The Mac-only speech specialists at MacSpeech, which recently released iListen 1.2, has certified two products for use with its speech recognition products.
One is the iMic from Griffin Technologies. The US$25 iMic, is a universal audio solution for Mac users. The adapter is USB based and has both 1/8″ and RCA left and right inputs. It can also support XLR and 1/4-inch connectors with a separate adapter.
The iMic universal audio adapter lets you connect practically any microphone or sound input device to the iBook, G4 Cube, Titanium PowerBook G4 or any other Mac with USB ports. Currently shipping, the iMic supports both line and Mic level input as well as line level output for any USB capable computer.
“Users of MacSpeech products will now be able to use virtually any microphone originally intended for PCs with their USB compatible Macintosh computers,” said Jason Litchford, product manager for Griffin Technologies.
MacSpeech has also certified the Telex H-841, USB Digital Computer Headset for use with their products. MacSpeech cited the 841’s “simple installation process, impressive microphone performance and overall comfort” as some of the reasons for its selection.
“Overall performance of any speech recognition application is highly dependant on the quality of the microphone that is being used,” according to Chuck Rogers, chief evangelist, MacSpeech. “The H-841 provides a clear, digital signal to Macintosh computers. Additionally, the H-841’s ultra-light, cushioned design is comfortable and easy for users to wear for extended periods without fatigue or pressure points.
iListen, which has “TalkAnywhere” technology, lets you dictate into virtually any Mac application. It translates speech to typed text and characters anywhere you would normally type. iListen is speaker dependent, meaning you have to spend some time “training” iListen to the unique cadence and timbre of your voice. However, it can handle multiple users, each with their own speech files. iListen was developed in cooperation with Philips Speech Processing, a specialist in speech recognition, natural dialogue and language understanding technologies. A Mac OS X version is in the works. However, for the time being, iListen doesn’t work on Mac OS X or within Mac OS X’s Classic Environment.
However, MacSpeech is also working on iDictate for Mac OS X. The product will extend MacSpeech’s TalkAnywhere technology to Apple’s newest operating system.
Designed as an introduction to speech as method for entering text into your Mac, iDictate is similar to MacSpeech’s iListen product, but lacks its command and control functions.
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