REALIZE VOICE
http://www.realizesoftware.com/
Reviewed June, 2006
What's It Do?
Realize Voice is software that lets you control your computer
using your voice to input text, browse the web, simulate keyboard and
mouse input, open and control programs and documents and more.
Does it do what it promises?
Reviewer 1. Yes. The program combines voice control and dictation
to allow for potential control of your computer using voice recognition. I
would take issue with the developer's statement that this software
"increases productivity" or can "eliminate use of the computer keyboard
and mouse." While voice recognition software is constantly improving, no
voice recognition software is yet capable of matching the 80-100 words per
minute typing speeds of even an average touch typist, as the average
person clearly speaks at only approximately 40 words per minute. Even
after "training" this software over a four month period of time, my own
results were that I could type a document approximately five times faster
that dictating even if discounting the many mistakes that had to be
corrected due to imprecise voice recognition. Additionally, the stated
system requirements of 128MB ram and processor speed (Pentium 266) are
drastically understated. I would suggest that multiplying them by four
will come closer to being accurate. I have an extremely powerful and fast
computer with 1G Ram and I could feel this program slowing down even my
computer slightly.
Reviewer 2. In general, this program does what it promises, but not
nearly as smoothly or easily as one might hope. There is a high learning
curve and a long training period before achieving maximum proficiency.
Reviewer 3. Realize Voice is a fascinating new way of controlling
your computer and working with the applications that you use each day.
With Realize Voice you can open and run programs, browse the Internet, and
in "dictation mode" use your computer to type what you say as text on your
screen. In fact, at the moment, I am using Realize Voice to write this
report. One of the more interesting functions of this program is its
ability to create "Voice Macros". This allows you to record a series of
inputs from your mouse or keyboard and save that list of inputs as a
single spoken command. When you say that command, that series of inputs
will be carried out either at the speed that you used when you were
recording the macro, or as fast as possible. These macros can be fairly
simple ones, or you can build them up so that a complex series of
instructions can all be carried out by a invoking a single Voice Macro.
Was it easy to install?
Reviewer 1. No. While I installed the program by CD which was
simple and straightforward, it is a very sizeable download of around 65MB
which would be almost prohibitive as a download on anything less than a
broadband connection. In addition, there is a lengthy (though
comprehensive) tutorial that is a must for first- time users, so plan for
considerable time in getting started.
Reviewer 2. Installation was fast and simple.
Reviewer 3. Yes. Installation was straightforward and I was able to
specify the location, shortcuts and other program parameters.
Good Points
Reviewer 1. While voice recognition software is not yet at the stage
of Captain Kirk controlling the USS Starship Enterprise by talking to the
ship’s computer, nor will you hear the mellifluous tones of HAL from
2001: A Space Odyssey inviting you to a game of chess, voice
recognition software seems to be advancing, and there is much to like
about this program. It has a nice GUI (interface) that is relatively easy
to understand and the program is laden with a lot of nice features such as
the ability to create macros and the ability to customize individual words
as well as create word shortcuts that make it highly configurable and
customizable. While command functions are fairly easy to train, it does
take considerable time to train it to fully recognize your voice and this
training must be seen as an ongoing process. The voice commands such as
“Open Firefox” or even some words to open links to a Web page work
effortlessly and generally well. The dictation mode, however, does require
much more training as is to be expected and one does need to be realistic
about their expectations, as the program will make mistakes (some quite
comical) in what it understood you to say. For someone with physical
disabilities and/or keyboarding limitations, this program could be
invaluable. There is technical support available by email which promises
a 24-hour turnaround time which I had no need to access. While the price
of $99.00 may seem high at first glance, it is in line with other similar
voice recognition programs and I think is a reasonable price for such
powerful and complex software.
Reviewer 2. If you have a physical impairment preventing use of
the conventional keyboard and mouse, this program will allow you to do
many of those functions under voice control. There is a fairly
sophisticated set of commands to control functions in Windows, and macros
to make repetitive and/or customized groups of tasks easy to repeat once
the macro is created. Voice data, translated into written text, can be
inserted into your documents.
