I broadly agree with Mike. I tried IBM Voice Dictate V3.0 on and off for three months about a year ago and recently had another go with Dragon's latest continuous voice dictation product. I can't help being impressed by these programs as bits of technology but they are still not good enough to improve on my good two fingered typing. Although I can get the text in quicker by the time I correct the errors It' slower. 

I also find I get a lot of verbal diarrhoea with voice dictation (I get the same with using a Dictaphone) which needs a lot more editing than stuff I type myself . In addition I find a fair amount of mental effort has to go in to controlling the way you speak, watching the quality of the recognition and adjusting your voice accordingly and this distracts from thinking about the content. I get excellent results reading from a text of just talking stream of consciousness as it comes into my head. However, the pauses an "ums and ahs" that accompany having to think as you write cause the recognition quality to crash. I guess this explains why some of the demonstrations are so impressively faultless. It probably also means that voice dictation will work best if your producing a lot a similar material that you don't have to think about too much.

Also, the latest Dragon stuff struggles on my 200Mhz Pentium Pro with 32MB RAM and complains about the quality of my audio. My 12 year old has persevered more than I have (on his 300Mhz Pentium II with 64 Mb RAM and superior audio) but has now gone back to the keyboard and he's not as fast a typist as me.

I think the next major upgrade of the existing products on top of the range hardware might be good enough to make me think again but they're not there yet for me.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ewan Davis
AAH Meditel - Voice +44 (1) 527 579414 Fax +44(1)527 837287
Email [log in to unmask] also at [log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From:	Mike H. [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:	04 January 1998 17:28
To:	[log in to unmask]
Subject:	RE: Computing in General Practice

I have used Simply Speaking. I have removed it from my hard drive.
In my view,(asbestos suit on),it really is for propellor heads who lack
keyboard skills .
We have three secretaries who:-
a)are more accurate in spelling and composition of the text;
b)are a lot more fun to work with.
Never get a machine to do what a smiling, willing face will do for you.
Mike H
Dr Mike Hipwell.
Peel House Medical Centre.
Avenue Parade.
Accrington, Lancs.
tel 01254 237231 fax 01254 389525.
http://www.hipwell.demon.co.uk

> -----Original Message-----
> Has anyone used products like IBM Simply Speaking (Gold) and if so, are
they
> any PRACTICAL use on a daily basis e.g. for dictating letters (esp. if in
a
> hurry). I just have this sneaky feeling that they may work well in the
> showroom but be less impressive on the hard drive
> Graham