Nuance Dragon Medical eTIPS Newsletter

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Dragon^Ž Medical

January 2010, Volume 2, Number 1

Greetings!

In this edition of eTIPS you will find tips on how you can improve the accuracy of spoken commands, learn how to upload voice dictation from a portable recording device and have it transcribed by Dragon Medical, learn how to improve recognition accuracy by running Dragon Medical Accuracy Tuning, and learn how you can set permissions on the commands file to prevent modifications.

eTIPS

Did you know there are ways to improve the accuracy of spoken commands?

If you're speaking a command to navigate within an application or to access different areas of the computer and the computer doesn't seem to be listening or simply isn't completing the right task, consider these recommendations to help improve the accuracy.

Pause briefly before and after saying all commands. Dragon uses the length of the pause between two utterances to determine whether you are saying a command or dictation words. However, do not pause before saying dictation commands, such as "Cap", "New-Line", or "New-Paragraph."
Be sure you are saying a valid command. You can verify if the command is valid by opening the Command Browser within the Tools menu of the DragonBar, and perform a search for that command.
Consider training voice commands that are often mistaken for dictation to keep the problem from recurring. Open Train within the Words menu of the DragonBar and enter the command you want to train.
You can change the length of the pause that Dragon recognizes to identify a command by opening the Commands options within the Tools - Options of the DragonBar.

TIP: As mentioned in a previous eTIPS newletter, you can always force command recognition by holding down the Control key as you start to speak a command. This hot key disables dictation and tells Dragon to expect a command.

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Did you know that Dragon Medical can upload and transcribe voice dictations from a digital portable recorder?

This feature gives the Dragon Medical user the ability to upload audio files dictated on a digital recorder and then transcribes the files into recognized text using Dragon Medical. In order to utilize this feature, the following steps are procedurally addressed in the Dragon Medical online Help topics:

Most digital recorders require proprietary software be installed in order to transfer audio files from the portable to the computer.
A Dragon user profile must be created specifically to adapt to recorded speech from a digital recorder. The Dragon New User Wizard will present a list of Recorder Types to select from.
Depending upon the recorder type selected, training instructions will be given on how to complete the user profile. Normally, 15 minutes of training text will need to be read and can take 60 minutes to adapt.
Open the newly created user profile when ready to upload audio to be transcribed. Select Sound - Transcribe Recording on the DragonBar and click the appropriate recorder button.

Note: In order to upload audio successfully the digital recorder should always be set to record in high quality. Please check Dragon specifications on specific digital recorders as to the minimum audio format encoding accepted (for example, 11KHz 16-bit mono wave).

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Did you know Optimization of Roaming Users is possible through the Dragon Medical Accuracy Tuning option?

Executing Acoustic and Language Model Optimization is a strong recommendation from Nuance for most Dragon Medical users, especially where improved recognition accuracy is desired.

Roaming users for Dragon Medical are typically optimized from a central administrative computer using the Acoustic and Language Model Optimizer Scheduler under Start - Programs - Dragon Medical 10.x - Dragon Tools.

However, the same optimization process can be triggered to run locally from a user's computer through the Accuracy Tuning option under Dragon Administrative Settings - Scheduled Tasks tab. Accuracy Tuning runs the Acoustic and Language Model Optimizers to add commonly used word sequences dictated by the user and acoustic data from any corrections as well as additional training completed by the user. Scheduling Accuracy Tuning will help Dragon Medical learn from you and make recognition more accurate.

Under the Accuracy Tuning option, a Configure button prompts for a Windows administrative login name and password in order to schedule optimization to run. Optimization will run for all roaming users at the roaming network location and all local users on that computer. The computer must be logged into Windows during scheduled optimization.

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Did you know that Dragon Medical custom commands can be protected?

Protecting the MyCmds.dat file, or other .dat file containing Dragon Medical custom commands, from being altered, can be accomplished using the following procedure. Once a .dat file is locked, a Dragon user will have only permissions to dictate the voice commands, but cannot view or edit their source code, or re-export the commands. As a result, command integrity remains intact.

By default, the MyCmds.dat file is located in the User's \current folder. To set the permissions on the MyCmds.dat or other .dat file:

Make a backup copy of the unprotected .dat file and store it in a secure location.
Important: That backup file will be used later to add or edit commands. However, the protected file used for distribution will not be available for editing again.
On the Windows desktop, select Start - Run.
In the Run dialog box, type cmd and click OK.
At the command prompt, switch directories by typing CD C:\Program Files\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking10\Program and press Enter.
Type the following at the command line:
protectcmds.exe [dat-file-path] [vendor-name] [vendor-contact-info]
Note: [dat-file-path] corresponds to the folder path location where any .dat file will be protected.
Once you press return, after a user imports these commands, if that user attempts to edit any command, the following message indicates that the commands cannot be edited:
"The command was protected by [vendor-name].
Please contact [vendor-contact-info] for more information.

Once you have protected the file, you can put it into the Data Distribution directory for distribution to multiple users.

You Ask, We'll Answer
You Ask, We'll Answer

Nuance is committed to answering questions from our customers. The following is a recent question we received and our answer to this question.

If you would like to submit a question of your own, simply click here or email us at etipsfeedback@nuance.com

Question: What is ListServ?

Answer: ListServ is a mailing list for Nuance customers to communicate with each other by having open discussions and information sharing in regards to the operation and workflow of their Nuance products.

To learn more about ListServ, simply click here or email us at etipsfeedback@nuance.com
To join the Dragon Medical ListServ, click here or open your internet browser and navigate to: http://www.nuance.com/dragonMedical/
At the Nuance Dragon Medical site, click the Join the Dragon Medical 10 ListServ link.

Meet Robin Raines

Robin Raines is a Product Specialist for Nuance's Dragon Medical Implementation Team. Robin designs curriculum for customers, VARs and internal employees to learn how to manage and use Dragon Medical. Robin also works with the product development team to assist with new version releases and to communicate feature requests from our customers. Robin is a project lead for customer implementations including the US Army (AMED), and travels frequently to customer sites to analyze and create workflows, as well as determine the most efficient method to implement Dragon Medical.

Outside of Nuance Robin enjoys spending time with her husband and five children playing games, going to the beach or traveling to the mountains. Robin also enjoys singing and acting with local community theatre companies, listening to music, scrapbooking, and driving around in her purple Mini Cooper.

iSupport is a Proven Timesaver

iSupport is an Internet based support site where you can search our dynamic knowledge base for answers to your questions, access our library of operational manuals and quick reference guides, view the latest product enhancements and fixes, and submit online requests for service.

iSupport Content Update:

A number of important articles have been added or reissued with updated information to iSupport, as follows:

13564 Dragon Medical Recommendations for Optimizing Workstation Performance (reissued)
12715 Commands for shutting down Microsoft Windows using Dragon NaturallySpeaking (reissued)
12683 Can I use the Olympus DSS Player software with Dragon NaturallySpeaking? (reissued)
12651 Microsoft Outlook crashes when using HTML as the email format while Dragon Naturat is running (reissued)
12648 When using the "Spell" command a space may be omitted (reissued)
12597 Are Versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical User Profiles Interchangeable? (reissued)
13751 Unable to launch or error opening the Command (reissued)
13865 Dragon client, server, and audiomining SDK offerings
13862 Broken / Damaged Headset Process
12980 Uncorrected text remains on the screen after making a correction (reissued)
12698 Using Nuance Products on an Intel-based Mac (reissued)

Getting Started with iSupport:
Click here to access Nuance's iSupport website and get detailed information on how to register and use iSupport.