Evolution of USB Soundcards for Speech Recognition

                                             

Evolution of USB Soundcards

When we first began using DragonDictate speech recognition software in the 1980’s, it seemed to be incredibly impressive technology. Never minding the very deliberate pause after each and every word, we waited with baited breath to see another (hopefully correct) word miraculously appear on our somewhat blurry little screens. It was fun! It was frustrating! It was not very practical. Back then, the couple of wired analog headset microphone choices available to us were more than adequate.

In 1996, NaturallySpeaking continuous speech recognition was released. With the emergence of this new technology, we had a viable tool for professional as well as personal use. That being the case, we needed microphones and soundcards designed to better utilize this increasingly more sophisticated software. Microphone manufacturers responded, with USB soundcard manufacturers following close behind. The 1st USB soundcard was a large black plastic contraption, manufactured by Telex. While great in theory, in practice it was actually worse than most integrated soundcards. In 2000, Telex released the H-531 USB headset microphone. This was much smaller but included a substandard (consumer grade) microphone element which was not much bigger than the head of a pin and produced barely acceptable accuracy. While Telex stopped producing USB soundcards before the release of Windows XP, they had at least gotten the ball rolling. Companies like Andrea Electronics and VXI then picked up the slack and additional companies have since jumped on the bandwagon. They’ve come a long way since the 1st USB microphone came out in the late 90s.

Today, a USB soundcard just might be your best option if:

• Your desktop computer is one of the 99.9% of computers that includes an integrated soundcard (which we don’t recommend using)

• Your desktop computer doesn’t have a Sound Blaster PCI soundcard

• You are using a tablet or notebook computer (as they all have integrated soundcards)

• Getting the highest possible accuracy from your speech software is of the utmost importance to you

• You are using a Mac computer

• You are using one of many of the latest notebook computers, which no longer support standard microphone input

EMRConsultant.com and the EMRConsultant Forums

While at KnowBrainer.com we are the Dragon Medical experts, EMRConsultant.com and the EMRConsultant Forums are great recourses for finding an EMR suitable to your specific needs. Their technology will effectively compare your practice needs to the 600 electronic medical record (EMR) / electronic health record (EHR) solutions in their database. They will narrow down the search results and provide you with the most appropriate EHR recommendations for your practice.

Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2 end user reviews

The following is a thread from the KnowBrainer Speech Recognition Forums featuring some feedback and comments from actual physicians about their experiences the Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2.
http://www.knowbrainer.com/forums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=4&threadid=16748&enterthread=y

Dragon Medical Practice Edition and Care360

The following is a thread form the KnowBrainer Speech Recognition Forums (EMR / Medical Dictation sub forum) involving Dragon Medical and Care360. http://www.knowbrainer.com/forums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=10&threadid=16788&enterthread=y

Dragon Medical Vocabularies

Vocabularies
Dragon® Medical Practice Edition contains medical vocabularies covering more than 90 medical specialties and subspecialties.

It is important that you select the correct vocabulary. Using a specialized medical vocabulary that covers the cases you see in your medical practice will offer you the highest recognition and productivity gains. Selecting a non-medical vocabulary or the medical vocabulary of a different specialty can have a significant impact on your recognition accuracy.

OVERVIEW OF THE COVERED SPECIALTIES AND SUBSPECIALTIES
General English: Non-medical vocabulary for dictating emails, letters, etc.
 
General Medical: A broad, non-specific medical vocabulary covering a wide range of medical specialties. Select this model if no other choice is applicable to you.

