Speech

Speech recognition software (aka voice recognition software) is a tool that can greatly help reduce the pain of typing injuries. After all, when you are using a speech recogntion program, you do not need to type at all - it offers you hands-free computing. Of course, while such programs can be extremely useful, they are not perfect. You are going to undoubtedly find that the speech recognition software does not always "recognize" exactly what you are saying.

This only makes sense - your computer is not a living human being, and it is very understandable if it "hears" incorrectly, typing "ferry" as "fairy" or "beast" as "priest" or any number of other possible errors. Even humans who have the capability of reasoning out what a person actually said can still completely misunderstand words and/or sentences.

The system may either insert a word that was not said (because of background noise), substitute a word (as shown by the above example), or totally reject something you've said (because there is no precident for how to deal with it).

Also, be aware that voice recognition software can be somewhat unpredictable: sometimes it may type "fairy" while other times it may type "ferry" - you cannot necessarily know what mistakes it will make, so it is difficult to completely prevent such mistakes.

Here are some tips to ensure that you and your speech recognition software team up as well as possible:

· Speak with the system is ready to listen - if you start speaking sooner, part of the speech will not be captured.

· Speak in a normal tone - if you speak with a cold voice, and exaggerated voice, or with an accent, or any type of voice that does not match the voice model, the speech recognizer may incorrectly type what has been said.

· Grammar and words - if you say something outside the realm of basic grammar or a word that is not in the dictionary, then there is likely to be a mistake made.

· Background noise - when using your voice recognition system, be sure that it is quite and there are no background noises (especially the people speaking in the background).

· Start out with simple stuff - start out by dictating just a few memos, then e-mails, then bigger stuff.

· Proofread - make sure that you read over things before you send them out. Check for errors. Fixing these errors and thereby having to use your keyboard and mouse is not going to give you a typing injury!

The above are just a few tips to help get going with your speech recognition software. You are undoubtedly going to experience a few problems, especially at first, but also along the way. It is best, however, just to laugh at these "miscommunications" and "misunderstandings" between you and your voice recognition software - after all, sometimes the results can be pretty funny.