Dictation
Into the WordPad Applet
Philips does not have its own dictation applet, relying instead
on existing desktop software like Microsoft's WordPad. We used
WordPad and some other text processors. General responsiveness
and performance was intolerably pokey on the "slow"
machine in those products and in any other application.
Requires Mode Switching
The dictation engine's command structure is not as modeless as
the other products. The engine can be either in dictation mode
or command mode, and, unlike the othe speech products, requires
a screen button click or verbal phrase to toggle between the two.
So, there are more muscle events
with this product than the others.
In command mode, the program doesn't accept dictation. It has
no command history list; not even the last command interpreted
is permanently displayed. This often makes determining the nature
of a command misrecognition difficult. The engine is visibly slowest
of all the products to respond to simple commands ("new line"
or "correction").
The undo facilities are a property of the application being
used for dictation. Thus the use of WordPad as a dictation applet
leaves you with its poor undo capabilities. If you use it with
other word processors, of course, you will have other undo possibilities.
On new insertions into old text, the dictation engine frequently
forgets to capitalize the beginning of sentences, or it inserts
capital letters somewhat spontaneously. It sometimes adds an extra
space or a comma before the closing period.
Weak Recognizer Status
A small status window hangs near the position of the mouse cursor
for a few seconds directly after an utterance. While sometimes
that's the right place for the status window to be, other times
it's not. The window frequently obscures the word you were just
trying to correct. On a very large screen, previous actions could
have moved the mouse cursor some distance away so that you need
to hunt for the status on the screen real-estate. The status window
occasionally displays odd internal coding characters ("||||",
"@_NLB", and "@10_GRM"). Display of these internal symbols is
a ridiculous programming oversight.
It has a personal voice playback function which is helpful when
the recognizer misinterprets a long phrase and you need to remember
exactly what you said. However, when bringing in a old document
on top of the new one, the playback function gets confused and
applies the wrong sound file.
Any Dictation Machine Lovers Out There?
Philips supplies an attractive device called a SpeechMike, which
combines a microphone, thumb-operated trackball, audio speaker,
and mouse buttons in one hand-held unit. Because the SpeechMike
simulates the dictation machine, it could be good for a person
accustomed to that equipment. Some members of our test group had
trouble using the thumb-operated trackball for diagonal mouse
movements. Nevertheless, the innovative design does free you from
wearing a headset (although it still has a wire).
More: Introduction
More: Ongoing Training
Process...
Yopu are here>: Dictation
into the WordPad Applet...
More: Text to Speech
Performance...
More: Integration
With Other Applications...
