Tool Helps Users Speak Up

Pocket PC Option

NaturallySpeaking 7 is now certified for use with wireless headsets, array microphones (which can be placed on monitors or on desktops) and Pocket PC PDAs.

The package includes a voice recording application for Pocket PCs called ScanSoft Voice Recorder (see screen).

Voice recognition training on the Pocket PC was a lengthier process than on the PC: To train the system, we had to read a preselected passage for 15 minutes. The recording was then processed for about 25 minutes on our PC to generate a voice profile for Pocket PC recordings. Accuracy was noticeably worse when transcribing our Pocket PC-based recordings than when using a PC-based analog microphone, so we would not recommend using this option for anything other than first-draft transcriptions.

We had originally tried to use a third-party voice recording package we ordinarily use on the Pocket PC, but even though we recorded using the recommended format (pulse code modulation, 22.05KHz, 16-bit, mono), we couldnt see the file in NaturallySpeakings list of available audio files to recognize.

After installing ScanSoft Voice Recorder, we discovered that NaturallySpeaking is hard-coded to look only in a Pocket PC directory, "\My Recordings," which didnt exist on our machine until it was automatically created during the ScanSoft Voice Recorder install. Once we discovered this, we were able to use ScanSoft Voice Recorder and third-party software to create audio recordings for later transcription.

NaturallySpeaking 7 introduces a new feature where the software tries to automatically insert commas and periods into sentences rather than having users dictate their punctuation. In our tests, this function was right only about half the time, so after trying it for a few days, we abandoned the approach because it required too many corrections on our part.

West Coast Technical Director Timothy Dyck can be reached at timothy_dyck@ziffdavis.com.