Voice recognition software has been around for many years, and every year it gets much more impressive. Until now if you were using OSx, your choices have been pretty sparse. MacSpeech Dictate Pro is a port of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 that maintains a native Macintosh application feel. We got our copy and this week and we’ve been playing with it ever since.

While the MacSpeech Pro website has a small list of recommended microphones, but we just use a regular old Logitech USB Microphone and so far it’s been going great!

While in older versions of speech recognition software, users spent hours upon hours training the software to their voice. With MacSpeech Dictate, the training process took about 10 minutes. Of course we were skeptical that 10 minutes of training would be enough, so we put it to the test. To our amazement, the accuracy after just 10 minutes of training is incredibly good. Did I mention that we’re using it to type this very article? So far this article has gotten just 3 words wrong. Fixing mistakes as you speak is very fluid. If as you’re typing you see a phrase that was incorrect, all you have to say is ’scratch that’ and it will undo what it just typed. You can also step back word by word by saying ’scratch word’.

When it comes to accuracy, most programs that do speech-recognition have a bad reputation of making people talk like robots. We felt that we were able to talk fairly naturally, although we do find that against our Will we need to use decent grammar and actually articulate words. The take away is that you want to sound more like a news anchor than a robot. News anchors are of course known for saying every syllable and not slurring their speech too much, as that makes their voice easier to decipher over the microphone.

Application launching with MacSpeech Dictate is as simple as saying ‘open firefox’ or ‘open calculator’. All of the applications in your application folder are already automatically loaded in as shortcuts, so it requires no configuration. Many other shortcuts are already configured such as “Expose all Windows”, “capture screen”, “cut selection”, or “file new”. MacSpeech Dictate also comes with a slew of commands for Finder, iCal, Mail, Safari, and text edit. It works by having commands bound to AppleScript commands, which means you can create macros with custom voice commands to control any application you have that can be controlled with the keyboard. Anyone familiar with how powerful AppleScript is knows what a killer feature this is.

As far as speed is concerned, the dictation process runs very quickly and takes up very little CPU time. We’re using a Mac Pro desktop, with 4 cores, and the overall CPU usage never spikes over 10%. On a typical Macintosh laptop, I wouldn’t be surprised if CPU usage spiked up to 30-40% when speaking; but for a tool that is most useful when dictating e-mails and documents, that’s okay.

The question that we have to answer here at RSSstuff.com is will this program help and how frustrating is it? I believe that if you speak clear English, the MacSpeech Dictate will surprise you. Now we still find that we want to use the keyboard and mouse for certain tasks such as surfing the Internet, document editing, and typing things that we don’t want to say out loud.. But for dictating e-mails and documents, MacSpeech Pro is exactly what we’ve been looking for. For $200, this program packs a very mature engine under the hood. Since MacSpeech Dictate uses the same engine as Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, you can expect the same level of quality from both products.

Although the Logitech g11/g15 keyboard was designed for gamers, we found huge potential for people who use the computer a lot for document editing and web browsing. The key is on the left hand side with 18 additional buttons that are completely programmable. By mapping the keys to common keystrokes you can greatly reduce how many keys you hit. This will not only help you work faster, but reduce how many keystrokes you make overall.

Lets start with the keys. The pressure needed to push a key down on this guy is rated at 50 KOF (grams of force). Most keyboards range between 40-120 KOF which means that the g11/g15 registers a keypress very lightly which is very good for you hands. Why does this matter? The grams of force per key push is very little, but accumulated over time, the difference of how hard your finger has to work to press the key can have a huge affect on your hands’ overall fatigue.

About the layout.. The g11/g15 does not have what we stereotypically consider an ergonomic layout. It’s just a high quality traditional keyboard with extra macro keys. Some people (in particular those with wrist pain) need a slanted/natural keyboard layout, and if that’s you, then perhaps this keyboard isn’t for you. If the pain is in your fingers from making too many keystrokes, then this keyboard presents a way to continue your normal work uninterrupted, and simply automate things to minimize it.

A typical use case and how you might set up your macros. Lets say your day primarily consists of document editing and surfing the internet. If you look at the image above, you’ll see how I mapped my macro’s out.

g1-g6 correspond to ctrl-1 through ctrl-6. This is for switching tabs in firefox. Now you have single buttons to switch b/t the first 6 tabs of firefox without using the mouse.

g9 is a shortcut for save (ctr-s)

g12 is a shortcut for refresh (refresh the page in firefox ctr-r)

g13 is a shortcut for copy (ctr-c)

g14 is a shortcut for cut (ctr-x)

g15 is a shortcut for paste (ctr-v)

g16 is a shortcut for undo (ctr-z)

g17 is a shortcut for select all (ctr-a)

g18 is a shortcut for alt-tab (to switch between applications)

Every time you can cut 2 keystrokes down to one, you’re making progress. There’s infinite variations on how you could map your keys.. This is just an example of how I have mine set up. The bottom line is that setting up macros will make you faster, reduce # of key presses, and reduce mouse movement, all of which are good for your hands. One of my favorite work flows is to use this keyboard for the macros, but set it up as a DVORAK keyboard.

