Q Could you comment on what is needed, hardware-wise, to make voice recognition software work effectively? How much speed, memory, etc.? What about the sound card -- is that important? Which software do you recommend, if any?

- John

A Voice recognition software has gotten quite a bit better over the last couple of years. It started out as pretty much a novelty, without much real use. Over the years, it's gotten a lot better. Of course, that means you need more hardware and a much faster processor. Let's take a look at the various options, shall we?

We'll look at four programs: Dragon Dictate, IBM ViaVoice, L&H Voice Xpress Plus, and Philips FreeSpeech98. Each of these requires a Pentium 166, 180M of hard drive space, and 32M of RAM. The reality is that you need at least a 200 MHz processor, 250M or hard drive space, and at least 64M of RAM. More is better. You also need at least a SoundBlaster 16, and a really good microphone.

In the early days, you... had... to... pause... between... every... word. This was truly painful. Nowadays, continuous speech is the thing they're all striving for. The ability to understand what someone is saying is incredibly complex and difficult. Computers are very bad at it, but they're slowly getting better. If you speak a little slowly and fairly succinctly, you'll find that most of the programs can follow continuous speech.

Accuracy is a real problem. They're all fairly close, ranging from Dragon Dictate's 91% to Phillips FreeSpeech98's 80%. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But even 90% means that one out of every ten words is wrong. So, as you can see, even with Dragon Dictate, you've still got a lot of work to do.

One thing that helps is to have a good microphone. Each voice recognition software package recommends one; they all recommend a microphone that reduces extraneous noise. I recommend that you get one in a headset. Very few people can hold a microphone so that your voice sounds clearest all the time. Most of them sell a package that includes a microphone; it's a good deal, since you get exactly the microphone you need.

Training takes time, and takes patience, too. Ostensibly, you're training the software. The reality is that you train each other. While you're training the software to understand the way you speak, you're training yourself on how to speak slowly and clearly.

All the programs integrate with Word 97, so you can just sit back with your feet up and talk your way through your day. Check with the manufacturer to make sure that the product you buy is compatible with Windows 2000.

I use Dragon System's product personally. It seems to be the best for my purposes, which is to write stuff like this. They've also won over 50 awards, so lots of other people think they're pretty good, too.

Actually, on a personal note, I don't usually dictate; I usually type. I've spent most of my life typing, and I compose best when I'm typing. It takes practice and dedication to learn to dictate as opposed to simply speaking. But it's good for those of us with carpal tunnel.

Dragon Naturally Speaking: http://www.lhsl.com/naturallyspeaking/ IBM ViaVoice: http://www-4.ibm.com/software/speech/ Philips Speech Recognition: http://www.speechrecognition.philips.com/

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