Royal Philips Electronics is aiming to make dictation easier with new voice recognition capabilities in its Digital Pocket Memo 9450 handheld recorder.
The devices voice-command feature can recognize strings of numbers or letters and up to 20 keywords spoken by a user and display that data as text.
Such a device could go a long way toward reducing rekeying errors during transcription, said company officials.
Pocket Memo users must first train the device to recognize their unique pronunciation and inflection, a process that officials said takes 10 to 15 minutes. Philips, which is initially targeting the device at the health care market, will unveil it Oct. 11 for $550.
A snap-on bar-code reader for the device is available for an additional $430.
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