Audio quality, context and pronunciation all work together to produce accurate results.
Talkatoo uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to try to determine what you're saying. No dictation solution is going to be perfect, but there are several factors that affect the accuracy of a dictation. If you're finding that the accuracy in Talkatoo is not as good as you were expecting, whether it's in general, or a handful of specific words, there are a few things that can help:
Audio Quality
This is listed first due to how critical it is. Laptop microphones do a poor job with dictation because by design they pick up everything, near and far, in every direction. This is known as an omnidirectional. Even when you're in a quiet environment, since it's listening for everything, it's still not going to give great results. The recommended microphone is the Philips SpeechMike, and is a top-of-the-line dictation microphone. The SpeechMike:
- Is unidirectional,
- Is very accurate and sensitive,
- Has fantastic noise cancellation - this is important because with a normal microphone, even if the noise/talking in your environment isn't being transcribed, it's still interfering with your audio.
For this reason we very highly recommend that you use a Philips SpeechMike for dictating with Talkatoo. Ask our sales team about special offers.
My Words
My Words is like your own custom dictionary of words to prioritize the use of. You're not programming Talkatoo: It has access to nearly all words already, but that can sometimes lead to difficulty choosing the correct word, so adding words to My Words will prioritize those words over other similar sounding words. Click here for more information on adding words to the My Words list.
Pronunciation
Because Talkatoo uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence to figure out what you're saying, it is very important that the words you're saying are pronounced correctly. The best way to be sure is to Google how to pronounce the word, e.g. do a google search for 'Azathioprine pronunciation' - Google has a great built in tool that allows you to play most words at normal and slow speed. In nearly all cases, with the correct pronunciation, and in conjunction with adding the word to My Words, Talkatoo is able to get the word.
Context
As mentioned above, Talkatoo uses Natural Language Processing and the important part there is Natural. It's meant to work with human speech, and just like with humans, context is incredibly important. Context helps differentiate all of the words that sound very similar, or even the same, when spoken, e.g. to vs two/2 vs too. Speak in full thoughts and sentences whenever possible, and try to limit extended pauses in the middle of sentences.
Input Level
The volume the microphone is recording you at is also very important, especially with a powerful microphone like the SpeechMike. If it's too low it won't hear you well enough, but equally bad is having it set too high, which can cause equally poor audio. Have a look at this article for more information about adjusting your input levels appropriately.
Conclusion
Ultimately, with any dictation software using artificial intelligence, it's not going to be perfect: the technology just is not on the same level as human intelligence. Yet. But with the tips above and a little bit of practice, Talkatoo can and will save you time every day.
We're constantly working to improve Talkatoo and always value customer feedback and suggestions.