Speech recognition products that have many uses

Speech Recognition: Finding its Voice PC Mag

One year after a major technological breakthrough, continuous-speech recognition is poised to become a viable business tool.

Olympus D1000 Digital Voice Recorder

If you like to dictate while on the go, now you can let your computer transcribe your notes. The Olympus D1000 Digital Voice Recorder ($200 street), from Olympus America, is a hand-held digital voice recorder that records onto removable Flash Memory Miniature Cards. Using the 2MB card that comes in the D1000's box, you can record up to 16 minutes in standard mode or 34 minutes in long mode (IBM's ViaVoice requires that you use standard mode).

You can purchase larger flash cards, which allow for lengthier record times, separately. Conveniently, the D1000 is set up like a traditional dictation tape recorder, with standard transport controls. The D1000 can be purchased with IBM's ViaVoice speech recognition software included in the package. Using this package ($300 street), you can plug the recorder into your computer's audio card line-in adapter and have your computer type what you recorded.

Sony MZ-R50 Portable MiniDisc Player/Recorder

Sony Electronics' MZ-R50 Portable MiniDisc Player/Recorder ($350 street) also lets you record dictation while on the go. However, the MZ-R50 records to MiniDiscs that use ATRAC compression, allowing for up to 74 minutes in stereo or 148 minutes in mono (which is sufficient for dictation) per disk.

The MZ-R50 includes a hand-held, tandem microphone and controller, so you don't have to handle the actual recorder or hold it up to your face. Like Olympus, Sony has also struck a deal with a leading speech recognition software vendor: Dragon Systems. The MZ-R50 can easily be used in conjunction with Dragon NaturallySpeaking and is being bundled with the latest versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Suite for Legal or Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Suite Medical ($1,295 list).

Andrea Electronics Corp.'s ANC-700/750

How well speech recognition software works depends on the quality of microphone that you use. Though most speech recognition products are bundled with a microphone, you might opt for a better one. The benefits can range from greater ease of use to better recognition.

Andrea ProVoiceSolutions ANC-700 ($100 street) and ANC-750 ($120 street), feature Active Noise Cancellation, a mute button, and an easy to adjust ultra-flex boom. When used with the Andrea ConnectSolutions Personal Computer/Telephone Headset Interface ($149.95 list), your Andrea headset can be plugged into your PC and telephone simultaneously, providing one simple voice input solution.

Philips Electronics' SpeechMike Pro

Philips Electronics North America Corp. has taken a different approach with its SpeechMike Pro. A combination hand-held microphone, trackball, and speaker, the SpeechMike Pro ($150, direct) also includes special command-and-control buttons that prove useful when you're dictating a document.

With cursor and command controls right under your thumb, you'll have no problem selecting where you want to insert or edit text. The SpeechMike plugs into an available serial port and can coexist with your current pointing device.

Surf with Your Lips

By integrating speech recognition with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, Conversational Computing Corp.'s Conversá Web ($40 street) provides a hands-free web surfing experience.

Using continuous speech recognition technology, Conversá Web allows you simply to say the name of a link that appears in a Web page you're viewing--your browser will jump to that link. To handle hyperlinked images, Conversá Web inserts numbered tags--termed Saycons--with each image that can be used as a link.

Tired of talk radio?

Perhaps you'd rather put your driving time to better use, with Clarion Corporation of America's AutoPC. The AutoPC ($1,299 list) integrates Microsoft Windows CE and speech recognition with typical car audio system components.

Using a vocabulary of over 200 words, this in-dash stereo system gives you access to e-mail, news and information, navigation, and a phone book that will dial for you--all by voice commands, leaving your hands free to drive. The AutoPC delivers information on a 256- by 64-pixel display and through text-to-speech technology, which will read the displayed information to you. So while driving, you can retrieve your e-mail and have the AutoPC read it to you.

Please Note!
The article above was released by PC Magazine at http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/speech98/index.html