Here, I'm taking a geek-peek into the world of voice recognition software, a subject near and dear to my heart. More specifically, I'm looking at IBM ViaVoice 98 Executive - an attempt to bring you and your computer closer together. How sweet.
If you've previously used speech recognition software, such as Simply Speaking from IBM, you may have found it difficult pronouncing each individual word, pausing, then moving onto the next. Hardly natural speech, that. However shortly after such products were released, companies like Dragon Systems, L&H and IBM moved in with new "continuous speech systems", effectively throwing those annoying pauses right out the window.
And, credit where it's due, ViaVoice 98 Executive really does what it says on the box. The initial "enrolment" stage leads you through sentence after motivational sentence, in an attempt at getting ViaVoice accustomed with your vocal quirks. The subject matters varies from why IBM are so great (yeah, right) to the first chapter of 'Alice in Wonderland'.
Two hours and 476 sentences later, most users will be ready to use ViaVoice and test its accuracy claims. IBM use every possible opportunity to throw in a reassuring video, maintaining that "ViaVoice is SO good" affirmation.
Seriously though, the video tutorials are quite helpful - at least, to show you the capabilities of ViaVoice. However, trying to find out how to do something amazingly simple can be a nightmare. And the everyday user will find themselves thrown more help than they can handle in response to every little button pressed. Hmmm, if this were a student report, I'd be getting out my red pen about now - "More attention required".
As seems to be the trend with new speech software, the IBM VoiceCentre launches each time Windows starts, acting as a top-of-the-screen 'taskbar' to control your dictation.
Using this VoiceCentre, you can dictate straight into any text-enabled software - from Outlook Express to Excel 97. However for more powerful processing, use one of the suggested editors - either the bundled SpeakPad or Microsoft Word 97 - where the error-correction facilities are more tightly integrated.
