Is Voice Recognition Software a Cost-effective Tool for Radio Transcription?
Voice Recognition Software (VRS) systems have improved steadily over the past two decades, but are probably not yet sophisticated enough to be a cost-effective transcription solution. If you are trying to determine whether using such systems would save on transcription service costs, consider the following points: • Time Factor: Time is money and, at least today, text-to-speech programs seem to take time away from the professional. VRS is not very sensitive to changing speech patterns, different accents, and does not recognize many words and names. Using it entails spending time continually ‘retraining’ the program. • Clarity of Recording: Non-verbal noises that commonly exist in the dictation process and in multiple-voice scenarios (conference transcription and multiple speaker interview transcription, for example) seriously affect the functioning of VRS. • Linguistic Factor: Very few people speak the way they write. VRS will type what you say – and the language will appear unstructur
