Nuance Releases a Gaming Speech Command Set

Today, Nuance Communications released a Dragon Gaming Speech Pack. Using Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition, gamers can use voice commands to control PC games. Nuance hopes using speech will make games more exciting and realistic.

Gamers can use speech to move, reload, jump, open doors, run, and more. Nuance says that it will enable gamers to not have to remember complex key strokes, making the game more intuitive. Developed in conjunction with VoxEnable, voice commands will give gamers using Dragon a competitive advantage in a variety of games, the company asserts.

More than that, Peter Mahoney, vice president and general manager of Dragon products at Nuance, contends that if a user spends a lot of time in a given application, there should be a way to make it better and more effective. He also notes that Nuance was motivated to develop a speech tool for games when it saw serious gamers were willing to spend as much as $80 to get a special mouse just to get a competitive edge. “If you could be a little more effective as a gamer, you can get a higher score," Mahoney says. "They [gamers]tend to be quite competitive people, so that makes a pretty big difference for people in the game space. We're very excited about it.”

When asked how much users will have to learn to use the speech commands, Mahoney points out that users will be given a cheat sheet with a list of commands. “The commands were developed based on our research and feedback from gamers about the most valuable commands. There are videos and command sheets on the Nuance Web site (Nuance.com/dragon/gaming).” he says.

What sets Dragon’s speech-enabled games apart from other new gaming systems, like Microsoft's Kinect, is that a user gets the whole package: Dragon dictation for desktop with the choice of three games for an introductory offer $74.99 (retail: $129.99). More games will become available in the future, Mahoney states. Also, this system is specifically designed for a PC.

“The specialized command set allows you to get the full advantage and see benefits for gaming, but get the full benefit for using Dragon,” Mahoney states. “The big difference is that it’s Dragon!”

Available games include Call of Duty, Mass Effect 2, Medal of Honor, MS Flight Simulator X, Pacific Poker, Second Life, Tom Clancy Rainbow 6 Vegas 2, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Convictions, Warhammer, World of Warcraft, and more.