What is TalkingPoint SmartMike?
Posted: 16/03/2007
Question: What is TalkingPoint SmartMike?
Answer: SmartMike is a combination of Philips SpeechMike hardware with a support program. This combination makes the use of Speech Recognition with TalkingPoint even easier and more productive.
The SpeechMike includes a roller ball mouse which together with Speech Recognition allows easy full control of the computer while relaxing away from the keyboard. It also includes a set of buttons and a scroll wheel.
Flexible microphone control is provided by the top button on the back. Control is either by Press to Talk or Click to Talk. With Press to Talk, the button is pressed and held and the microphone is turned on. As soon as the button is released the microphone is turned off. With Click to Talk one click turns the microphone on, and a second click turns it off again. Either of these methods can be used at any time, it is not necessary to choose one method to use. This flexibility is further enhanced because SmartMike will turn the microphone off in circumstances where the speech engine would normally wait until it has finished processing incoming sound, which is often very inconvenient. The delay before the microphone is turned off is configurable.
The other buttons on the SpeechMike are used by Smart Mike to make other frequently used functions easily accessible. One button shows the speech engine correction box. Two other buttons provide word selection to right or left, which is further enhanced by the use of another button to position the cursor at the end of the selection. Yet another button allows the selection to be deleted. All these facilities improve productivity in any application where text is created.
On a personal note, I would hate to be without my SmartMike when using my laptop on a train, a plane or in a car, where use of a mouse is almost impossible, and the only alternative is the laptop mouse pad, which I find extremely slow and imprecise by comparison.