  • Allergy and Immunology • Anesthesiology Anesthesiology Subspecialties: – Pain Medicine • Cardiology – Cardiovascular Disease – Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology – Interventional Cardiology • Colon and Rectal Surgery • Dermatology Dermatology Subspecialties: – Dermatopathology • Emergency Medicine • ENT ENT Subspecialties: – Otolaryngology • Family Medicine • Internal Medicine Internal Medicine Subspecialties: – EEG– EMG Examination– Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism– Gastroenterology– Geriatric Medicine– Hematology– Infectious Disease– Medical Microbiology– Medical Toxicology– Nephrology– Oncology– Proctology– Pulmonary Disease– Rheumatology • Neurology Neurology Subspecialties: – Neurodevelopmental Disabilities– Neuromuscular Medicine– Neuropathology– Neurotology • Neurosurgery • Nuclear Medicine • Obstetrics and Gynecology Obstetrics and Gynecology Subspecialties: – Fetal Medicine • Ophthalmology • Orthopedic Surgery Orthopedic Surgery Subspecialties:– Hand Surgery • Pathology • Pediatrics Pediatrics Subspecialties: – Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics– Pediatric Otolaryngology– Pediatric Pathology– Pediatric Pulmonology– Pediatric Rheumatology– Pediatric Transplant Hepatology • Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation • Plastic Surgery • Psychiatry Psychiatry Subspecialties: – Addiction Psychiatry • Radiation Therapy • Radiology Radiology Subspecialties: – Diagnostic Radiology– Vascular and Interventional Radiology • Surgery Surgery Subspecialties: – Bariatric Surgery– Breast Surgery– Cardiac Surgery– Cardiothoracic Surgery– Oral and Facial Surgery– Thoracic Surgery– Transplant Hepatology– Urology _ Vascular Surgery • Other Specializations: – Behavioral Health – Blood Bank and Transfusion Medicine – Case Management – Chiropractice – Dentistry – Pediatric Dentistry – Epidemiology – Medical Education and Writing – Midwifery – Nursing – Osteopathy – Podiatry – Psychology – Radiation Oncology – Social Worker – Speech and Language Pathology – Spinal Cord Injury Medicine – Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine– Sleep Lab

If your specialty is not listed, please use the following guide to determine the vocabulary you should select.

If your specialty is:	We recommend choosing this vocabulary:
Behavioral Health	Psychiatry
Blood Banking/ Transfusion Medicine	Pathology
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology	Cardiology
Dermatopathology	Pathology
EMG Examinations	Neurology
EEG	Psychiatry
Interventional Cardiology	Internal Medicine
Medical Microbiology	Pathology
Medical Oncology	Internal Medicine
Medical Toxicology	Emergency Medicine
Neurodevelopmental Disabilities	Pediatrics
Neuromuscular Medicine	Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Neurotology	ENT
Otolaryngology	ENT
Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine	Emergency Medicine
Transplant Hepatology	Internal Medicine
Spinal Cord Injury Medicine	Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

For More Information Visit www.KnowBrainer.com , www.TheMicrophoneStore.com or call 615-884-4558

Dragon Medical FAQ

What Healthcare Challenges Does Dragon Medical Practice Edition Solve?

EHRs offer the potential to dramatically improve the cost and quality of healthcare. Despite this potential, EHR software is used by only 57% of clinicians in the U.S. today. In order to understand the potential benefits of Dragon ® Medical Practice Edition, it is important to articulate the factors that are driving U.S. healthcare toward EHR adoption, as well as the factors that are inhibiting EHR adoption. Incentive payments to physicians have dramatically accelerated EHR software purchasing and implementation. Passed in 2009, the Health IT for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) provides physicians up to $64,000 each ‘for showing that they are meaningfully using health information technology’, by purchasing and using CCHIT-certified (www.cchit.org) EHRs. According to the 2010 CapSite Ambulatory EHR and PM Study, 42% of all physician practices indicated they had purchased an EHR in the previous two years— up from 37% a year earlier. Physicians must also purchase EHRs in order to report to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) a number of Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs), as well as maintain Problem Lists and Medication Lists. Clearly, EHR templates are required to capture these elements of the patient encounter to meet CMS guidelines. Dragon Medical Practice Edition is the speech recognition solution from Nuance ® Healthcare designed for use not only by doctors but also nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, therapists, and other care providers. For practices with less than 25 physicians, Dragon Medical Practice Edition is the only real-time speech recognition solution which fits busy clinicians’ needs. Dragon Medical Practice Edition introduces a faster, more efficient way for medical professionals to create medical records, medical correspondence, or email messages. Dragon Medical Practice Edition introduces a new, faster speech recognition engine that is over 20% more accurate than previous versions. This solution turns voice into text three times faster than most people can type, with up to 99% accuracy, using any Windows ®-based EHR system. Dragon Medical Practice Edition includes vocabularies covering more than 90 medical specialties.

