Vocabularies were quite small and the learning curve was substantial. Today, voice recognition software packages may have an active vocabulary of 64,000-128,000 words. Specialty vocabularies may be added to supplement the active vocabulary and specific words may be added by users to complement these vocabularies. Cost f the software programs has declined dramatically and their availability has increased. Hardware requirements, by today s standards, are actually quite modest.
Many software packages come with an appropriate microphone.
Adjusting the microphone to the dictation equipment cannot be overemphasized. Notebook computers appear to be adequate to run voice recognition software, but desktop units are more durable and generally have higher quality sound cards. During our evaluations, we utilized IBM s voice recognition engine. The performance data was obtained utilizing IBM ViaVoice 98 Executive with an available medical vocabulary. This system provides an active vocabulary of 64,000 words and a general medical vocabulary of approximately 30,000 words with a 260,000-word dictionary.