How to: Understand voice recognition applications

Posted by HR Zone in Managing people on Thu, 14/06/2001 - 14:43

In the film Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home, one of my favourite moments is when James Doohan, paying the part of chief engineer Scotty tries talking to a 1986 vintage desktop PC and his colleague Dr "Bones" McCoy says, "Scotty, I think you have to use the keyboard." Scotty replies, "A keyboard? Oh! How quaint!"

The truth of the matter is that at the time the Star Trek film was made, speech recognition technology was still in its infancy, and was on the whole, confined to highly specialised markets. For example, in most medical dramas at some stage there will be film of the pathology examination with the doctor dictating notes into a microphone hanging over a body. In practice, this was one of the specialist markets for voice recognition technology.

A brief history
In 1985, Apricot Computers produced a portable PC fitted with a hinged microphone at the side of the display. Users of the computer were able to perform simple dictated tasks in DOS (the early operating system).

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Editor's Welcome

 

Hello! And welcome back as we enter 2012, with a busy year ahead of us all. With talk of double-dip recessions, a possible partial or even full break-up of the Eurozone and unemployment rates set to hit nearly 9%, topics such as organisational streamlining, staff resilience and talent management are likely to be on many an HR professional's lips over the next 12 months.
 
But to lighten the gloom here in the UK, we also have the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and its attendant public holidays to look forward to at the start of June. Followed by two weeks of Olympic Games from 27 July to 12 August and the Paralympics from 29 August to 9 September, each generating their own excitement, but also issues to work through for hard-pressed HR departments trying to sort out the multifarious staffing issues in advance.
 
So with an interesting but challenging year to come, HRZone promises to be with you, supporting you all the way and providing our usual insightful blend of news, analysis, community blogs and expert comment to help you sort the wheat from the chaff. As ever, we love to hear from you too so feel free to either post your words of wisdom to our blog section yourself or, in the case of longer, more in-depth ‘expert voice’ articles, drop me a line with any ideas to cath.everett@siftmedia.co.uk.....
 
Cath Everett
HRZone Editor 
 
 
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