What do you guys think of the present state of voice recognition?

[jasong]

I remember a long time ago, Windows 2000 I think, there was the option of controlling the computer by voice. I gave up on it because you had to repeat the same thing over and over again. VERY annoying.

I was wondering if anyone had any opinions about the present state of that technology, which I know nothing about.

[tnerual]

it's going better and better ...

but there is still one problem:

don't think it will understand you if you are ill or even you talk in a different way ... so it's fun to play with, to dictate your text but never make a "audio password"

[Shish]

I`ve been responsible for helping some disable people use VR instead of typing and it has come on the last few years and M$ have put some software in Windows to help.
We have used, also with the help of IBM, Dragon Naturally Speaking and that seems the best software to date. You still need to train it to your voice but it does have a broader range of VR now on the whole and if used regularly and you allow the time for it building up a libray of your voice sounds it has been a boon to many people and, via the computer, has also been used to control many external gadgets as well. Even speech impaired people can get some use from it as it now has a "sound recognition library" function. Can still be a bit expensive for the full out version unless you have real need of it but IBM/M$ and some other charities are helping on this project and shouldering a lot of the cost. And not publicised much either.