Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Voice recognition

Hi everyone,

A reminder to everyone using voice recognition, and a heads-up to anyone contemplating this, about the importance of proper microphone selection.

I had been using Dragon with a pretty good wireless mic, Sennheiser BW900, with speech recognition probably approaching 100%. It was almost scary how good it was. Unfortunately, that microphone died, so I'm now temporarily using an older Andrea corded headset/mic, ANC-700. Speech recognition has suffered considerably. I didn't realize how good things had been, until finding myself having to make far more corrections.

I just ordered a new wireless mic from KnowBrainer. It should arrive on Friday. Hopefully that will restore almost flawless accuracy.

Gene

Hi everyone,

Follow-up to above. I received a new wireless mic, Samson Airline Micro,

http://www.knowbrainer.com/NewStore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=219

And could not get it to work consistently. I plugged it directly into the microphone in jack on the computer, put an amplifier in line with this, used an older Andrea USB sound card that I had (which is what I had been using up to this time with no problems), and ultimately used a new Buddy USB sound card that I got from KnowBrainer. Sometimes Dragon indicated "Volume too low", other times "Sound quality poor", other times I could dictate but with very poor accuracy. I created a new user in Dragon, etc. In short, I tried every trick that I could think of.

After all of this, spending numerous hours and becoming very frustrated, I contacted KnowBrainer, they said the mic is probably defective, return it. I did so.

Dragon now works fine, through the same sound card, with a corded Andrea mic.

So I expected to hear back that the mic was defective.

Instead, much to my surprise, I just got an e-mail back indicating that the same mic I sent back was working perfectly for them. My Dragon is working perfectly with a corded mic.

Anyone with any ideas? I'm stumped.

Thanks. Gene.

You are not alone. I had the same problem with the Revolabs xTag wireless. Recognition was poor, consistently poor sound quality on the microphone setup check. I also gave up the wireless route. I am very happy using a Speechware USB 6-in-1 table mike.

I am also a recovering Revolabs xTag wireless user. After 2 of them, I finally discovered my 3in1 TableMike and have never looked back.
Dave
FP

12 step program?????

Gene

There are some parallels between the various addictions. I remember very clearly trying my xTag wireless mike every day for weeks, hoping that this time it would FINALLY work as promised. Finally consulted a "counselor" by posting on a speech recognition board, and someone responded that wireless mikes don't work. I had hit rock bottom.

My hands still shake a little whenever Tom Hamilton posts on the vendor board about a new wireless mike, but so far I'm still "wireless-free".

I am definitely not against wireless mics. In fact, I am currently dictating this through a Sennheiser BW 900 wireless mic. My PA has been using a Plantronics, which was originally bundled with an earlier edition of Dragon. Generally speaking, both of these work extremely well.

I have not made any corrections to the above, this is straight voice recognition.

Over all, I am extremely pleased with the wireless mics. My specific problem was with this specific brand. I still don't have a clue exactly what the problem was, the no-brainer people have tested the mic that I returned and say that it works well, but I could not begin to get it to work for me.

I left the no-brainer without correcting it, to show that this is indeed voice recognition!

Gene

My neck still has a crick in it from bending down to speak SLOW, LOUD, SHORT phrases into the xTag (all of which you should never do). I particularly remember the added frustration when Dragon refused to produce the four-letter words that frequently followed. I never got the Dragon speech-to-noise ratio above 15 with the xTag. I just re-tested my TableMike and got 31, and that was from 18 inches away.

Dave
FP

Where is the best place to purchase a Speechware table Mic?

I am still happy with my old Sennheiser e835S, if anyone clicked on the using AC with voice recognition page from years gone by that was me and my microphone in the pic

Gene,

Sorry the Samson Airline Micro didn?t work out for you. Sometimes certain microphones and end
users just don?t get along. The BW900 produced hundreds of happy costumers yet still on occasion there would be one that it just didn?t work for. The same holds true for the SpeechWare TableMikes, we have had thousands of happy users and a couple that weren?t pleased.

Doctor Mel,

The SpeechWare 3-in-1, 6-in-1 and 9-in1 TableMikes can be found here http://www.knowbrainer.com/NewStore/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=58 All three of these microphones have the same soundcard and the same microphone element so from a speech recognition point of view they are all equal. The 6-in-1 and 9-in-1 simply have more bells and whistles such as built in speakers, the ability to use a foot pedal, a telescoping mic boom, SD card reader and extra USB ports.

I have the SpeechWare 6-in-1, and the recognition is outstanding. I got the 6-in-1, thinking that the foot pedal would be good to use, bit it frankly doesn't really make that much difference in speed or convenience. For me, the 3-in-1 would still be great.

As I related above, I was trying to get the Revolabs xTag wireless to work, with no luck. One bright spot was that I purchased it from Tom's company, Knowbrainer. They took it back, no questions asked. I also bought the SpeechWare from them, after a few emails back & forth about features and recommendations. Try that pre-sale, with most other companies.

Got mine at KnowBrainer.
It was a K***B*****r.

Dave
FP