Intelligent software that you can train to recognise your voice is available in the form of Kurzweil VOICE 2.0. Minimum system requirements include a 75MHz 486 PC with 8Mb of dedicated RAM (that is, in addition to OS and application requirements) for a 30,000-word vocabulary, or 16Mb for 60,000 words, plus 35Mb of free hard disk space. You'll also need a microphone and a sound card that's supported by VOICE, a Sound Blaster or compatible card is recommended.
Our testbed was a sound-enabled HiGrade Notino notebook.
You begin by enrolling, or pronouncing 480 given words: the words are claimed to cover every sound in the English language and comprise VOICE's reference vocabulary. Its a lengthy procedure, and training is an on-going process, but together they lead to considerably improved recognition and you can add new words to the vocabulary at any time.
Once added to the StartUp group, VOICE could, theoretically, be used as your sole input device. However, despite claims that accurate dictation speeds of up to 60wpm are possible on any Windows application, we were unable to reach this optimal speed. Although speed could improve with further training, the time taken to dictate a text document is partly due to the fact that the software relies on phoneme recognition. Without an awareness of grammar to help VOICE distinguish between homophones such as there and their, no amount of training can change the fact that such words frequently need to be corrected.
Unless you install TalkCommands, VOICE remains very US-oriented: for example, when punctuating your text, you have remember to say period rather than full-stop. As well as being more attuned to British English, the Talk Commands disk adds to the general functionality. It costs £85 (ex. VAT) extra.
Like the other Kurzweil VOICE dialog boxes, the Options dialog box can be controlled by voice. Using this dialog, you can adjust parameters affecting recognition, including the default speed-to-accuracy ratio. It's a trade-off, though: if you boost the speed, this will decrease recognition accuracy. You can also increase or decrease the word-match threshold, and reset the parameters for microphone and sidetone gain.
The trend towards open-plan working environments, together with the constraints of security, may mean that this application remains a complement to the keyboard rather than a replacement. However, it's an interesting product which is sure to be welcomed by RSI sufferers and others who find keyboard use difficult or impossible.
Alison Sweeney
Call Talking Technologies on 0171-602 4107
Price (ex. VAT) £495