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Voice Recognition In Windows Vista

Introduction to speech recognition :

Speech recognition is a gift to human being by nature. We all speak, and understand what other says. Even other animals do speak, in their own ways. When we speak, our ear receives the sound waves and converts them into signals that can be interpreted by the brain. You may wonder, why I am speaking about Medical Sciences when I am speaking about Windows Vista.

Voice Recognition or Speech Recognition in computers works in the same line as said above. It is the Microphone, which acts as ear and receives sound waves.

It is the CPU which acts as brain, receives the signals converted from sound waves inside the ear and produces proper word for sound wave. The process may look simple to user but, is a complex & tedious for the developer.

Want to review voice recognition in Vista, Check out the Vista voice recognition video. Important thing is, it actually works very well after you configure it to your voice. Check it out yourself.

There is no natural intelligence for the computers. So, therefore a voice database is created for each user and will be compared with the incoming voice from the microphone and appropriate word will be produced as a result.

The users need to maintain a level of clear speech for every word to get recognized. But, many times, the user may not get proper word for a spoken word, as there may be slight variation in the incoming voice.

Types of Voice Recognition :

There are two types of voice recognition exists. In isolated word speech recognition system, requires the speaker, to pause between words. But, for a spontaneous speech recognition system, the speaker can speak out continuously.

However, some speech recognition systems require speaker enrollment. In this type, a user must provide some samples of his voice before making use of software for voice recognition purposes.

This process of providing voice before making use of software is usually termed as “Training”. Such systems are called as speaker-dependent voice recognition system. There are many speaker-independent systems exists, which requires no voice recording for samples before making use of the speech recognition software. It is difficult to get correct recognition of words in both the systems, as some external parameters gets added to the speech, through the microphone, such as external noise. So, as said above, it becomes difficult for an average user to get adjusted to the voice recognition software.

If adjusted properly, the user can dictate the computer to perform the commands through voice and can get the text typed through the dictation process. Most commercial companies who work on building speech recognition software claim that, 98% to 99% accuracy can be achieved in their softwares. Speaker dependent softwares are capable of capturing continuous speech at a normal speed.

Commercial availability of speech recognition software:

Commercial softwares for speech recognition were made available, during early 1990’s. The softwares became partially success as the users finding it difficult to get used to the software. They were claiming that, they can type, and finish their work faster, rather than dictating through voice. This is because, human voice is not constant. The other factors that are added are external surrounding noise. Due to this reason, in office environment, one cannot use the voice recognition software more often.

With the advancement in speech recognition technology, today, we see a series of software applications for travel booking and travel information, in getting information about financial status of accounts in banking sector, directory assistance in telephone system etc. These systems work basically with the concept of speaker-independent systems. This is because, it needs the system to recognize and interpret almost all types of voices.

In early days of computing, speech recognition did not exist. As said above, from 1990’s, the development started for good, highly intelligent, reliable speech recognition software, with the introduction of sound cards, microphones, speakers. The developers of such systems were faced with the challenge of developing highly intelligent Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) engines. Because of the complexity in algorithms and language model, the development process is time consuming.

At present, Dragon NaturallySpeaking is the most popular one among other voice recognition softwares. Microsoft also started to integrate speech recognition system, in their operating systems, from Windows XP on. Windows XP has got Language Bar on the task bar.

Windows Vista voice recognition

The latest in MS Family of operating system, Windows Vista which is under its beta, has got newer set of features in speech recognition technology. It ensures that, one need to mouse and keyboard less often and give priority to more productivity. It not only ensures the world class accuracy, but, also, ensures providing the most usable end-to-end speech recognition experience.
It also tries to address key issues that were causing problems in the earlier versions. With Windows Vista speech recognition software, one can achieve efficient way of instructing the computer to perform various tasks. It comes with redesigned interfaces, which enable user to dictate and edit text, and correct any mistakes.

One will enjoy the software when compared to older versions more, in terms of accuracy. There is improvement in clarity and interpretation. Suppose, if one gives command that can be interpreted in multiple ways, the system will prompts one to clarify what it meant to do. It also includes, human-sounding speech synthesizer.

The speech synthesizer is a system which is used for artificial production of human speech. Speech synthesis systems are often called text-to-speech systems. It is used to produce human voice equivalent to given text. Example of such other program is Read Please 2000.

Users of voice recognition software:

The speech recognition software basically requires clear and noiseless environment for achieving best results. It can be used by the users who can speak fluently. It can also be used other users too.

But, they may find it difficult to use as change in voice, could produce some other words other than expected ones. However, the advancement in technology led to the development of an improved speech recognition engine. This probably helps the reader to read the text in any tone, pitch, etc. The regular users of this software are who often work with text, which is not required to be grammatical, users who need tight integrated screen reader and speech recognition solutions.

Requirements:

The recognition software requires a computer system with good quality sound card. Now days, the sound card built in to the motherboard. They too offer good quality.

It is required that the sound card is compatible with Windows Vista. This means that, the manufacturer should provide drivers for the same to work in Windows Vista. Other wise the sound setting may remain disabled in Windows Vista, though it detects the device properly. Additionally, one needs to have good quality microphone. The environment must be sound proof as far as possible.

Dictation process involving a document:

This is a basic process which involves dictating a document. The document gets interpreted text using the sound waves that are generated when spoken using the microphone. The spoken language must be clear to be understood by the speech recognition software.

One can use the word processing software for collecting the words that are dictated. The speech recognition in Windows Vista supports multiple languages. he process involves the following tasks,

Opening the word processor program,
Dictating the body or the contents of the document,
Save the document.

To start dictating, one must do the following,

Configure the microphone,
Launch the word processing program,
Begin dictation of text,
Save the document.

To configure the microphone in windows vista, click start button, Navigate through All Programs, Accessories, and Accessibility and then select the speech recognition option which is found there. Just go through initial startup screens to configure the microphone. The speech tutorial will be launched after configuring the microphone, correctly. After finishing the speech tutorial, one will be able to dictate the computer to do certain operations. To create, dictate and save the document, one need to go through the following steps.

Say “Start Listening” then say “Open WordPad”
Say "This is a test of speech recognition period”. Remember to pronounce punctuation.
If the computer misinterpreted "speech" as "peach," say "correct peach," and then choose the right word from the list, or say the word "speech" again.
To save the document say “File” and say “Save As” then say the name of the document. Now, say “Save”.

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Issues and Problems related speech recognition software: As said above, the major problem with the speech recognition is that the software, will not understand what one is saying, if the speech is not clear, and noiseless. The other problems related to this are,

1. Speech recognition software will work only on a limited number of programs which support a technology called as Text Services Framework. The supported applications are,
1. Microsoft Word and Microsoft Out Look,
2. Virtually almost all programs that are a part of Windows Vista.
The dictation process may not work in some of the applications. They are,
1. MS-PowerPoint,
2. MS-Excel,
3. WordPerfect,
4. Eudora, and
5. Lotus Notes.
The next problem is that, one does not know what commands will the speech recognition accepts. To know, one must refer to Speech Reference Card to learn which command is a valid command. To get information on Speech Reference Card, right click the microphone control bar.

The problem of misinterpretation of text, commands through speech is solved to a great extent in Windows Vista. Thus, one can enjoy the speech recognition in a much better way in Windows Vista. Speech recognition will help the user to get very large documents typed, with less use of key board and mouse. Speech recognition has been improved in Vista, will be improving in the years to come. Microsoft has successfully demonstrated voice recognition capability in Windows Vista.