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Speech Recognition

We all laughed in 1986 when Star Trek’s Scotty, who had travelled back in time to San Francisco, tried talking to an Apple Mac computer using its mouse.

The concept of computers that can converse with human beings is as old as science fiction itself, but was popularised by Arthur C Clarke in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek.

You may be surprised to read that it was pioneered in 1952 and, that if you are running any of Microsoft’s three most recent operating systems, Windows 7, Vista and XP, you already have speech recognition software on your machine.

In XP it’s a little bit clunky but with a good external microphone, it’s usable, and it gets better with Vista and 7.

"HELLO, COMPUTER"

It’s not something Microsoft shouts about, which means many people who are just curious about the capabilities of their machine go out and buy a feature rich package, like Dragon NaturallySpeaking when Windows’ inbuilt abilities are more than sufficient for their needs.

To set up the Speech Recognition feature in Windows left click on the Windows Orb in the bottom left of your computer screen with your mouse pointer. Left click on Control Panel, Ease of Access and Speech Recognition and a new window will open.

The first time you run it click “Set up microphone”. Windows will detect all the microphones connected to your computer, including your webcam. To get the best results you need a microphone built into a headset but don’t go and buy one until you are sure you want to persist. Use your webcam microphone for the time being.

In Windows 7 click on “Take Speech Tutorial” to learn more about what Windows 7 can do, and then click “Train your computer to better understand you”. It’s not necessary, but will improve the accuracy when you dictate a letter or email.

GOOD REFERENCES

There’s even a Speech Reference Card, which you can open and print from this window, which includes common commands. To click on something, like the File tab in Microsoft Word for example, say “Click File”.

It’s ideal for slow typists, or people with a disability that stops them from using a keyboard, but most professional typists would type quicker than they can dictate.

SET FOR KIWI

If Windows is enough for your needs, nip out and get a headset microphone. If not, try Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 11 which recently hit the shelves. It included a New Zealand accent setting that’s not really necessary, since the previous version delivers 99 per cent accuracy when used by Kiwis on US or UK English with its dedicated headset.

NaturallySpeaking has been available to the mass market since 1997, when the first version hit the shelves of computer stores.

You can use it to open software, such as Outlook Express. Outlook or Windows Live Mail, and dictate and send an email. Uttering “Open Microsoft Word 2010” will open the word processing software into which you can dictate your letter.

Like the Speech Recognition feature in Windows using NaturallySpeaking is nowhere near as fast as a professional typist but probably speedier than a lot of home personal computer users.