We have got copies of the Telex microphone, as included in Dragon
Naturally Clear, at ukp 49 + VAT. It seems to give pretty good
recognition quality, and is arguably slightly more robust than the
TalkMic. I am pretty pleased with the sound quality, although we have
not had the chance to try it in all circumstances yet. It is not yet
available with an earphone. If you needed privacy you would have to use
Walkman earphone(s) separately.
There is a school of thought which says that the microphone element is
not as high quality as, say, the Talkmic, and one company is taking the
electronics "pod", chopping off the microphone and putting a socket so
that you could put on your own higher quality microphone (eg a Talkmic).
We could get these (or do it ourselves), but the pod will cost quite a
bit more than 49 on its own. Then add a Talkmic. I suspect that USB
sound pods (probably including output, too) will be available off the
shelf before too long.
Paul is right about the potential advantages. In conjunction with the
imminent networkable Dragon NS Enterprise, it will also be good for
Resource Lab type environments -- you will be able to use whatever
machine you want on the network, rather than always having to go to the
machine that has your voice profile on it, and which maybe somebody else
is using.
We also now have Dragon NS Preferred V 4. Main advantage is the shorter
training time. But also detailed improvements and better recognition,
particularly with Pentium III. We haven't yet updated our comparison
page (http://www.dyslexic.com/dictcomp.htm) as IBM ViaVoice Millennium
should be arriving about next week, and the other new NS products are
also filtering through.
Regards
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
Paul Dilley wrote:
>
> Has anybody got their hands on one of these yet? It's a microphone that
> connects to the USB port (via a 'pod') and, hence, has no need to input via a
> soundcard.
>
> This is interesting because it has the potential to free users from the vagaries
> of individual soundcards found in various machines. I would guess that it may
> now be practical to train on one machine and then, after transferring the voice
> file, successfully use on another without retraining. It may also free us from
> the doubtful quality of many notebook soundcards.
>
> Has anybody any practical experience?
>
> Regards
>
> Paul Dilley, Technical Manager & dis-forum list owner
> Computer Centre for People with Disabilities, University of Westminster
> ** The Central London Access Centre ** NFAC **
> Tel: 020 7911 5000 Fax: 020 7911 5162 http://www.wmin.ac.uk/ccpd/
> For assessment bookings tel: 020 7911 5808
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