Reviewer 3. Realize Voice is very businesslike, with a functional and
plain Main Screen. It is a simple window with a single menu item (Menu)
and a tab for each of the six modules of the program (Dictation Mode,
Window Commands, System Commands, Macros, etc.). With the Realize Voice
screen open, say “Show Window Tab.” Now, start up a program or application
and a list of the commands that you can carry out by voice appears in the
Realize Voice screen. Usually the commands are the menu bar commands or
some of the toolbars, so you carry out many of the functions of the
application by voice rather than by keyboard or mouse. Under the System
Tab are the commands that have to do with Windows itself. You can see
them all, or you can see them grouped by category--desktop, keyboard,
mouse, etc. I did a printout of the main commands to use as I was learning
the program. As you get to know the commands already built into the
program, you can use them without referring to your cheat sheet. This is
fun because these built-in commands are available even when you are in
other applications. This version of Realize Voice allows you to have
access to your contacts if you are using one of the supported address
books. You can phone or send email to contacts in your address book in the
same way that you would use other system commands. Unfortunately, I was
not able to experiment with this aspect of the program because I do not
use Outlook, Outlook Express, or any other of the seven supported address
books. Perhaps my particular PIM (Personal Information Manager) program
will be included in a future edition of Realize Voice.
Weak Points
Reviewer 1. As I said above, voice recognition software is still
really in its infancy in many ways so many of the "weak points" are most
likely going to be "weak points" with any voice recognition software and
not necessarily or exclusively belonging only to Realize Voice. That said,
I found that because it relies heavily on Microsoft technology Realize
Voice seems to work best with typical Microsoft applications such as Word,
Office, Internet Explorer but will require the user to generally rely on
extra customization to control other applications. I found it near
impossible, for example, to control the multiple windows associated with
my WinAmp player and for a heavy Web surfer, you might well lose your mind
with the slowness in which it scrolls down pages. Similarly, while it does
support Address Books, you will find that other than Microsoft Outlook
and/or Outlook Express, the address books supported are extremely limited.
As I mentioned earlier, you will need a fast and powerful computer to
fully appreciate the potential of this software. I would recommend a
processor in the Pentium IV 1.8G and RAM of at least 712MB as a minimum.
Also, be aware that the program will use a great deal of hard disc space
to store its library of learned words and sounds. As with, I suspect, all
voice recognition software, a quiet environment is essential for the
program to work at its best. Even with the supplied headset microphone, I
found that even a television or music playing in a nearby room could
interfere with proper voice recognition. So, plan to close your windows,
turn off any loud fans, and forget about listening to music while you
"type" as this software requires as silent an environment as you can
reasonably create. There is a setting under the Speech tab in the Options
Window to help ignore background noise by lowering the Pronunciation
Sensitivity, but I found it helped only marginally. I suspect that the
highest quality, noise canceling microphone you can afford will be an
investment you will want to make if you plan to use this software
seriously. Again, while I suspect not unique to this particular voice
recognition program, I did find that certain variations in one's voice
over the course of a day could result in increased errors. For example, as
a university professor there are days in which I might be lecturing for
ten or twelve hours and by the end of the day with my voice a bit hoarse,
the program seemed to have increased difficulty with voice recognition in
dictation mode. And for those of you who still smoke, be aware that the
occasional "smoker's cough" will drive the program crazy! I do wish, and
this is admittedly a personal pet peeve, that developers would place their
email support form under the Support link rather than the Contact link. It
constantly amazes me that the email support process would be listed
anywhere other than under the Support link or tab.
Reviewer 2. Realize Voice has the same weaknesses of voice
recognition programs in general: A quiet room is needed because background
noise confuses these programs; a high-quality noise canceling microphone
is needed; you are tethered to your laptop or desktop by the wired
headset; and, in dictation mode, "properly spelled wrong words" are
produced when there is an error in voice recognition. If there is a 95%
recognition rate, that means that 1 in 20 words will be wrong and these
errors will not be detected by your spell checker. The custom voice
recognition data generated when you do voice training is saved on drive C.
I personally store my data on a different partition that I back up
regularly. There are no cues as the program is running about where this
data is saved, nor are you prompted to back it up. After I had begun
significant voice training, Windows XP on my system became corrupted, and
I needed to restore the C:/ partition containing cmy operating system to a
backed-up state prior to when Realize Voice was installed. Therefore, all
of my voice training was lost. Further reading in their FAQ revealed that
the voice training data is integrated with entries in the Windows registry
and that this is under the control of Microsoft's speech recognition
engine. General direction is provided for how and where this data is
stored but one is left with the conclusion that "Microsoft claims that
this data is not easy to backup and restore…[snip] Microsoft won't provide
any specifics on how to do this, unfortunately." Guidance is also included
for backing up files and registry settings for Voice Macros, Voice
Shortcuts and Realize Voice configuration settings. While advanced users
may be comfortable editing their registry, most users will not. I would
strongly suggest that the programmers add one-touch buttons to automate
the process of backing up and restoring the critical setup and
configuration data for this program. Realize Voice will integrate with
your address book information from the following programs: Microsoft
Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, ACT!, GoldMine, Netscape Communicator,
Lotus Organizer, and Windows Messaging (includes MS Exchange and more). I
have my address book saved as a Microsoft Access database file. Technical
support verified that there is no way for Realize Voice to integrate with
data stored in this format. While it is nice to be able to move the mouse
cursor across the screen by voice commands, the voice commands to move it
left, right, up or down only result in movement in small increments.
