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I refer to recent messages about voice activated computer software and wonder if the following might be of any interest to list members. Allvoice is a firm based in Newton Abbot in the South West of England, but their products are available world wide: " Julie As promised on Friday night, I am briefly going to describe the use and potential benefits of voice recognition and dictation software for people with Parkinson's disease. No doubt it will raise a lot of questions - if you mailto:[log in to unmask] I will do my best to answer them. The main benefit of using dictation software is that it can minimise or even avoid the use of the computer keyboard and mouse. This is obviously useful for anyone who finds this difficult because he cannot direct his hand movements accurately or suffers from tremor. If set up and used correctly, dictation software can allow creation of documents in Microsoft Word, spreadsheets in Excel, presentations in PowerPoint and e-mails in Outlook as well as navigation around the internet. (I've given Microsoft examples, but it works with other applications as well). Even mouse movements can be controlled by voice. There are two major systems available: ViaVoice Pro from IBM and Dragon NaturallySpeaking which is made by ScanSoft. There are other packages available but frankly they are just not up to the job. Most people with disabilities involving hand and arm movements find NatSpeak the better solution but it depends on what use is made of it - ViaVoice might be preferable for intensive internet operations. There are various editions of both systems - IBM ViaVoice Pro is available as version 8 with a conventional headset microphone or version 9 which has a headset connecting to the computer's USB port. Both are priced at £89 in the UK. NatSpeak is more complicated - the Preferred edition version 6 is priced at £139 but there is also a Professional edition at £449 which offers just about total hands free control of the computer for those that need it. If supplied with a new computer system it is still possible to offer version 5 of both NatSpeak editions, which are quite a lot cheaper - but you don't get a manual with this slightly older version and it can't be supplied just on its own; it has to be packaged with hardware to qualify for a licence. Now, downsides - firstly, all these applications need lots of power. Ignore what it says on the boxes, we don't recommend running ViaVoice or NatSpeak on less than a Pentium III 600 with 256mb RAM and more processing power is good if available. Any new computer should be well over this level at least for processor speed if not memory, but a machine bought a couple of years ago is likely to fall short. Secondly, for effective use it is important that the software is set up correctly and the user trained to get the best out of it, and personal training isn't cheap. We charge £495 per day in mainland England & Wales - this is one-to-one hands-on training in your home or workplace and on your computer which is really the only way to do it. If someone is already "computer literate" it is possible to set it up and train yourself (both ViaVoice and NatSpeak v6 have good manuals) but someone coming to it "cold" may struggle and even quit before getting to grips with the software. This is especially important if the person's voice is quiet, slurred, or varies in tone or volume during the day (when getting tired for example). Support is also important. We can supply the software anywhere in the UK or abroad, but both NaturallySpeaking and ViaVoice are available from suppliers around the world and in local languages such as French, Italian, Spanish etc. Our training services obviously are restricted to the UK. The quoted prices are valid for May 2002 and exclude VAT, but if the software is supplied to resolve a problem directly related to a disability we can usually supply without charging VAT - we just need a suitable declaration to this effect. I hope this is helpful. More information is on our web site www.allvoice.co.uk Jon Miles Customer Services AllVoice Computing plc This message may have been dictated to my computer using AllVoice WordExpress. No dictation software is perfect and you may notice the occasional incorrect word. I apologise for any missed takes which may occur. This message is intended to be confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message from your system and notify us immediately. Unless specifically indicated otherwise, any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on this message is prohibited and may be unlawful. AllVoice operate virus checking on its network, but the onus is on the recipient to scan any attachments for viruses and AllVoice Computing plc accepts no responsibility for any infected files which may be transmitted." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn