The popularity of portable voice recorders that work with speech recognition has grown in part from the reluctance of many users to wear a headset. I personally have been waiting for an array microphone for years. I dream about being able to speak to the computer transparently and freely, without wearing something on my head and without a cord dangling down from my ear. You put the array either on your desk or atop your monitor and adjust the angle of it so that the microphones are pointed at your mouth. This gives a consistent speech signal to the computer even if you move around.
Arrays are a big improvement over regular desktop mics, which work poorly for speech recognition.
With an ordinary, single-element desktop mic, the sound volume and quality that the mic picks up varies tremendously unless the speaker stays in a consistent place. Over several weeks of use, both arrays lived up to their promise of providing good speech recognition quality along with freedom from headset and cords. I enjoy sitting and dictating into the air, headset-free, while the computer transcribes my speech almost as accurately as with the best headsets. There are a few drawbacks, though. Array microphones have a range of about 18 inches for good speech recognition, which means you have to be pretty close.