Since I'd specifically asked about this applicat

[Lawprof]

Since I'd specifically asked about this application before I got my Tablet, I thought I'd report back that I've installed DNS 5 Preferred (over my home Wifi net after sharing my desktop CD drive - very cool, but very slow), and it works quite well. Performance feels similar to that on my P3M 750 laptop, which is to say, quite acceptable. I don't use Write Anywhere, which another poster had noted slowed down the system, and I have always tried to keep open processes to a minimum when running voice recognition. I usually just have DNS, Word or Dragonpad and the TIP running (plus all the system tray crap.) I've tweaked XP by turning off Themes as recommended elsewhere on this forum. I'm using an Andrea headset into the mic jack of the TC1000; no fancy USB mikes yet. I think correcting on the fly with the pen is going to be much better than correcting with a mouse. Thanks to all of you who helped me make the decision.

[frede]

quote:Originally posted by Lawprof

...I'm using an Andrea headset into the mic jack of the TC1000; no fancy USB mikes yet...


I'm looking at getting a new headset mike for voice recognition. Will a USB mike make a difference? What would be the best mike to get?

[Mark]

Tim,

Congratulations! I'm glad it's working well for you. Last Friday at my office I had a minute to test the TC1000 with my office desktop P4 1.6 Mhz with 700 + MB of RAM directly using DNS 6.1 Medical. Granted, I was using two Radio Shack headsets at the same time, but they seemed to have a good voice to background noise ratio and I proceeded to read an article and watched both screens as the machines processed my voice. I was very pleased that most of the time the TC1000 was keeping up to the desktop and on occasion seemed to surpass the desktop! This was a very crude test but none the less made me feel that the other current Tablet PC's probably couldn't offer much more for voice recognition for now. I hope you continue to enjoy it and if you haven't already try to max out on RAM which also helps on speed.

Thanks,

Mark

PS. Next, I have to work on getting a better headset like the one you own.

[Mark]

frede,

I'm no expert but I have been to some voice recognition forums that have discussed using USB microphones for portable devices. I left some questions about the tablet PC which is still new to most computer users, but they were very interested in how it would work. I had read on some of their posts about USB helping in some laptops with poor sound cards or with loud fans, but after telling them about the intergrated audio they advised me that a regular mike would be OK. With my informal testing I must say that even the Radio Shack Headsets and microphone consistantly do well on the audio testing for voice to background ratio test in DNS. They do say headsets like the andrea and others are probaly the best. Hope this helps!

Mark

PS. Follow this link for the discussion on tablet PC and DNS which includes microphones from this thread:

http://www.voicerecognition.com/forums/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000613.html

[abuschek]

Hi,

I tried both: a headset plugged into the Mic-jack and my (of course expensive) Plantronics Headset which is also pretty huge if you travel with it.

At first I didn't realize a big difference: The USB was slightliy better in terms of recognition. But what I realized then: the speed with the USB (time it takes until the written text comes) was more than double with the USB! The effect: it is much more relaxing to dictate with the USB mic.

[Lawprof]

I should also mention that I'm running the TC 1000 with 768 MB of RAM, which I'm sure helps the speed. Always max out memory, it's cheap.

Some users in other forums have reported that a USB headset reduces errors from the substandard audio cards built into many notebook PCs, bypassing the internal sound system.