Forged by Hundreds of Man-Years of R&D and Proven by Millions of Users, Dragon Has Brought Speech into the Mainstream and is Fuelling New Applications in Mobile Messaging, Healthcare Transcription and Web Search

During the month of April, Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading provider of speech solutions, marks the tenth anniversary of the introduction of Dragon™ NaturallySpeaking®, the world’s best-selling and most accurate continuous speech recognition solution. Recognised by events and celebrations around the world, the tenth anniversary honours the decades of engineering efforts, millions of users and continued innovations that drive the rapidly growing Dragon NaturallySpeaking solution family.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 1.0 was introduced in April 1997 as the first general-purpose continuous-speech recognition solution for the PC. Its revolutionary feature was to enable users to speak normally – eliminating the tedious word-at-a-time approach that was then state-of-the-art. In just ten short years, Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9 has moved the speech recognition category from one viewed as niche and speculative to one where speech recognition has become a mainstream application for personal computer users, as well as a critical technology for mobile and search applications.

“Speech recognition has come a long way in a relatively short period of time, and we are proud that Dragon NaturallySpeaking has led in accuracy and innovations every step of the way,” said Bob Anderson, Regional Director – Asia Pacific, Productivity Applications Division, Nuance. “We applaud all that have made this possible – from the dedicated and innovative development teams to the diligent and effective sales and marketing professionals. But most of all we thank the millions of loyal users who are an instrumental part of making the Dragon family of products and technologies invaluable for everyone.”

Everyday, millions of people rely on Dragon NaturallySpeaking to create documents, email messages and blogs up to three times faster than typing; to more accurately input data into spreadsheets; and to transform the way they use their PC – simply by speaking. In healthcare environments Dragon’s speech recognition technology enables Dictaphone Healthcare Solutions from Nuance to instantly input clinical information into electronic medical records systems, and to replace manual transcription with automated processes. And most recently, Nuance has developed Dragon Mobile, a revolutionary solution that enables mobile phone users to create emails and search the Web – completely by voice.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking has an amazing accumulation of innovations that deliver unrivalled levels of accuracy, ease-of-use and productivity – many of them protected by a significant set of patents.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Innovations

Unrivalled Accuracy – No other continuous speech recognition product for personal computers is as accurate as Dragon NaturallySpeaking – which is why it is the only such product to win awards from respected independent product testing labs. Dragon NaturallySpeaking has also won back to back to back “Product of the Year Awards”.

Natural Speech – Many users avoided early implementations of continuous speech recognition for Microsoft Windows, as they were based upon “discrete speech.” This – meant – that – users – had – to – speak – very – slowly. Now users can speak at up to 160 words per minute – faster than average – and Dragon NaturallySpeaking can attain up to 99% accuracy in turning speech into text.

Natural Language – Historical dictation solutions forced users to explicitly switch between command mode – using speech to control the PC – and dictation mode – using speech to create text. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is amazing in its ability to accurately detect what is dictation and what are commands, and allows users to say commands in many different ways.

Nothing But Speech – Few users are newsreaders, so many people will occasionally say “umm” and “uhh” (and other sounds) as they speak. Dragon NaturallySpeaking automatically filters such “non-speech” before turning speech into text.

Mobile and Roaming Users – Dragon NaturallySpeaking is used at home, at work and in professional settings, including lawyers and doctors, many of whom need access to speech recognition throughout a distributed workplace. The product supports such users in a number of ways, including accessing their voice profile over the Web and network; recording on mobile devices and having their speech processed when they dock to their PC; and most recently the ability to use speech to text on mobile devices to create email and SMS messages, and even to search the Web.

No Voice Training – Perhaps the last barrier to more widespread use of speech recognition on personal computers was the need to “train” the software on your voice. Nuance had led the industry in reducing the time needed from up to one hour to five minutes, and with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 has completely removed the requirement to train the software – while maintaining high levels of accuracy. The product also learns as it is being used, further increasing accuracy levels.

Audio and Video Search – The proliferation of recorded audio and video content has generated significant demand for better ways to search, use and share that content, a problem that Dragon AudioMining helps to solve. This developer and OEM product creates XML Speech Index information for every word spoken in a recording, along with time-stamp and confidence levels. This allows search applications to show exactly where a keyword or phase was found within a recording, greatly enhancing the user experience.

Developer Toolkits – As users come to expect speech recognition as a way to interact with their hardware and software, Nuance is making it easier for developers to add those features to their desktop and server applications. With the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Client and Server SDKs, it is easier then ever for commercial and in-house developers to put speech to work for their applications.

About Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Dragon NaturallySpeaking from Nuance is used by millions of people to create documents and emails up to three times faster than typing, and to use their PC simply by speaking. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 delivers what matters most in speech recognition – the highest levels of accuracy, seamless integration with practically all PC applications, and unrivalled ease of use. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 converts speech into text at up to 160 words-per-minute with accuracy levels of up to 99 percent. Available in Australian English, UK English, US English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications and professional services. For more information, please visit http://australia.nuance.com/

Nuance, the Nuance logo, Dragon and NaturallySpeaking are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

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