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From: Mark Conrad on 25 Jan 2010 23:44

This post will clear up the confusion about what
"Words Per Minute" means, when applied to
Speech Recognition apps, such as MacSpeech.

MacSpeech often advertises their app as being able
to take speech dictation at 160 wpm.

What exactly does that mean?

If you were typing instead of using
speech recognition, wpm would mean:

http://www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php


Term wpm is confusing, few people
are certain exactly what 160 wpm means,
when applied to speech recognition.

Typing rules are an accurate way of determining
_typing_ speed, however applying a typing test
to speech recognition is far from ideal, because
there are differences between typing and dictation.

There is no _really_ accurate way to determine
the speed of a speech recognition app.

There are just too many variables in the way we
speak, to allow us to arbitrarily use "wpm" to mean
precise speed.

For example, if one user dictated a lot of tongue-
twisters such as:
"Sue sells sea shells by the sea shore"
....then we of course would expect his speed to suffer,
compared to another user who is dictating easier words.

Bottom line, be suspect of wpm claims.



The "typing method" of determining speed:

http://www.typeonline.co.uk/typingspeed.php

....is fairly accurate when applied to dictation of
"everyday words", whatever everyday-words mean. <g>


Now it is recreation time, you deserve it if you
have read this far in the post.

You wanna dictate at 285 wpm, no problem :)

Many people can speak "bee bee bee bee bee"
fairly quickly.

It is also a fairly easy matter to say:

bee bee bee bee bee...
bee bee bee bee bee...
bee bee bee bee bee...
bee bee bee bee bee...
bee bee bee bee bee...
bee bee bee bee bee


....with the tiniest possible pauses between the
groups of 5. (try not to pause at all)


You have just spoken 90 "characters" and 29 spaces
in 5 seconds, a total of 119 "things".

The definition of wpm says you get to divide the
number of things by 5.

119 divided by 5 = 23.8 "standardized words".

....or if you had been able to dictate for a
full minute instead of 5 seconds:

12 x 5 = 285.6 wpm. Congratulations!

(don't even try to dictate for
a full minute, way too confusing)

Don't worry about MacSpeech mistaking your "bee"
as something else, it is quite possible to instruct
MacSpeech ahead-of-time that you desire "bee" instead
of "be" or "B".


Still with me?

Want something more challenging for your speed test?

You *WILL* be able to dictate 15 repetitions
of this word:

hepaticocholangiocholecystenterostomies

....in 60 seconds time, using MacSpeech

....at the "standardized words" rate of 120 wpm

....with nary a letter out of place, no errors.




For correct pronunciation of that word click on
the tiny speaker icon at this website:

<http://www.answers.com/topic/hepaticocholangiocholecystenterostomies>

(there is one error at the website, they say
the word is 37 characters long, is is really 39,
they were referring to the singular version
of that word, the singular version ends
with "...stomy" instead of "...stomies")




Details needed to pull this off this feat will be
furnished upon request.

A keyboard typist would find it impossible
to match your speed, she would have to type
flawlessly at 120 wpm.

Mark-
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