Stating the commands over and over is both slow and monotonous. This can
be made more efficient by using the "Repeat that <#> times" command, but
it is still guesswork to figure out how many clicks it takes to move a
given distance. If it is possible to program, I would suggest that a
command be introduced to move the mouse by a percentage of the screen
width; this would be faster and more intuitive for the user.
Reviewer 3. The help file and tutorials require some rather serious
attention. The online help is your standard help file, giving you a list
of all the commands available, and how you execute each one. It is
complete, logically organized and adequate to that particular task.;
however, Realize Voice is really attempting to fundamentally change the
way you interact with your computer. Consider how long it actually took
you to learn how to use the keyboard and the mouse. You need to be ready
to put in time learning how to use this program. There is one tutorial
that you are strongly advised to run before you start. It is enough to get
you started by explaining some of the basics of Realize Voice. After you
have gone through it, you can check and adjust your microphone, then run
some of the voice training exercises. These are designed to teach the
Microsoft voice engine (which underlies Realize Voice) to adapt itself to
your voice. Once I had done that, I would have appreciated some other
tutorials to show me how to use different parts of the program. The first
one could show how to use voice commands to navigate through different
windows, run desktop commands, and carry out basic keyboard and mouse
commands. The second one could teach how to use dictation mode. I would
greatly appreciate a tutorial on the building of voice macros. This very
powerful part of the program needs much more than the list of functions in
the current help file. Perhaps these tutorials could be designed to make
use of Voice Commands rather than the mouse or keyboard. In spite of
having done the voice training, I still find that Realize Voice has
difficulty understanding me. To need to repeat a Voice Shortcut several
times sends me back to the keyboard and mouse - not a desirable outcome.
You can also get some rather strange sentences in the Dictation Mode,
which are sometimes quite difficult to correct.
Other Comments
Reviewer 1. As I stated earlier, voice recognition software is not yet
the stuff of the sci-fi future but nor is it without uses even in its
early stages. I would be extremely careful using it to write a letter
applying for a job, promotion, or pay increase; nor would I want to rely
on it in matters of legality or love where expressing yourself accurately
can have life-altering ramifications when the "throes of passion" you
speak of becomes "throws out fashion" when written. Still, this software
can provide a solution for someone who is physically impaired or where
spelling and punctuation are not critical such as in controlling your
computer or for leaving yourself quick notes or memos. Based on my
experience with Realize Voice, this program is more than adequate to
supplement your keyboard, just not yet replace it.
Reviewer 2. Technical support was slow to respond to my email. A
group of emailed questions were answered completely and thoroughly eight
days after the inquiry had been sent. A high-quality noise-canceling
microphone needs to be used with this program. If you order the CD version
of this program, one will be included; if you download this program you
need to provide your own. An ordinary microphone will pick up too much
background noise. It is important to use the microphone set at the proper
orientation and distance from your mouth and with the volume level
adjusted properly. There is a "Microphone Wizard" in Realize Voice to
adjust this automatically, but I had to wade through a large amount of
help documentation before I learned of its existence; by that time I had
already done hours of voice training with the volume set at a non-optimal
level. There is an omission in the online help "Getting Started" section
failing to prompt you to use the Wizard.
Reviewer 3. This is a very interesting piece of software. In spite
of the time that it took me to get going, I find that I go back to it
quite often, use it in dictation mode, browse the web, or work on
developing another voice macro. When I run into problems, I have found the
support to be responsive and helpful. You must devote the time to learn
and train it if it is going to become a program that you will use all the
time.
Will you continue to use it?
Reviewer 1. No, but only
because it is for me a rather heavy draw on my computer resources simply
to have as a "toy."
Reviewer 2. No. For my needs, the complications and overhead of
running a voice recognition program do not justify the benefits.
Reviewer 3. Yes, I will.
OPERATING SYSTEMS USED IN THIS REVIEW
Windows XP Pro, XP Home
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