Voice Recognition Software Essay, Research Paper

Voice recognition software systems are getting a lot closer in meeting goals of people with dictation needs. Voice recognition systems today can be used by anyone of any profession, unlike old voice recognition software where only certain professions like doctors, could use them. Several companies have came out with products that have changed voice recognition software.

A breakthrough software and the first truely continuous speech general purpose , large vocabulary voice recognition system is the Dragon NaturallySpeaking system. Dragon gives you fast performance with high accuracy. You can compose e-mail messages, create reports, draft letters, and edit proposals by just speaking to your computer. This software can used by almost anyone. This program accepts speech of 160 words per minute at a high 90% range.

Training time for Dragon Software takes about twenty to forty minutes to train the system to your voice. After a couple of hours you’re able to dicate 65 to 120 words per minute. As of right now Dragon NaturallySpeaking cost anywhere from $349-$199. System requirements include: 133 MHz Pentium Processor, IBM-compatible PC, Window 95, NT 3.51 or 4.0, SoundBlaster 16 sound card, 60 MB.

In later editions of Dragon software they plan to have a multiuser suport and better command and control. Another feature Dragon plans to come out with is different language software. Some features that come with Dragon NaturallySpeaking are you don’t have to pause in between words, dialects, accents and individual pronunciations are quickly and automatically, a large 30,000 word active vocabulary contains words and names that cover awide range of subject, less commons words can be quickly retrieved from a 200,000+ word back-up dictionary, new words can be added by the Vocabulary Builder tool and can be added simply by saying them and spelling them once.

Dragon has some other voice recognition softwares like DragonDictate wich is almost like NaturallySpeaking but a little less complicated. DragonDictate you can create numerous documents without using the keyboard all at lower cost than Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

IBM wanted came out with some sucessful speech recognition software like IBM MedSpeak/Radiology and ViaVoice. IBM MedSpeak is compatible with large hospital mainframes as well as well with stand alone diagnostic centers.

IBM wanted to come out with a software to compete against Dragon NaturallySpeaking, so they came up with ViaVoice. ViaVoice has some of the same features of Dragon NaturallySpeaking But it lacks one major feature, editing. You have to spell out the word you want to correct. ViaVoice, unlike Dragon, supports multiple users. Training for ViaVoice takes from 20 to 40 minutes.

IBM claims ViaVoice has a 97% accuracy rate with a 24,000-word vocabulary, expandable up to 64,000 words. The ViaVoice system starts at $200.

Philip’s speech Processing has several products for Radiologist, Orthopedic Surgeons, Emergency Physicians, as well as legal contexts for Litigation and Bankruptcy. The prices for these systems range from $5,000 to $10,000, But they are planing to lower their prices to under $5,000. Philip’s is planing to come out with a general purpose voice recognition software. But the price will be a little steep.

Kurzweil has came out with a few cheap speech recognition called Kurzweil VoicePad, VoicePlus, and Kurzweil VoicePro. These run for around $50 and are for students who do not have the money to buy expesive hardware to run the more sophisticated continuous speech programs.

Voice recognition can offer you benefits in just about every aspect of your life. Voice recognition software can make you smarter by you learning skills you did not previously have and it can teach you to spell better. The software gives you fewer mis-spellings. It also gives more free time because it’s quicker and you get done faster. It can save you money if have a secratary that types up your papers, you can do it yourself. It can help you out medically by preventing you from getting Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Voice recognition software can decrease document turn around your office.

Voice recognition software has some good along with some bad ones like sometimes voice recognition software can get frustrating. The Dragon systems don’t allow you to dictate on other programs but its own and ViaVoice doesn’t allow for hands free editing.The good points far out weigh the bad ones.

Speech recognition has come a long way in the past couple of years and the technology of the computer understanding you is still way off, but we’re getting closer.