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To: Voice-users Group
Fr: Charles Horth
Email: Charles_Horth_Biomed@@compuserve.com
Re: Problems of a new user
Re: Which Labtec?
Re: Bouncing order/microphone quality
I've been following with considerable interest the post to voice-users
group about microphones.
--------
Nina <Neenqueen1@@aol.com> wrote:
>Often when I begin a new paragraph, before I say anything, extra words
appear on the screen like "and" or "of" or "as". This also happens when I
am silent for maybe five seconds. When I said for example <close quote> in
the last sentence, " was written with an "and" after that. I am speaking
continuously and also making every effort to enunciate clearly. I have also
stopped and trained these words several times.<
>The Delete That command is not recognized. The last word I said before
using the command remains on the screen, and instead, the words "delete
that" are written. This happens all the time.<
>Within the document, if I select a word and wish to correct it, when I go
to use the Correct That command, at least 80 percent of the time, the
correction box opens with the word "that" highlighted, instead of the
selected word(s).<
Holland St.John <holland@@rattlers.net> wrote:
>First get rid of that mic. Several of your problems (i.e. small words) are
directly related to the near impossibility to correctly position and keep
positioned that mic. You may find many of the other problems improving with
a better mic also. I especially like the TalkMic, but the Shure HW505,
Andrea ANC-600, Plantronics H51N, Knowles VR3565 are all excellent and I
have used them all. The VXI Gold CTS10-3 is also very good, and apparently
the VXI Parrott 10-3 is an improved version, and probably also very good.
These mics cost between $45-100. The Andrea NC50 is the worst mic Dragon
includes with its software.<
gNAt <jjohnst@@tezcat.com> wrote:
>I am not using Naturally Speaking, however I am familiar with some of your
concerns here.<
>Before I got the new microphone which is an Andrea 600, I had a lot of
this. The Andrea 600 is noise cancelling. What I think happened was that
the other microphone picked up some random noise in the room. I am in my
own room and it is generally pretty quiet, however there are noises that
you constantly make breathing sounds, moving in the chair, etc. This rarely
happens now. <
>I suggest you either invest in a good sound cancelling microphone or that
you turn off the microphone or put it to sleep unless you are actually
talking into it. I don't know, but this helped me.<
Re: Which Labtec?
Jim Green <jgreen@@robotvision.com> wrote:
>[snip] It came with a Labtech Boom microphone with N-DAT, which stands for
Noise Discriminating Amplified Technology. Anyone ever heard of this
microphone? Is it OK? I also ordered an ANC-500 from SCCS, but it hasn't
arrived yet. Which mic should I train with?<
>The Labtec is the model C-317.<
Re: Bouncing order/microphone quality
Janneke den Draak <j.dendraak@@telemaat.nl> wrote:
>I ordered Dragon Dictate at Software Street last Monday, to be delivered
by FedEx. Today I called them when it was shipped, because I had secretly
been hoping that I'd get it today. I wanted to make sure I was at home at
the estimated time of arrival, so to speak. Here's the reply:<
>*Unfortunately, we are unable to ship this product due to either United
States Federal Regulations or Manufacturers Restrictions. I apologize for
the inconvience and if you need anything else, or have any questions,
please feel free to let me know.*<
>Has anyone ever experienced this? Actually this was the first time that I
ever ordered anything over the Internet and I had expected it to go
smoothly. It SEEMED very simple. I also called the company and they acted
like it was normal for them to ship overseas.<
>I have replied to this mail asking if I could expect such problems to
occur ordering other products at their company or other companies. It is a
sort of vague reason that they mention "United States Federal Regulations
or Manufacturers Restrictions".<
>Where have other people from Europe (the Netherlands even) ordered their
Dragon software and did they have problems receiving it. I know from one
company who ordered directly from Dragon and that seems to have gone okay.<
>Another question... is the microphone that comes with the
Deluxe/Professional edition a good noise canceling mic? I was wondering
what a microphone of similar quality would cost when purchased separately.
(Still studying the difference between a NatSpeak Pro version and a combi
of Dictate and NatSpeak)<
Martin Markoe <mmarkoe@@bestweb.net> wrote:
>We have been told not to ship microphones overseas due to some FCC
(Federal Communications Commission) regulations. I'm not sure what that is
about, but for me it doesn't seem to be worth the hassle. When shipping to
Canada and the UK they get hit with a VAT (Value Added Tax) and an import
duty.<
>So much for a "World Market."<
------
Here in the UK, it hasn't been the very easy to source the types of
microphone that users across the pond are able to order. I was relieved
when my Naturally Speaking Preferred 2.02 came with a lightweight mic and
headset. However, I, as I'm sure many other users, found this device
dreadful to use satisfactorily. After about 15 minutes, the pressure of
the clip and the ear piece caused me a lot of discomfort. A colleague, who
had the same set up, inadvertently damaged the connection of the jack plug
and the sound card (forgot to take it off when leaving the desk) so his
supplied microphone and headset was consigned to the waste paper basket
(trash -- much more descriptive isn't it?).
Fortunately, he managed to track down a replacement. It was an imported
product the MLI, model number HM-7602 CVM, which has a flexible microphone
arm, a swivel pivot, an adjustable head band and slider, and an on/off
switch with an adjustable control for volume. The headphones are stereo
with cushioned ear pads. Encouraged by my colleague's experience, I
purchased the same product.
It is really comfortable to wear for long sessions of dictation.
I have been able to compare the replacement microphone with the one
supplied with the software. The audio wizard gives me consistently average.
However, I have done acoustic tests and set the gain control to about 70%
; there is a good s/n ratio. I play back through the multimedia speakers,
so I can listen to music while I work via the stereo headset. This setup
would probably be useful for transcription work as it would avoid the need
for two headsets.
My old headset is now plugged into the modem so I can make and take
telephone calls via Intel software which is installed on the PC (400 Mhz
with BX chipset, 64 MB RAM).
On one occasion, after a telephone conversation, I forgot to swap back to
the new head set which was about two feet away. Remarkably, when I said
Wake Up and MouseGrid, I found I could control the mouse without
difficulty. I did some other experiments by dictating into
NaturallySpeaking directly, without any further training. This was less
successful, but it recognised speech and produced text albeit with low
accuracy and comparatively slowly. I'm tempted to try a directional
microphone, mounted on a desk stand.
It occurs to me that when the headset microphone is placed close to the
mouth, it is very sensitive to any small movement or variation in position.
I would be interested to hear from some of the other pundits who may able
to offer an explanation for the surprisingly good performance and
recognition when the microphone was positioned far away. One potential
advantage: I found none of the odd words appearing on screen that Nina
experienced. Is it possible that NatSpk was designed to be used in a noisy
office environment? If there is very little noise in the backgound, is it
better to place the microphone further away where it is less susceptible to
changes in postion?
Charles E. Horth
Biomedical Consultant
writing at 22:41 BST on 18 Jul 98
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