  WHY USE DRAGON MEDICAL PRACTICE EDITION? Here are just a few reasons why Dragon Medical Practice Edition is for you: • Improves the quality, efficiency, and profitability of the care you provide • Raises clinician satisfaction Physicians who use Dragon Medical Practice Edition report that it makes the practice of medicine more enjoyable and that they can get home in time for dinner—no more late nights and weekends catching up on dictating/typing and signing patient charts. • Accelerates EHR adoption Clinicians can dictate the ‘medical decision-making’—History of Present Illness, Review of Symptoms, Assessment and Plan—while within the EHR. • Helps you dictate notes in your own words Create robust, meaningful notes that truly capture the patient encounter—rather than the ‘cookie-cutter’ notes that are often provided by many EHR templates.

  HOW DOES DRAGON MEDICAL PRACTICE EDITION COMPARE WITH OTHER DRAGON NON-MEDICAL PRODUCTS? Nuance provides other Dragon products, such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking ® Professional 12 and Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 12, which are excellent speech recognition products for ‘general-purpose’ home or business use. However, the size and scope of Dragon Medical Practice Edition’s medical vocabularies provides a far superior dictation experience for physicians compared with Dragon Professional or Dragon Premium. Tests comparing products used in a clinical setting show that Dragon Medical Practice Edition is over 30% more accurate than Dragon Professional 12 for dictating patient records. Dragon Medical Practice Edition covers more than 90 medical specialties, which means that you won’t encounter missing terms or phrases—they’re all there ‘out of the box’. Physicians using Dragon Professional would lose thousands of dollars in practice revenue, or more than a year in time spent correcting errors, or adding medical terms that are already in Dragon Medical Practice Edition. As a result, Dragon Medical Practice Edition is the most cost-effective Dragon speech recognition for clinicians in physician practice settings—by far. Further, Dragon Medical Practice Edition protects sensitive and confidential patient information by supporting encrypted network file storage of speech files, helping your organization satisfy HIPAA privacy and confidentiality guidelines. Dragon Medical Practice Edition features secure encryption methods, which provide even greater levels of information security.

HOW MANY PHYSICIANS ARE USING DRAGON MEDICAL SPEECH RECOGNITION SOLUTIONS TODAY? Today, more than 180,000 physicians worldwide have chosen Dragon Medical. Physicians are adopting Dragon Medical speech recognition solutions as rapidly as they are adopting EHR systems. Physicians are also using ‘front-end’ (dictate, edit, and sign without transcription) speech recognition in other specialties. In radiology, for example, nearly 50% of all radiologists are using Nuance’s PowerScribe® 360 solution. Nuance Healthcare also offers Dragon Medical 360 | eScription™ which applies ‘background’ or back-end speech recognition. Using Dragon Medical 360 | eScription, a physician dictates into a standard telephone, and his or her speech is processed offline by speech recognition and edited by a Medical Transcriptionist while listening to the physician’s original dictation file. More than 150,000 physicians are believed to use a background speech recognition system.

ARE THERE DIFFERENT PRODUCTS IN THE DRAGON MEDICAL FAMILY? WHICH PRODUCT IS RIGHT FOR MY ORGANIZATION? Dragon Medical is available in two distinct pricing and packaging versions designed to meet the needs of these distinct customer groups: • For independent practices with less than 25 physicians, Dragon Medical Practice Edition is the only real-time speech recognition solution which fits busy clinicians’ needs. Dragon Medical Practice Edition introduces a faster, more efficient way for medical professionals to create medical records, medical correspondence, or email messages. Dragon Medical Practice Edition introduces a new, faster speech recognition engine that is over 20% more accurate than previous versions. This solution turns voice into text three times faster than most people can type, with up to 99% accuracy, using any Windows-based EHR system. • Large (25+ physicians) practices, hospitals, and health systems and practices owned by hospitals, should deploy Dragon Medical 360 | Network Edition. Dragon Medical 360 | Network Edition is the most effective solution for healthcare organizations to deploy mission-critical, industrial-strength speech recognition across the enterprise. Dragon Medical 360 | Network Edition is designed for large practices or hospitals that have deployed enterprise-wide EHR solutions and now can add speech recognition as an enabling technology for all physicians in the organization. This version provides: – vSync for EHRs vSync is advanced Nuance Healthcare technology, which creates a virtual channel between the client PC and virtualization servers, passing pertinent EHR text box information to Dragon Medical 360 | Network Edition. vSync keeps Dragon Medical 360 | Network Edition and the EHR system continuously in sync. – The Nuance Management Console This powerful tool allows Dragon Medical 360 | Network Edition customers to centrally manage users across an entire provider organization. Management capabilities of the Nuance Management Console include the ability to assign batch settings and properties to groups of users (or individuals), as well as schedule batch updates of new releases, and track Dragon Medical 360 | Network Edition performance and usage. The Nuance Management Console will substantially reduce the total cost of ownership and ongoing management of Dragon Medical 360 | Network Edition. – Dragon Medical 360 | Network Edition Client A ‘real-time’ speech recognition program that works with virtually any Microsoft® Windows-based or EHR in a virtualized environment for efficient report completion and easy navigation. It includes optional user login and passwords. As part of the installation in a virtualized environment, there is a component that connects with vSync over a virtual channel that receives pertinent text box information, ensuring that Dragon Medical 360 | Network Edition and the EHR are continuously in sync.

