Mind-mapping software developer Mindjet and speech technologies company Nuance Communications have put together their respective expertise to launch a hands-free mind-mapping application for the desktop, VoxEnable.
The combination of Mindjet’s mind-mapping tool MindManager 8, and Nuance’s speech recognition software Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, has given a new voice-activated dimension to mind-mapping. VoxEnable was developed in partnership with software reseller and developer Citnexus.
MindManager 8 enables the user to capture, organise, and communicate data. Information can be consolidated from multiple sources onto a single map, and links from the internet added to the user’s map by browsing the web from within MindManager 8.
MindManager is said to be used by more than 1.5 million people including professionals, educators and home users for developing plans, and creating presentations.
With Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, small business and advanced PC users can surf the web by voice or dictate and edit in Microsoft Word and Excel, Corel WordPerfect, and other Windows-based applications. Users can also create voice commands to insert blocks of texts or images in a document. When the user is away from the PC, he can dictate into a handheld device.
“Mindjet and Nuance are recognised software innovators in their respective markets so by bringing the two technologies together with our VoxEnable application we have created a powerful productivity tool that is now completely voice-enabled,” said Ian Bourne of Citnexus.
VoxEnable has been incorporated with over 150 voice-enabled functions through which users can transcribe and create MindManager 8 visualisations. These visualisations can be changed, scrolled, scaled, zoomed, printed and exported by voice. Text can be dictated directly into topics with formatting, editing and search capabilities.
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To begin building a mind-map a user issues the instruction ‘new topic’ or ‘start brainstorm’ then the software tool starts building the map based on the voice-commands.
“Speech technology with mind-mapping is going to be a potent productivity combination. Imagine never having to scribe your thoughts and ideas down again but instead ‘energise’ the way ‘brainstorms’ or planning meetings are conducted,” Rob Furnivall of Mindjet UK said.
VoxEnable prices start at £129.
