Voice input device

• Voice input device : An input device enabling sounds to be directly inputed into the computer, For example, microphone via a sound card or telephone via a modem.

Use(s) 1

• Disabled people using computers
• Dictaphone intensive users

Products:

• Dragon Dictate, Kurzweil Voice
• IBM Personal Dictation System (PDS).

Examples

• Dragon Dictate: Used by a bankruptcy lawyer Darcy Readman. "We were burning cash in dictaphone costs.. nearly half our secretaries' time was taken up transcribing. [Voice recognition] frees them up to do more productive work"
  [Ref 94]NZ PC World (Mar 1995)
• Lotus WordPro 97 (part of SmartSuite 97). Claimed to be first word-processor with built-in speech recognition, enabling users to dictate up to 140 words per minute (three times faster than the average typist).
  "WordPro gets speech" (Oct 97)

Use(s) 2

• Telephone banking services.

Examples:

• IBM Callpath Directtalk/2 voice processing system - automates telephone inquiry and data entry bay allowing callers to access host system databases via the telephone.
• For banking services may include; account inquiries, interest rate inquiries, money transfer, statements, changing a PIN (Personal Identification Number), and arranging payments to third parties

• [Ref 88]Computerworld NZ (Mar 1995)

Features

Voice Recognition

• A computer can be taught to recognise certain words from a particular person by listening to those words and storing a voice print (fourier analysis of the harmonics) for future matching.

• In Windows 3.x it is usually located in the Accessories Group of Program Manager.
• In Win95 try Programs | Accessories | Multimedia.