Transcription software
Transcription software assists in the conversion of human speech into a text transcript. The primary meaning of the term "transcription software" has changed over time, with the introduction of new technologies such as natural language speech recognition. References also depend on the purpose for the transcript. The term "transcription software" can refer to a completely automated solution, or to software which helps a human transcriber manually convert spoken audio into text transcripts. In the latter case, the term digital dictation is sometimes used.
Transcription software, as with transcription services, is often provided for business, legal, or medical purposes. Compared with audio content, a text transcript is searchable, takes up less computer memory, and can be used as an alternate method of communication, such as for closed captions.
The definition of transcription "software", as compared with transcription "service", is that the former is sufficiently automated that a user can run the entire system without engaging outside personnel. However, the advent of software-as-a-service and cloud computing models blur this distinction.
Transcription software products and vendors
A number of transcription software tools are available for research and/or for commercial use:
Automatic (Natural Language Recognition) tools
- AuditorySciences.com's Interact-AS
- CMU Sphinx - A robust Open Source speech recognition system developed at Carnegie Mellon University
- Digital Syphon - Sonic Extractor
- Koemei - Provides machine transcription, true video search and analytics based on the extracted text. The functionality is accessible via APIs
- Nuance - Dictaphone, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, eScription, MacSpeech Scribe, PowerScribe
- S.Scribe! - Speech-to-Text Software
- Scribe Healthcare Technologies
- Synthema SpeechScribe - Speech-to-Text Software and Service
- Textshark - Speech to text software suite and SaaS
- Vocapia - VoxSigma speech-to-text software suite and SaaS[1]
- VoiceBase, Inc.'s VoiceBase.com SaaS APIs, web application, and mobile apps for automated machine and human transcription
- Yap Speech Cloud - Speech-to-text platform acquired by Amazon.com
Manual tools (digital dictation, transcription assistants)
- f4transkript (Windows) and f5transkript (OS X) by audiotranskription.de
- InqScribe by Inquirium
- NCH Software - Express Scribe
- MAXQDA - Qualitative analysis software with a fully developed transcription tool.
- MPScribe - Speech-to-Text service (SaaS), available in European Portuguese [2]
- pmTrans
- ResearchWare, Inc.'s HyperTRANSCRIBE
- Transana
- Sony Digital Voice Editor
- Transcriber-pro
- TranscriptionGear.com's GearPlayer
- Wreally's Transcribe