During the process of updating our sound settings pages for Vista, I was reminded that pre-release campaigns for Vista spoke of Speech Recognition being treated as an input device. Because speech recognition programs have been expensive and their reliability suffered, they have seen limited use. As a result, this is a new area for us, even though these programs have been available for quite some time. Curiosity and campaign promises dictated an exploration of this feature of Vista. This is a record of the experiences we had with Windows Speech Recognition.
Before the Windows Speech Recognition application, pictured here, will run there are a few tasks that need to be accomplished. First you need to locate it on your computer. As always, Windows provides more than one path. You can follow the path Start > All Programs > Accessories > Ease of Access > Windows Speech Recognition. Also, the paths Start > Control Panel > Ease of Access > Speech Recognition Options and/or right click the speaker icon in the notification area > Recording Devices > right click microphone input device on sound card > Configure Speech Recognition will get you to necessary options. Once you have found the path to Speech Recognition you now need to set it up. Due to the necessity for configuration, the first path mentioned is probably the easiest to take.
The link provided in the Accessories group of the Start Menu automatically starts the Speech Recognition Setup Wizard. While this wizard can be found in the Windows Control Panel, a large number of other options are also listed here. The recommended link eliminates the confusion by taking the user directly to the Wizard Welcome screen shown here.
The second screen of the setup wizard provides the means to tell the Speech Recognition program the type of microphone you are using. By experimenting, we were able to obtain satisfactory performance from an inexpensive Desktop Microphone that happened to be lying around. Although Headset Microphones are recommended, you may be able to duplicate our results by selecting a setting other than Desktop Microphone if you want to try out Speech Recognition without buying extra gear. The setting which provided the best results for the cheap microphone used was the Headset setting as shown here. Clicking the next button after making your selection on this screen takes you to an instructional screen.
The fourth screen of the wizard is for adjusting the volume levels of the microphone. By using the back button in the upper left corner of this screen, you can change the setting selected on the previous screen. With luck, you will find a setting that works well enough with your microphone to allow you to get past this window. This will only happen when the wizard has deemed your microphones performance to be acceptable.
After reaching the "Your microphone has been set up" screen, you will "Next" into the screen pictured here. This window provides the option for "document review" to improve speech recognition accuracy. Whether this feature is enabled or disabled is your call.
The next screen of the wizard is a bit more useful, in my opinion. It provides viewing and printing a reference list of commands to which the Speech Recognition application responds, along with some other tidbits that tend to be forgotten when not used regularly.
Shown here is a partial view of the last setting offered by the setup wizard. By checking the box labeled "Run Speech Recognition at startup", the speech recognition application will automatically start when you turn on your computer. This again is a personal preference. Clicking next on this window finishes the wizard and allows you to start the tutorial, which is highly recommended.
Once you have completed the Speech Recognition Setup Wizard and the tutorial, you will still need access to features that have just been discussed. Using the path "Start > Control Panel > Ease of Access > Speech Recognition Options" you will arrive at the screen shown here. Because speech recognition programs need to be "trained" to understand your voice, you may want to run through the Speech Tutorial a few times. You will definitely want to use the "Train your computer to better understand you" link for the same reason. You can also access the Speech Reference Card from this window. The circles on the illustration highlight these options. Here you can find links to start the Speech Recognition application, run the setup wizard and find help on the web. Before trying to do any serious work it is recommended that you take full advantage of these options. We certainly had fun with it and so will you.
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