Speech recognition and speech synthesis capabilities on this dedicated hardware can be wrapped with Java software to support the Java Speech API as a special type of native implementation. 1.6 Requirements To use the Java Speech API, a user must have certain minimum software and hardware available. The following is a broad sample of requirements. The individual requirements of speech synthesizers and speech recognizers can vary greatly and users should check product requirements closely. Check the minimum and recommended requirements for CPU, memory and disk space when purchasing a speech product.
Speech synthesizers require audio output.
Speech recognizers require audio input. Most desktop and laptop computers now sold have satisfactory audio support. Most dictation systems perform better with good quality sound cards. Desktop speech recognition systems get audio input through a microphone. Some recognizers, especially dictation systems, are sensitive to the microphone and most recognition products recommend particular microphones.