Have you created any good key mappings on your g11/g15? Post below:

The QWERTY keyboard layout may be what you’re used to, but it’s not the best for your repetitive stress injury. DVORAK and Maltron keyboard layouts are designed to reduce overall finger movement and relieve stress on your hands. For some people, alternative keyboard layouts have been key to their recovery.

Lets start with a brief history lesson on how the QWERTY keyboard layout was created. In the 1870’s when typewriters were being invented, the biggest problem was the tendency of the typebars to clash and jam if struck in rapid succession. In other words typing too fast would jam the typewriter, so the inventor rearranged the letters until he found the perfect layout that spaced out the commonly used characters away from each other, thus reducing how often things get jammed. Some people say it was designed to make typing slower.

The Dvorak layout is a completely different key layout designed to address the problems of inefficiency and fatigue which characterized the QWERTY keyboard layout. The idea is that reducing hand movement when typing which will make us not only type faster, but cause less stress on our hands over time.

DVORAK places the most commonly used characters on the home row. Words like ‘the’, ‘has’, ‘do’, ’so’, ‘no’, ‘to’, ‘and’ can all be typed without moving your finger up or down a row. The next lesser common characters are on the upper row, and the least common are mostly on the bottom row. The idea is that reaching up to the next row is less stressful than reaching down a row. It’s also designed so that typing often alternates each button push alternating between hands, thus evening out the load a little bit better. I should note that for those who type with one hand, they also have single handed versions of the DVORAK layout that put the common characters all to one side.

There was never strong enough of a movement in society to shift everyone from the QWERTY to the DVORAK layout like some had hoped. Fortunately for you, you don’t have to live with the de facto standard (QWERTY) because every modern operating system including Windows & Mac have native support for turning you current keyboard into a DVORAK keyboard. You can even buy a keyboard with the DVORAK layout if you so choose, but it’s not crucial if you learn to touch type. Here’s instructions on how to set up DVORAK on a Windows PC or Mac OSX.

So what is the Maltron layout? Maltron Keyboards is a manufacturer of specialty ergonomic keyboards. They’ve been around since the 70’s and became well known for a concave keyboard design that follows the contour of your hands. Interestingly, their engineers invented a completely unique keyboard layout that’s specifically tailored towards reducing stress on your hands. This layout is best illustrated on their executive keyboard.

[.. The use of the Maltron letter layout reduces the amount of individual finger movements required to type and the vertically aligned keys reduce the sideways micro movements which are very stressful on the fingers. ..]

Unfortunately we don’t yet have a Maltron keyboard for testing yet, but we did procure a DVORAK keyboard and put it to the test.

The question we always ask at RSI Stuff is will this make a difference with my RSI? I went under cover to answer that question and at the time of writing, I have been on DVORAK for 6 months now. Since I was a very fast QWERTY touch typist, I have to say learning DVORAK was miserable. You just about have to give up your QWERTY skills to switch because your muscle memory really only has room for one layout per keyboard form factor.

It’s an all in or all out type of proposition, but if you’re very dedicated to learning, it’s worth it. I’d describe the impact to RSI as a small to medium difference depending on how exactly you hands hurt. You still have to push the same number of keys with the same pressure per push as before, so getting the right ergonomic keyboard is still very important. DVORAK simply reduces overall movement, which has a subtle and pleasant impact over time. Now that I’m over the learning curve I can see myself being pretty content to stick with using DVORAK.

After a full day of typing every day for 8 hrs, my hands don’t ache near as much as they used to. The change is subtle enough that I didn’t notice anything different 3 months in. However after ~6 months, it’s becoming evident that there’s something to DVORAK. I’ve read dozens of stories from people with RSI who made the switch such as this one and the consensus is that the learning curve is frustrating, but that long term the benefits are well worth it. Some people claim it cured their RSI, and others say it just helped a good bit. Results vary from person to person.

If you’ve already found the right keyboard, still feeling pain from the muscle movement, and you’re willing to do whatever you can to relieve the pain from typing, then switching to an ergonomic focused keyboard layout is quite likely a good move for you. For those who suffer from RSI, there’s dozens of small things you can do to make it better from stretching to massage to better keyboards to a better chair. Learning a different keyboard layout is one change you can make that often goes overlooked due to the learning curve, but it certainly has a positive impact.

Here at RSI Stuff we’ve tried several vertical mice from the Joysticks to the Plastics, but neither of them treated us as well as the Evoluent Vertical Mouse. The concept is simple, take a normal mouse, and turn it on it’s side so that you hold your hand in the handshake position. For some people, tilting their wrist to use a normal mouse makes it ache over time, and that’s exactly what this mouse aims to solve.

With a normal mouse your wrist sits on the table with your hand bent up, using your fingers to move the mouse around. With the Evoluent Vertical Mouse, your wrist no longer sits on the table because you hand sits on the mouse with you thumb as a brace. You actually move the mouse by moving your arm, thereby no longer stressing you wrist. Simply put, if your wrist on your mousing hand hurts, this is a good alternative mouse to try out and at < $70 on amazon, it's pretty affordable.

Here at RSI Stuff, the question is always: Is this the cure to my repetitive stress discomfort. As always it's neither black or white, although in this case we're pretty impressed. Let's talk about it:

For this review I'll mention two common types of pain from using a mouse. One is called trigger-finger where the mere act of clicking has made your index finger sore. The vertical mouse won't help you there because you still click just like any other mouse. The other common pain is from sitting your wrist on the hard table all day while you move the mouse. A common solution is to elevate your wrist to the same height as the top of the mouse (so your wrist isn't bent) with a mouse pad hand rest. Some people find those comfortable, and some don’t. If thats You, you should most definately consider giving the Evoluent a shot.

Yours truely has been on the Evoluent Vertical Mouse for 8 months and counting, and I’m pretty happy with it. It’s reasonably well made, lightweight, and comfortable to use for 8hrs a day. The scroll wheel leaves a little to be desired, but if your hand hurts, then the pros outweigh the cons. It does take a little getting used to, but it’s no where near as foreign as say an alphagrip and it feels fairly natural after just a couple days’ use.

The AlphaGrip is one of the most unique keyboards on the market, taking the form factor of a gaming controller. It has all the keys from a standard layout and a trackball to use with your thumb. Comming in at $100, it’s not the cheapest keyboard we’ve seen, but compared to some of the other specialty keyboards on the market, it’s not too shabby either.

So here at RSI Stuff, the big question is: Is this the keyboard I’ve been looking for to help with my typing injury? The answer is neither black or white, so lets talk about it.

When using the AlphaGrip the first bit of relief I felt was being able to hold my hands in a completely different positon than a traditional mouse and keyboard. It also enables you to kick back in you chair, stand up, lay down, or choose any position for you body you’re in the mood for. One of the best things you can do for repetitive stress injuries is, well, be less repetitive about it; and this device enables you to move around a lot more easily while you work. While there are several keyboards and mice on the market that put you hands in a vertical position, this is the first usable device we’ve seen where it’s all in one unit.

The keys are pretty easy to push. The pressure needed to push a key down on this guy is rated at 80 KOF (grams of force needed to push the key in). Most keyboards range between 40-120 KOF so that puts the Alphagrip right in the middle. Why does this matter? 80 grams of force is very little, but accumulated over time, the difference of how hard your finger has to work to press the key can lead to fatigue. Too low of a number and the keyboard will feel unresponsive and a number too high will be clunky and strenuous. For our sake, and given the form factor, a rating of 80 is pretty decent and has a very natural feel to it.

Unfortunately, the trackball is somewhat low quality, so precision leaves a bit to be desired. Compared to other trackballs, they could have done a little better. It’s also slow, even with the speed turned up all the way, so I found it taxed my thumb a bit more than a normal logitech trackball.

How hard is this keyboard to get used to? I’m a computer programmer, so on a slow week I brought it into work and forced myself to learn trial by fire. It took ~5 days before I knew where all the keys were. It took another 3 weeks before I built up much speed. I ended up using it for 6 months, and although I never got as fast as I am on a normal keyboard, I was able to get fast enough that I was satisfied. The nice thing is that the odd form factor is different enough from your normal keyboard that learning it doesn’t have a huge impact on your normal typing abilities.

I’m going to get very subjective for the long term use part because everyone’s RSI is a little different. I used the device for about 6 months and it was a good 6 months. The welcome change up to my normal setup nearly saved me from having to take a leave of absence, but after 6 months, I found that I’d traded one set of pains for another. If you ever played halo on the original xbox for hours on end, you may have noticed your hands got cramp just because of how large the controller is. The alpha grip is even bigger and holding it in your hands for 8 hours a day was a little much for me.

If you’re is search of the magic bullet and you have enough will power to learn a completely new keyboard layout, I say the Alphagrip is a good candidate, and they offer a 30 day return policy. For casual use it’s wonderful. For heavy use, I suggest combining it with an ergonomic keyboard & mouse and swapping between the 2 setups throughout the day. Some people use the alphagrip to surf the web and their normal keyboard for typing a lengthy email for example. And yes, you can have the Alphagrip and another keyboard plugged in at the same time. Switching between the 2 is merely a matter of putting it down, and if you’re lucky, the added variation to your daily computing routine might be what makes the difference for you.

Mouseless Browsing With Firefox

For those who surf the web, but find discomfort when using the mouse, here is one alternative to surfing with a mouse. It works by having a shortcut key which when pressed, it shows a number next to every link on the screen. Then by punching in the number for which link you want, it registers a click, and takes you there.

This is a free firefox browser addon. If you don’t already have firefox, download it for free. Once installed, get the firefox mouseless browsing addon https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/879