My computer set up

In the past few months, I’ve been tinkering with my computer set up.

First I upgraded my voice recognition from Dragon Naturally Speaking 10. I was able to get a copy of Dragon naturally speaking 12 home on sale. I’m finding it to be greatly improved, both in features and accuracy.

I added a tetra mouse months ago, which works off of the USB port.

The combination of Dragon and the tetra mouse allows me to navigate the computer hands-free.

The only remaining difficulty has been the position of the laptop, since the tetra mouse obstructs my view of the screen at times. And I’ve been so busy that I have just been craning my neck around trying to deal with this for way too long.

So I spent yesterday trying out various solutions, such as using a monitor, raising or lowering the laptop, placing the laptop in different locations, etc.   Every time I changed the position of the laptop, it affected which type of microphone I could use for voice recognition, since I don’t have a wireless microphone. I get very good results with wired foldable Plantronics headphones and/or the Buddy laptop microphone and really don’t want the additional cost of going wireless right now.

So I decided that purchasing a USB hub would be a smart idea, since I can try placing it in various locations, extending the reach of my microphones. I also like the idea of being able to plug in various devices while my aides are here – and keep them plugged in.

I’m still not sure which positioning is going to be optimal, but I will say this – as far as hands-free operation goes, the combination of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 and the Tetra mouse is superb.

The rest, as they say, is just details.

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