WITH WHICH EHRS DOES DRAGON MEDICAL PRACTICE EDITION WORK? Making EHRs easy to use by significantly reducing the number of mouse clicks and typing, Dragon Medical Practice Edition enables clinicians to document care much more efficiently. This solution seamlessly drives all major EHR systems. The Dragon Medical EHR Certification program is designed to ensure seamless Dragon Medical workflow with EHRs. Testing within each EHR system focuses on how a provider would ultimately use Dragon Medical Practice Edition within the physician documentation portion of a given application. For more information on the program, please search the web for ‘Dragon Medical Certification’ or visit www.nuance.com/ for-partners/by-solution/healthcare-solutions/ dragon-medical-certified-ehrs/index.htm

WHERE CAN I BUY DRAGON MEDICAL PRACTICE EDITION? Dragon Medical Practice Edition is designed for physician practices with up to 24 physicians. Dragon Medical Practice Edition is sold through a nationwide network of more than 300 resellers. To find a local reseller from whom you would like to purchase and get support, please visit www.KnowBrainer.com, or call a sales representative at 615-884-4558.

WHAT’S NEW IN DRAGON MEDICAL PRACTICE EDITION? Major Features and Enhancements: • Recognition accuracy Turns voice into text with up to 99% accuracy. Dragon Medical Practice Edition is over 20% more accurate ‘out of the box’ than previous versions. • Recognition analytics A percentage of misrecognitions can be caused by simple audio quality issues, such as incorrect microphone connection or placement, background noise, and microphone out of range or low on battery. Dragon Medical Practice Edition automatically detects poor audio input; it then alerts the user (in various ways depending on the issue), offering advice to remedy the situation. • Recognition speed Dragon Medical Practice Edition significantly improves recognition response time. The software is also faster than previous editions when selecting application menu items by voice, or executing voice commands that perform actions within applications (e.g., "insert page break", "make that red", etc.). • New Dragon Box A major enhancement over the previous version’s Sample Commands window, this new desktop assistant allows users to discover and remember many commands and tips; at any time, it lets you glance at or explore global commands (including mouse commands), application-specific commands and custom-created commands, as well as tips. Its contents change depending on what window is currently active. In addition, the Dragon Box lets users print its content. (Note: This feature can be viewed by selecting from the Help menu). Nuance has developed the Dragon Medical EHR Certification Program to facilitate collaboration In addition to these major new features and enhancements, Dragon Medical Practice Edition includes dozens of other new features and enhancements, some of which are described below and categorized for ease of review. Accuracy Features: • Regional accent support Dragon Medical Practice Edition supports many regional accents of non-native speakers (Asian-Pacific, Asian-Indian, Australian, British, Hispanic, Pakistani), and U.S. accents (Deep South, Northern Inland). System Management Features: • Upgradeable Uses voice profiles and language models from Dragon Medical Versions 9, 10 and Dragon Medical Practice Edition 1, so your voice profile and all commands, added words, phrases and macros are available.

