Windows Vista Speech Recognition.

Windows Vista Speech recognition gives us the ability to control your computer with voice commands as well as dictate documents. Windows Vista Speech Recognition listens for Speech commands. What is not a Speech command is considered text.

There are 3 very important points you need to know prior to using Vista Speech Recognition. All points are of equal importance.

You need to train you computer to identify your voice and pronunciation.

You need to use a very good Microphone. Cheaper microphones tend to pick up a lot of background noise (eg: TV, others talking in the background).

Speak clearly and pronounce your words. Not to fast and not to slow.

Speech Recognition Voice Training.

To configure Speech recognition voice training, Start Speech Recognition. Start, Control Panel and double click Speech Recognition Options.

Click Start Speech Recognition.

The Speech Recognition interface starts.

Right click the user interface and select configuration, Improve voice recognition.

The Welcome to Speech Recognition Voice Training dialog box appears. Read the introduction and click  Next.

On the following dialog box, read aloud the text clearly. The Text you read aloud will train the speech recognition engine to identify your voice pitch and tone. You will also get a background overview of Speech Recognition technology.

Once you are finished with the initial Speech training, the you will have the option of more training (recommended).

Adding Words to the Speech Dictionary.

There are going to be times when you will need to add additional words to the Speech Recognition Dictionary. Words like names, medical terms, other highly technical terms etc.

To add words to the Speech Recognition Dictionary, follow these easy steps.

Start Speech Recognition.

Right click the user interface and click open the Speech Dictionary.

The Speech Dictionary Wizard starts. Click "Add a new word".

On the following screen, type in the new word in the Word or Expression field.

Click Next.

On the following screen, ensure "Record a pronunciation upon finish". Select appropriate capitalization for the new word.

On the following screen, click record to record for Speech Recognition.

Click Finish.

Now you can open notepad or any other text application or Office Suite and when using Speech Recognition, the word will be recognized.

Important Note:

If for some reason, Speech Recognition is having trouble recognizing certain words, just add those words with the new recording to the speech dictionary as the above.  Once you have added the words to the Speech dictionary the speech recognition will instantly recognize those words.

Controlling Windows Vista with Speech Recognition.

You can control your Windows environment through voice recognition using a short set of commands.

Let's do a quick example.

Start Speech Recognition. The Speech Recognition application is displayed.

With your microphone turned on, say the following.

"Start Listening".

You will notice the Speech application text changes from "Sleeping" to "Listening".

Now that the Speech Recognition engine is listening, say the following.

"Start Paint".

If Windows Vista Speech Recognition understood your command, MS Paint should have started. If Windows Vista did not understand your command, you should see a list of possible options as below. If you see a list similar to the one below, say the number next to "Paint" then say "ok". In my case I would say number "1", then "ok"

Now in MS Paint, say the following.

"File".

The file menu should have dropped down.

Say "Exit".

Paint should close.

Of course you can start most programs this way. You can also start programs with Speech Recognition  via the start menu. With Speech Recognition listening say,

"Start" then say "All Programs" then say "Accessories" then say "Calculator". Windows Vista calculator should start.