Controlling Your World Through Your Voice
By Mundl, Jeni; Closing the Gap, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 1, 16Publication Date: October/November 2003
Article discusses developments in voice recognition technology, and provides an overview of commercially available voice recognition products. Dragon NaturallySpeaking and IBM’s ViaVoice allow for continuous voice recognition. For the programs to work effectively, adequate RAM and processing speed is necessary. A computer with at least 2 gigahertz of clock speed and a minimum of 512 megabytes of RAM can provide a good environment to implement voice recognition. A second technology available is an environmental control unit (ECU), also known as an electronic aid of daily living. An ECU is capable of controlling appliances in a home through voice activation. For the voice-activated device to work, an infrared X10 receiver is needed to translate the instructions from the environmental control unit. The unit generally uses dependant speech, where the user chooses a unique command, then trains the words and assigns the appropriate house code. Commercially available products include Hal 2000, Qwark, and Butler in a Box. Dynamic Living sells the Accenda, which allows for voice activation of the television, DVD, VCR, cable, television, and satellite. Several models of telephones are available that are voice-activated. The Able Phone allows for voice dialing and voice answering. The user programs in different names, so that when the speakerphone is turned on, the user speaks the name, and the telephone automatically dials the number. Another available product is the Ameriphone, which differs from the Able Phone in that all of the numbers in the phone’s memory are presented until the user presses a button to make a selection. Maxiaids produces a voice-activated radio/alarm clock, which allows the user to preprogram radio stations, set the wakeup alarm, and have the time read by voice commands. Maxiaids also produces the Voice Mate, which features a voice dialer, address book, scheduler, and digital recorder for messages. PDASay from Scansoft provides voice recognition and voice activation features for standard personal digital assistants.
Assistive Products Discussed: HAL 2000 HOME CONTROL SYSTEM
ACCENDA UNIVERSAL REMOTE CONTROL
DRAGON NATURALLYSPEAKING
VOICE MATE
VIAVOICE STANDARD
AMERIPHONE RC200 REMOTE CONTROLLED SPEAKERPHONE (MODEL 68281)
MASTERVOICE BUTLER-IN-A-BOX
Published by: Closing the Gap, Inc. (Website:http://www.closingthegap.com)