PRODUCT BENEFITS Clinicians receive the following advantages from Dragon Medical Practice Edition over previous versions or non-medical Dragon products:

More Efficient Care: • Dictate faster and more accurately than ever Dragon Medical Practice Edition is over 20% more accurate than previous versions— saving valuable minutes. Additionally, Dragon Medical Practice Edition has virtually instant response time, saving clinicians valuable minutes in their day.

  • Dictate anywhere in your EHR system Dragon Medical Practice Edition allows clinicians to dictate anywhere in an EHR system, while reviewing Lab Tests, Patient History, or Current Medications. Clinicians no longer have to click back and forth between information they’re reviewing and the dictation window. They dictate while reviewing information, and the improved Hidden Mode feature allows the clinician to paste the dictation directly where he or she wants it.

• Accelerate clinician adoption and acceptance of EHR systems Dragon Medical Practice Edition reduces time spent documenting care in an EHR: – Voice commands specific to each EHR reduce the amount of searching and mouse-clicks needed to move to the right screens. – ‘Free text’ open dictation of medical decision making (History of Present Illness, Assessment, Plan, and other elements of a medical note) directly into the EHR eliminates the need for clinicians to type. More Effective Care:

• Spend more time with patients Increased accuracy and fewer errors to correct means clinicians can spend more time with patients, improving patient satisfaction.

  • Dictate in your own words Dragon Medical Practice Edition free-text dictation capability supports more detailed History of Present Illness, more flexible Review of Symptoms, and more descriptive Assessment and Plan—the ‘medical decision-making’ aspects of the note—which give referring clinicians and ancillary providers a clearer and more detailed patient assessment and prognosis.

  • Secure patient information Dragon Medical Practice Edition supports HIPAA compliance guidelines to protect patient confidentiality.

  • Improve Clinician Satisfaction Clinicians who use Dragon Medical Practice Edition report that it significantly improves their enjoyment of practicing medicine. By allowing them to use their time more effectively, clinicians’ quality of life is improved.

More Profitable Care:

• Dramatically Reduce the Cost of Documentation Eliminate transcription by speech-enabling the EHR, freeing up resources to focus more on patients and invest in methods to help practice efficiency. Practices that are using Dragon Medical Practice Edition today are dramatically reducing transcription costs, which range from $500 to $1,000 a month per physician.

• Support Higher Levels of Reimbursement Independent studies have shown that clinicians create more detailed notes with Dragon Medical Practice Edition than with notes built with ‘point-and-click’, template-only EHR menus. • Increase Practice Volume Faster, more accurate response reduces time spent on dictation, allowing clinicians to see more patients and increase practice revenue and profitability.

HOW IS DRAGON MEDICAL PRACTICE EDITION LICENSED?

Dragon Medical Practice Edition is purchased for use on a per-user basis. A user is defined as one (1) individual who dictates in Dragon Medical Practice Edition. A licensed user may install Dragon Medical Practice Edition up to four times for use by that same user only. A Dragon Medical Practice Edition license may not be used by more than one clinician, even if other users use the same PC.

WHAT BENEFITS SHOULD PHYSICIAN PRACTICES EXPECT FROM USING DRAGON MEDICAL PRACTICE EDITION?

Nuance Communications designed Dragon Medical Practice Edition for use by not only doctors but also nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, therapists, and other care providers. For independently owned practices with less than 25 physicians, Dragon Medical Practice Edition is the only real-time speech recognition solution which fits busy clinicians’ needs. Dragon Medical Practice Edition introduces a faster, more efficient way for medical professionals to create medical records, medical correspondence, or email messages. Dragon Medical Practice Edition introduces a new, faster speech recognition engine that is over 20% more accurate than previous versions. This solution turns voice into text three times faster than most people can type, with up to 99% accuracy, using any Windows-based EHR system. Dragon Medical Practice Edition includes vocabularies covering more than 90 medical specialties and subspecialties.

DO CLINICIANS STILL NEED TO USE A KEYBOARD AND MOUSE? Although clinicians can use Dragon Medical Practice Edition to do almost everything on their computer by voice, some tasks are still easier to do by mouse or keyboard. Dragon Medical Practice Edition allows clinicians to develop powerful speech commands and macros, which automate navigation and other repetitive tasks, saving countless clicks and keystrokes. If using a mouse and keyboard are an option for clinicians, they should try experimenting with using their voice and hands for different tasks to see what works best.

