Val Chapman wrote:
>>Apologies for having inadvertently wiped David's most recent e-mail 
>>on this subject - does anyone have the name of the voice recognition 
>>software  which was recommended? The cost and a contact telephone 
>>number for purchase would also be useful.

I do not remember David having a specific recommendation. I thnk that it is
a bit horses for courses. Here for what it is worth is my current thinking
on the subject, as of today. Products and prices change on a practically
weekly basis.  All coments welcome. We sell all systems mentioned.
Apologies for the length.

IBM VoiceType Simply Speaking (VTSS) UKP49.99 incl VAT

Very good "out-of-the box"  recognition, and the simplest to learn and to
use, because it only offers dictation, not voice control and editiing.(A
disadvantage of voice control, for beginners, is that dictation can be
interpreted as a command, causing "why the **** has it done that"
puzzlement syndrome). You can only dictate into its own simple WordPad.
Easy to learn but limited in functionaility. Works quite well with
textHELP! for proofreading. Not suitable for people with mobility problems
as you have to be able to use the keyboard and mouse. Good only for
dictating chunks of text. No good for spreadsheets/databases etc. To do
sophisticated editing you have to import files into, say Word, and then
edit by hand. When it makes recognition errors, the correct word is quite
likely to be in its list of alternatives (which you have to be able to
read). But if not, you have to enter the correct word complete, without any
help from the program. This can be difficult for a poor speller. Needs
Win95 or NT4 and Pentium. No need for training the system if you speak
clearly with "received pronunciation" (BBC speak). A nice feature of VT is
that it plays back your actual spoken words (as opposed to what it thinks
you said). This is useful a) to remind you what you said; b) to tell
whether you dictated properly.If not, it is not worth getting VT to record
the correction, as you will probably not dictate the word in the same way
another time. It has a 30,000 word "active vocabulary" (and you can add
27,000 of your own), which means that there is 3 times as much chance of it
recognising a rarer word as, say, Dragon Solo, which only has 10,000 words
active. The other reason for its good recognition is that it takes the
following word into account, as well as the preceding one (so that it
changes its mind as it gets more information.) This means that you dictate
a whole sentence or paragraph before you correct, rather than correcting as
you see errors (with Dragon or Kurzweil). This arguably suits many dyslexic
people, who have short term memory problems so that they like to get it all
down first and correct later. I do not think that the Andrea microphone is
as good as the ones that you get with Dragon. (Less robust, doesn't fit
different shaped heads so well). 

IBM VoiceType Simply Speaking GOLD UKP99 incl VAT

This is a slightly simplified and somewhat improved version of VT 3.00
which cost UKP555 (+VAT) a week ago! Same (slightly improved?) recognition
engine as VTSS, so most of the above also applies. I have just dictated my
first two sentences, untrained, 100% correct (but I am an experienced
dictator. Beginners won't get such good results). Allows dictation directly
into, eg, Word (including Word 97), and voice control of Windows and
editing. You can also save your dictation for later correction (or
correction by somebody else).
If you get the full GOLD product you can start off with just the simple
VoicePad application, as in Simply Speaking, for ease of learning. Having
mastered it and mastered dictation, you can then move on to the added
productivity of voice control, navigation and editing, if you want to carry
on up the learning curve.

Dragon Dictate Solo UKP79.99 incl VAT

Allows you to dictate into **one of** MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access,
Internet Explorer. You choose which at installation. It may be possible to
have multiple installations so that you can use more than one. Pretty good
installation and recognition, and you can also get it to take account of
following words, like VT. Comprehensive level of voice control so good for
mobility problems. Corrections are guided by a 120,000 word list on disk,
so, once you have started entering the correct word, it is likely that
Dragon will suggest the rest of it to you (making life easier for poor
spellers). Only 10,000 words active vocabulary and when you add one, one
(least used) drops off. This makes it harder work to get it set up using
your personal vocabulary. Doesn't yet work with Word 97. Only needs a 486
2/66 16MB and Win3.1. I find that it needs a bit more commitment than VT
(ie time spent training it) before it becomes useful. But not very much,
and somebody with a marked regional accent or child's voice might disagree.
Dragon seems a bit more sensitive than the others to picking up external
noises. You need to distinguish between command mode and dictate mode,
which can cause confusion at first, although it may lead to greater
precision later.

Dragon Dictate Classic UKP574.60 incl VAT

Like Solo, but allows you to dictate into a number of applications, and,
with some skill, you can program pratically any application for Voice
Control. 30,000 active words. (There is also a version available with
60,000). The UK version is currently a half version behind Solo, so
recognition is not quite so good. Doesn't yet work properly with Word 97.

Kurzweil VoicePad UKP69.32 incl VAT

You dictate into a simple Wordpad word processor, like VTSS, but you also
have voice control over editing, so you do not need to use keyboard and
mouse. Corrections are suggested from a 200,000 on disk word list, even
more comprehensive than Dragon. So you can wow your friends with your
breadth of vocabulary. Reputedly very good for dictating numbers. 17,000
active words, and you can add another 3,000, so half way between Dragon
Solo and VTSS. Basically the same microphone as you get with IBM VTSS. It
has US spellings and you have to train it if you want it to understand
"full-stop" rather than "period". But Talkfast, including a better
microphone and anglicised commands is available for UKP59 +VAT.

Kurzweil VoicePad Plus UKP99.90 incl VAT
Similar to VoicePad, but allows you to dictate into and control many
applications, like Dragon Classic. 
Doesn't yet work properly with Word 97. 

Coming Soon (September?)

IBM ViaVoice (VV) c UKP150. Requires Pentium 150 MMX, Win95 or NT, 32MB RAM
(48MB for NT).
Dragon Dictate Naturally Speaking (NS) UKP489 +VAT (although I presume that
they will have to revise pricing to compete with ViaVoice, which announced
after NS and snuck in with a lower price). Requires Pentium 133, Win95 or
NT, 32MB RAM (48MB for NT):
These are both continuous speech recognition systems, so you should be able
to speak in a normal voice without having to
separate-each-word-as-you-say-it. But the first versions will be simple
applications like VoiceType Simply Speaking -- allowing you only to dictate
into the simple WordPad-like word processor. Dragon NS also allows editing
control by voice. So the other programs which allow more comprehensive
voice control will not be immediately superceded. NS doesn't allow multiple
users of the same installation, although it may be possible to get multiple
installations on the same machine. I suspect that they will require a
higher degree of training/commitment before they are useful.

These views will soon find their way on to our web site at
http://www.dyslexic.com/dictcomp.htm.

Ian Litterick

iANSYST Ltd Dyslectech  Email [log in to unmask]
The White House, 72 Fen Road, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 1UN, UK
Tel(+44) (0)1223 42 01 01. Fax(+44) (0)1223 42 66 44
FREEPhone from UK only 0500 14 15 15
web url http://www.dyslexic.com



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