Talk about low-cost speech recognition

Talking Technologies, formerly Responsive Systems, has announced a low-cost speech-recognition package, Voicepad Pro, developed by Kurzweil.

As the sole UK and European distributor of the product, Talking Technologies has already sold the package into consumer electronics chain Leading Edge for its outlets in Harrods and Selfridges in time for Christmas. Granada UK Rental Computer Stores is providing national availability through outlets in York, Stockport, Taunton and Croydon and Dixons is also said to be showing an interest.

Talking Technologies says that it is already seeing an overwhelming demand for the product, which is being supplied to dealers at u390 for a box of ten for selling on at a RRP of u95 (inc VAT) each. A company spokeswoman said: "The nearest competitor is Kurzweil Voice for Windows which sells at u495 (ex VAT) and beyond that there are Dragon Systems' Dragondictate and IBM's Voicetype, neither of which leave much change from u1,000."

The package, which includes a noise-limiting microphone, has such a low retail price because it uses Windows Write or Windows 95 Wordpad as the word processing element rather than weightier products like Microsoft Word. This releases plenty of processor power for the voice recognition activities.