One year behind schedule, is hardware good enough for this?

[Mr. Bombastic]

Well, it's mid 2002 and I still can't say to my computer "Open the pod bay doors HAL" and expect any sort of useful response. A bit like the film...

I don't have a microphone, or voice recognition software, but I still wonder, with my computer how well would my computer understand voice commands?

I understand the best software is currently Scansoft's Naturally Speaking, but what microphone should I get?

The first PC I tried this on was a Pentium 500MHz. I spent 3 hours training it and could only close open windows afterwards, but it showed me a glimpse of things to come.

I have also recently lost the use of my right hand temporarily and now can't use my PC even moderately well. Both my mouse and trackball are right handed devices.

I can just imagine it now:

Me: "Computer, engage electro-magnetic utilising audio entertainment software, NOW!"

Computer: "Open Winamp?".

Me: "Affirmative, open Winamp, maximum output. Engage.".

Computer: (whispers) "Twat".

[K()th]

Dont mean to be rude but what happend to your hand?

[[DWC]DarkWolf]

Well, I know XP has some voice stuff. I was at someone's house a while back and he had it set up with winamp like you said. He could tell it all the play commands and volume and stuff, but he aslso had it setup so that he could tell it to play a genra and open a play list with all his music of that type. I'm not sure if he could ask for individuale songs or not, I don't remember. He probably could have, though, it may have required him to have a seperate command for each one. That would be more trouble than it's worth.

[Mr. Bombastic]

Originally posted by K()th
Dont mean to be rude but what happend to your hand?

It wasn't porn as some have already insinuated!

It was assault (and mugging). I have a broken wrist and had a heavy blow to my head with a steel bar too. My uni still expects me to do my exams though, and I need to be able to use my PC to revise and catch up with the work I couldn't do while I was in and out of hospital. The broken wrist means that I have to do everything with my far less dexterous left hand. Voice recognition technology would be a boon.

I figure if my mum's mobile can understand English, so should my PC.

Is there really voice recognition technology built into XP?