold the last paragraph," and "set font bold" will all accomplish the same task, as will many more conversational commands. In addition, the newest version of the software allows you to use the program with a portable digital device available only from Sony Corp. that is called the MiniDisc A compact digital audio disc from Sony that comes in read-only and rewritable versions. Introduced in late 1993, the MiniDisc has been most popular in Japan. The read-only 2.5" disc stores 140MB compared to 650MB on a CD, but holds the same 74 minutes worth of music due to Sony's Adaptive recorder. You create text by speaking naturally into the palm-sized recorder (model MZ-R50), even if you are miles away from a PC. Later, the recording can be transcribed by the Dragon NaturallySpeaking program. These products are aimed at medical, legal, and other professionals who need the highest accuracy and the most flexibility in their work. You can now create briefs, reports, correspondence, or other documents while you are away from the office or moving from one location to another. The recorder holds up to 148 minutes of speech on a single disk that is re-recordable more than a million times with no loss of sound quality. Blank Sony MiniDiscs are available in most consumer electronics stores for less than $5 each. The Sony MiniDisc MZ-R50 recorder weighs less than seven ounces (excluding batteries), fits easily in a shirt pocket, and can be held comfortably in the palm of a person's hand. When you are ready to transcribe To copy data from one medium to another; for example, from one source document to another, or from a source document to the computer. It often implies a change of format or codes. the documents you recorded, you connect the MZ-R50 to a computer running the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Legal Suite software. The dictation is automatically transcribed into your Corel WordPerfect or Microsoft Word document. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Legal Suite, complete with software and hardware, began shipping in August 1998 with a suggested list price of $1,295. What's ahead? Currently, Dragon NaturallySpeaking allows you to create and keep as many "speech files" on one computer as you like, so that more than one person can use the product on one PC. However, as of this writing, the product cannot be used on a file server, which would allow many users to access it at separate PCs. I expect Dragon Systems to have a file-server-based capability for centralized dictation soon. Also, I understand that vendors like Gavel gavel small mallet used by judge or presiding officer to signal order. [Western Culture: Misc.] See : Authority & Gown Software (Amicus AMICUS Automated Management Information Civil Users System Attorney) and IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) (Lotus NOTES) are working with Dragon Systems to "voice-enable" their products. This is something I expect more and more vendors to do. Voice recognition software for attorneys is finally here. Those who have been eagerly awaiting its arrival can visit the Dragon Systems Web site at www.naturalspeech.com for more information. Paul Bernstein is an attorney and law office automation consultant in Chicago. He can be reached on the Internet at paulbern@interaccess.com. The views expressed in this column are the authors and do not constitute an endorsement of any product by TRIAL or ATLA ATLA Association of Trial Lawyers of America ATLA American Theological Library Association ATLA American Trial Lawyers Association ATLA Air Transport Licensing Authority (Hong Kong) ATLA Avatar: The Last Airbender . |
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