Voice Recognition Software: Comparison and Recommendations
Voice Recognition Software: Comparison and Recommendations
Use of voice recognition software is under consideration by medical office administrators nationally. Administrators have long searched for alternatives to the expense, error rate, and record-completion delays associated with conventional transcription. It is no wonder that, with the recent advances in voice recognition software, medical transciptionists are looking at this emerging technology as a powerful way of accomplishing essential record-keeping tasks.
This report investigates four of the leading voice recognition applications to determine whether this technology has become a practical option and to determine which application is the best choice. And so that this report and further study of the software can be better understood, an introduction to the subject of voice recognition software follows.
Introduction to Voice Recognition Technology
Several different voice recognition products currently exist in the marketplace, and viable choices are greater in number than they were only a few years ago. Rapid changes have been fueled by the ever-increasing power and plummeting prices of desktop systems. Though room for improvement still exists, accuracy has advanced tremendously in a stunningly short time.
Brief history. The first software-only dictation product for PC 's,
Dragon Systems ' DragonDictate for Windows 1.0, using discrete speech recognition technology, was released in 1994. Discrete speech is a slow, unnatural means of dictation, requiring a pause after each and every word [11]. Two years later, IBM introduced the first continuous speech recognition software, its MedSpeak/Radiology. These systems often had five-figure price tags and required very expensive PCs.
Continuous speech technology allows its users to speak naturally and conversationally, relieving much of the tedium of discrete speech dictation [11].
Dragon Systems made an enormous stride in June,
Use of voice recognition software is under consideration by medical office administrators nationally. Administrators have long searched for alternatives to the expense, error rate, and record-completion delays associated with conventional transcription. It is no wonder that, with the recent advances in voice recognition software, medical transciptionists are looking at this emerging technology as a powerful way of accomplishing essential record-keeping tasks.
This report investigates four of the leading voice recognition applications to determine whether this technology has become a practical option and to determine which application is the best choice. And so that this report and further study of the software can be better understood, an introduction to the subject of voice recognition software follows.
Introduction to Voice Recognition Technology
Several different voice recognition products currently exist in the marketplace, and viable choices are greater in number than they were only a few years ago. Rapid changes have been fueled by the ever-increasing power and plummeting prices of desktop systems. Though room for improvement still exists, accuracy has advanced tremendously in a stunningly short time.
Brief history. The first software-only dictation product for PC 's,
Dragon Systems ' DragonDictate for Windows 1.0, using discrete speech recognition technology, was released in 1994. Discrete speech is a slow, unnatural means of dictation, requiring a pause after each and every word [11]. Two years later, IBM introduced the first continuous speech recognition software, its MedSpeak/Radiology. These systems often had five-figure price tags and required very expensive PCs.
Continuous speech technology allows its users to speak naturally and conversationally, relieving much of the tedium of discrete speech dictation [11].
Dragon Systems made an enormous stride in June,
Cited: October 20, 1998. Alwang, Greg. "Performance Tests." PC Magazine Online. October 20, 1998 October 1998).