Nuance Announces Major New Releases of Dragon for Windows and Mac OS X, Powered by Nuance Deep Learning TechnologyNuance Raises the Bar in Speech Recognition, Delivers Improved Productivity with New Features, Enhanced Recorded Audio Transcription and Up to 24% Greater AccuracyLONDON, UK. - August 16, 2016 - Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced its new suite of Dragon professional productivity solutions for PC and Mac that leverage Nuance Deep Learning technology to deliver upwards of 24 percent greater accuracy driving new levels of documentation productivity for professionals. The new Dragon releases include Dragon Professional Individual, version 15 and Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, version 6, and feature powerful dictation, transcription and customisation capabilities. All these solutions also sync vocabulary customisations and auto-texts with Nuance Dragon Anywhere, available separately, to extend the benefits of professional-grade speech recognition to mobile devices running iOS or Android.
Deep Learning is Ready for WorkDragon speech recognition accuracy, speed and personalisation have long set the standard for voice productivity on the Mac, PC and mobile devices. And with Deep Learning technology at the core of its speech engine, Dragon delivers increased accuracy for even more users, with an enhanced ability to learn the individuals’ voice patterns and accents, and deftly adapt to acoustics in open office or mobile environments. This latest Dragon release marks the first time Deep Learning capabilities can run embedded on a personal computer leveraging a users’ own speech data to improve their own language and acoustic model.
"Deep Learning is a powerful pattern recognition technique inspired by the way the human brain learns and interprets sensory input, which Nuance has leveraged to advance accuracy across our speech recognition technologies, including Dragon,” said Vlad Sejnoha, chief technology officer, Nuance Communications. “Training such Deep Neural Net models typically requires large amounts of training data and a high-performance computing environment. However, our new Dragon portfolio includes our latest breakthrough that allows Dragon’s Deep Neural Nets to continuously learn from the user’s speech during use on a standard personal computer, and drive accuracy rates in some instances up to 24 percent higher.”
The new Dragon also brings with it advanced transcription, powerful customisation, and an improved ability to work with portable touchscreen PCs, extending the benefits of speech recognition to more mobile use cases and environments. As a result, documents are completed with higher accuracy in a fraction of the time, giving professionals across a number of industries – such as legal, public safety, social services and education – the ability to focus more on mission-critical tasks.
Dragon Professional Individual, version 15Dragon Professional Individual, version 15 delivers additional usability and performance enhancements to give professionals the ability to get more done in less time. Designed for PCs, Dragon Professional Individual expands the boundaries of speech recognition innovation for document creation with accuracy improvements up to 24 percent, without training, over previous versions, as well as across-the-board enhancements, including:
- Optimisation for popular touchscreen PCs
- Formatting and other recognition improvements to minimise post-editing
- Simplified set up and improved user interface
- Enhanced support for recorded audio transcription, with streamlined setup and improved profile management
- Expanded support, including full voice-driven editing, formatting, and command and control within popular desktop or web applications for business
- Contextual guidance tailored to user behavior, as well as improved help to get new users up to speed quickly or for existing users to easily further discover the power of Dragon
Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, version 6 Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, version 6, empowers busy professionals to quickly and accurately complete documentation and reporting on the Mac by boasting accuracy improvements of up to 24 percent, without training, over previous versions. The solution features contextual guidance tailored to an individual’s usage, as well as improved help to get new users up to speed quickly or for existing users to easily further discover the power of Dragon.
In addition to enabling professionals to quickly and accurately dictate reports, spreadsheets, emails, and other documentation, the solution now offers a transcription Batch Mode to save time transcribing multiple audio files. Dragon Professional Individual for Mac also empowers users to work even more quickly and accurately by voice with support for Full Text Control within the latest business applications. Dragon Professional Individual for Mac leverages Apple’s Accessibility API to support Apple Pages, Apple Keynote, Apple Numbers, Microsoft Outlook 2016, and Scrivener, among others.
Additionally, Dragon Professional Individual and Dragon Individual Professional for Mac can be synchronised with the Dragon Anywhere mobile app for Android and iOS devices, enabling a powerful cross-device experience so that professionals can use the same vocabulary customisations and auto-text commands wherever they use Dragon.
“This latest suite of professional productivity solutions brings with it some of the most advanced capabilities to drive documentation productivity – with higher accuracy, speed and efficiency,” said Peter Mahoney, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Dragon. “Combined with Dragon’s optimisation for portable touchscreen PCs and the ability to sync with Dragon Anywhere, professionals are able to keep up with documentation demands from just about anywhere their business takes them.”
Availability and Pricing
Dragon Professional Individual, v15, will be available for download in English for £279.99 from September 1, 2016. Physical product shipments will be available by mid-September. Dragon Professional Individual is available for £149.99 for users upgrading from Dragon Professional Individual, version 14 and Dragon Professional, versions 12 and higher, and for £169.99 for users upgrading from Dragon Premium, versions 12 and higher. Additional details can be found here:
http://www.nuance.co.uk/for-business/by-product/dragon/dragon-for-the-pc/dragon-professional-individual/index.htmDragon Professional Individual for Mac, v6, will be available for download in English for £249.99 from September 1, 2016 with special upgrade pricing of £124.99 or registered users of Dragon Dictate for Mac, versions 4 and higher. Additional details can be found here:
http://www.nuance.co.uk/for-individuals/by-product/dragon-for-mac/software/index.htmMedia information and multimedia collateral are available via the Dragon Press Kit.
Join the conversation by liking Nuance on Facebook, following Nuance on Twitter at @NuanceUk, and subscribing to the What’s next blog.
