Voice input utilities allow users to control their computer by recognizing spoken commands. Some products are designed for command and control, meaning that they allow you to perform commands, switch between windows and so forth. Some products also support dictation, which allows you to enter large amounts of free-form text such as a letter. Most products recognize discrete speech, meaning that you must pause briefly between words, but some products support continuous speech which does not require such pauses.
| Product: | DragonDictate® for Windows |
| From: | Dragon Systems®, Inc., 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160 |
| Phone: | 800-825-5897 or 617-965-5200 |
| Fax: | 617-527-0372 |
| Email: | info@dragonsys.com |
| BBS: | GO DRAGON on CompuServe |
| Languages: | Available in seven languages |
| Price: | $395 and higher for different configurations |
| Notes: | DragonDictate for Windows is a large-vocabulary dictation system that lets one use most Windows-based applications entirely by voice. Compatible with many popular multimedia sound cards, end-users can c ontrol the mouse, dictate text and enter data, and navigate quickly within Windows commands and controls without touching the keyboard. DragonDictate for Windows quickly adapts to the user's voice, vocabulary, and environment to achieve an accuracy rate o f over 95%. A high-quality, noise-canceling microphone is included. |
| Product: | IBM VoiceType Application Factory |
| From: | IBM |
| Phone: | 800-TALK2ME for information; 800-342-6672 to order |
| Price: | $399 |
| Notes: | A high-accuracy speech recognition toolkit. It is a command-and-control utility supporting up to 1,000-word vocabulary. Comes with microphone and uses a SoundBlaster-compatible adaptor. Can be used on a laptop.. |
| Product: | IBM VoiceType Dictation for Windows |
| From: | IBM |
| Phone: | 800-TALK2ME for information; 800-342-6672 to order |
| Languages: | French, German, Italian, Spanish, UK and US English |
| Price: | $999; $1,099 if for laptop; 30-day money-back guarantee if purchased directly from IBM |
| Notes: | IBM VoiceType Dictation is a large-vocabulary system supporting up to 32,000 words at a rate of 70-100 words per minute with 95% accuracy. Comes with adapter card with microphone and digital signal proc essor. Can be used on a laptop. |
| Product: | IN CUBE Voice Command |
| From: | Command Corp. Inc., 3761 Venture Dr., Duluth, GA 30136 |
| Phone: | 770-813-8030 |
| Fax: | 770-813-0113 |
| Email: | in3@commandcorp.com |
| BBS: | URL: http://www.comandcorp.com/incube_welcome.html |
| Price: | Two versions: $495 for Windows NT; $395 for Windows 3.x and Windows 95 |
| Demo: | Downloadable from their Website. This is a locked version of the actual program, which can be unlocked into the full version by calling Command Corp. and paying for In Cube. |
| Notes: | IN CUBE PRO is a continuous speech-recognition system which can be used without modification by people with disabilities for full voice control of the Windows interfaces. To use a Windows utility or ap plication, the user just speaks its name. In Cube's powerful functions locate applications that are already running and pop them to the front of the display. If the application called is not running, In Cube launches it. Within applications, In Cube has v oice macro input. |
| Product: | Kurzweil VOICE for Windows |
| From: | Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, Inc., 411 Waverly Oaks Rd., Waltham, MA 02154 |
| Phone: | 800-380-1234 or 617-893-5151 |
| Fax: | 617-893-6525 |
| Email: | info@kurz-ai.com |
| Internet: | http://www.kurz-ai.com |
| System: | Windows 95, Windows 3.1x |
| Price: | $695 |
| Notes: | Kurzweil VOICE Release 2.0 is an easy to use, speaker-independent product which provides full command and control capabilities integrated with robust dictation capabilities for text creation. Release 2.
0 includes command lists for Windows 95, Windows 3.1x and the most recent versions of leading Windows software applications, as well as 30K and 60K word vocabulary options. It works with Windows-compatible, 16-bit sound boards, and includes a Telex Nomad microphone. |
| Product: | Listen for Windows |
| From: | Verbex Voice Systems, Inc., 275 Raritan Center Parkway, Edison, NJ 08837 |
| Phone: | 800-ASK-VRBX or 908-225-5225 |
| Fax: | 908-225-7764 |
| System: | Windows 95, Windows |
| Price: | $99; $139 with microphone or headset |
| Notes: | Verbex provides speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition solutions for Windows users. Listen for Windows 2.0 isn't intended for dictation applications, but allows users to navigate, command an d control Windows applications with normal conversational speech. No training is needed for most North American voices. It comes with robust speech interfaces for over 30 of the most popular Windows applications and automatically generates speech interfac es for virtually any other Windows app. User-friendly Command Editor allows easy customization of voice commands. |
| Product: | VoiceServer for Windows |
| From: | Applied Voice Technology, Ltd., 26 Danbury St. Islington, London N1 8JU. |
| Phone: | +44-171-454 1224 |
| Fax: | +44-171-454 1225 |
| Email: | 100113.2672@compuserve.com |
| System: | Windows |
| Price: | £249 |
| Notes: | A speaker dependent hardware/software discrete word recognition system for controlling Windows apps. Not only can menu options and buttons be voice-activated, but listbox items can be selected, other ap ps executed and switched between, apps' interfaces externally customized etc. It also includes a comprehensive voice- driven macro recorder, where mouse and keyboard operation can be interleaved with spoken commands in a completely voice-driven environmen t. VoiceKit PRO for Windows is a complete API allowing C programmers to incorporate AVT's voice recognition into their own software seamlessly and flexibly. VoiceKit VB offers the same functionality to developers using Microsoft Visual Basic ® programming system. |
| Product: | VoiceUser |
| From: | Cylogic, 348 W. Olympic Place, Suite 9., Seattle, WA 98119 |
| Phone: | 206-283-8800 |
| Fax: | 206-282-2616 |
| Email: | skidata@luckydog.com |
| System: | Windows; a Windows 95 version is planned that won't be dependent on Windows Sound System, which is no longer available from Microsoft |
| Price: | $49 |
| Demo: | Available free by mail; assumes user has Windows Sound System |
| Notes: | A speaker-independent command and control interface. Version 2.1 features vocabularies for seven of the most popular Windows word processors, plus vocabularies for the accessory applications included wi th Windows. Pre-configured vocabularies and macros allow virtually anyone to start using the program with little or no voice training. Windows Sound System and a SoundBlaster-compatible sound card are required. |
© 1994, 1995 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, MS-DOS and Visual Basic are registered trademarks and
Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. IN CUBE is a
trademark of Command Corp., Inc. Kurzweil VOICE is a trademark
of Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, Inc. Dragon Systems and DragonDictate
are registered trademarks of Dragon Systems, Inc. IBM and OS/2
are registered trademarks and Windsurfer is a trademark of International
Business Machines Corporation. WiViK2 is a registered trademark
and KeyREP is a trademark of The Hugh MacMillan Rehabilitation
Center.
This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT.
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