Vol. 5, No. 4, Pg. 54. Computers That Listen.

• Author: By Susan Nelson Minter

South Carolina Lawyer

1994.

Vol. 5, No. 4, Pg. 54.

Computers That Listen

54Computers That ListenBy Susan Nelson MinterImagine walking into the office, turning on the lights and telling a computer to "turn on," "review mail," "take a letter"--or any of the dozens of tasks traditionally performed by people at computers every day. And imagine the computer "hearing" and responding to those commands.

Does this sound like a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film in which HAL the computer converses with fellow crew members aboard a spaceship?

Although the year 2001 has not arrived yet, speech recognitiontechnology is already a reality. More commonly known as voice recognition, this technology is now available through a number of computer hardware and software companies.

Speech recognition technology is based on a set of simple building blocks of speech called "phonemes." There are about 40 phonemes in the English language, and every spoken word can be broken down into these basic sound patterns. Taking advantage of these patterns, computer experts have designed hardware and software that can recognize and interpret the sounds.

In the past, computer voice recognition involved a tedious process that required the user to slowly repeat a long list of words to "train" the computer. This process was tremendously time-consuming, and after all the training, normal voice pattern variations would inevitably cause the computer not to understand some of the words spoken to it.

Current voice recognition systems are capable of Full Vocabulary Recognition, which is speaker

55independent and does not require training of the computer.

Voice Recognition Technology:

A Sampling of Available Products

Vendor Product Cost Listen for Windows. Includes sound $ 399 board, headset, microphone, software. Enables user to navigate in Windowsapplications, performs commands and handles basic data entry tasks. Verbex Microsoft Windows Sound System. $ 289 Includes sound board, microphone and software. Allows user to control Windows applications by voice commands. Allowsuser to put voice notes on documents. Recognizes 1,000+ words. IBM Dragon Talk. Software only, allows user $ 149 to create word instructions that command software programs to perform tasks. Kurzweil Kurzweil Voice. Includes sound board, $6,000 headset or hand-held microphone and...