Sometimes we yell at our computers when they misbehave. How often do we wish we had a hammer as part of the standard equipment to knock some sense in the “damned” thing?

On the other hand, what if you actually talked to your computer and it did as it was told?

Well, all things are possible in the world of computers. Over the last 20 years or so computers software engineers have pondered this problem and come up with some computer magic, Speech Recognition. There is now software available to make this happen.

Speech Recognition is always changing with new developments occurring all the time.

A Brief History of Speech Recognition Software

Speech recognition software for personal computers began in the early 1990′s. The companies developing this valuable tool were Kurzwiel, Lernout & Hauspie, Kolvox, and Philips. The most dominant products were IBM’s ViaVoice® and Nuance’s Dragon Naturally Speaking®. Microsoft came on board late with its speech recognition program.

Initially take up of Speech Recognition by Microsoft was slow, but the company finally caught up introducing it in Windows XP, then in Windows Vista and now with a properly functioning version in Windows 7. It should be said that the initial offerings by Microsoft were rather inadequate compared with IBM’s ViaVoice® and Nuance’s Dragon Naturally Speaking®.

These early Speech Recognition applications used a technology called “discrete speech” which meant you had to pause between each word and phrase so the computer could recognize them.

Here is an example “Today…is…a…beautiful…day…I . . . am … going to . . .have . . . a . . .game . . .of. . .golf. . .full stop”

While this was slow and laborious, at around 40 words per minute, it was still amazing to see the words appear on the screen with no hand touching the keyboard.

The more recent development, “continuous speech”, enables you to speak at your “normal” speaking speed. Dragon NaturallySpeaking even adds basic punctuation, commas and full stops.

The most important elements for users of speech recognition software are accuracy, speed and ease of use. Today’s speech recognition programs provide just that!

So then, which one do you choose – Windows 7′s Speech Recognition, Dragon NaturallySpeaking or ViaVoice? It’s up to you!

In my next post I’ll discuss how you can get the most out of Speech Recognition.