WHAT ARE THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS? Recommended System Requirements:

• CPU: 2.4 GHz Intel Dual Core or equivalent AMD processor. (IMPORTANT: SSE2 instruction set required)
• Processor Cache: 2 MB
• Free hard disk space: 5 GB
• RAM: 2 GB RAM for XP and Vista, and 4 GB for Windows 7, 8 and 2008 64-bit/2012
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10 (free download at www.microsoft.com) Creative

1. ® Labs Sound Blaster® 16 or equivalent sound card supporting 16-bit recording

• USB or DVD-ROM drive required for installation

Supported Operating Systems:

• Microsoft Windows 8, 32-bit and 64-bit
• Microsoft Windows 7, 32-bit and 64-bit
• Microsoft Windows Vista SP2, 32-bit and 64-bit
• Microsoft Windows XP SP3, 32-bit only
• Windows Server 2008, SP1, SP2, and R2, 32-bit and 64-bit (Windows 2008 R2 64 bit SP2 ONLY)

Applications:

• DragonPad
• WordPad
• NotePad
• Microsoft

1. ® Word 2007, 2010 (32 & 64 bit), 2013 (32 & 64 bit)

• Microsoft

1. ® Outlook® 2007, 2010, 2013

• Microsoft

1. ® Excel® 2007, 2010, 2013

• WordPerfect

1. ® x5, x6

• Apache OpenOffice Writer 3.4
• Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10
• RIA IE9
• Mozilla

1. ® Firefox® 8+

• RIA FF 12+
• RIA Google Chrome 16+
• Windows Live Mail
• Mozilla

1. ® Thunderbird™ x3 and up

• Lotus Notes 8.5
• FTC in Gmail and Hotmail thanks to RIA plug-in

WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VOCABULARIES?

Dragon Medical Practice Edition contains vocabularies covering more than 90 medical specialties and subspecialties, so it is likely that your specialty will appear on the list. If your specialty is not covered, you should choose either the general medicine or the specialty vocabulary that is closest to the specialty you perform.

ABOUT NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS

Nuance Communications is the market leader in creating clinical understanding solutions that drive smart, efficient decisions across healthcare. As the largest clinical documentation provider in the U.S., Nuance provides intelligent systems and services that improve the entire clinical documentation process—from the capture of the complete patient record to clinical documentation improvement, coding, compliance and appropriate reimbursement. More than 450,000 physicians and 10,000 healthcare facilities worldwide leverage Nuance’s award-winning, voice-enabled clinical documentation and analytics solutions to support the physician in any clinical workflow and on any device. To learn more about how Nuance Communications can help you improve financial performance, raise the quality of care, and increase clinician satisfaction, please contact KnowBrainer, Inc. at http://www.knowbrainer.com/ or 615-884-4558

COEXISTENCE WITH PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF DRAGON MEDICAL?

Only one version of Dragon Medical Practice Edition can be installed on the system. NOTE: Running previous versions of Dragon Medical speech recognition solutions concurrently with Dragon Medical Practice Edition is not supported. NOTE: Coexistence with Dragon Medical SDK Client Edition versions is not supported.

UPGRADING FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF DRAGON MEDICAL SPEECH RECOGNITION SOLUTIONS

Clinicians can upgrade from Small Practice Box or the Enterprise Edition of Dragon Medical version 9, 10 or Dragon Medical Practice Edition 1 to Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2. When upgrading from these previous versions, clinicians can choose to migrate their user files and vocabularies to Dragon Medical Practice Edition. Once Dragon Medical Practice Edition is installed, previous versions will no longer be functional. If clinicians choose not to upgrade their user files and vocabularies during the upgrade, they can do so at a later time by running the Dragon Medical Practice Edition Upgrade Tool. In addition, clinicians can upgrade from previous versions of Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional to Dragon Medical Practice Edition.

What Healthcare Challenges Does Dragon Medical Practice Edition

What Healthcare Challenges Does Dragon Medical Practice Edition Solve?

EHRs offer the potential to dramatically improve the cost and quality of healthcare. Despite this potential, EHR software is used by only 57% of clinicians in the U.S. today. In order to understand the potential benefits of Dragon

® Medical Practice Edition, it is important to articulate the factors that are driving U.S. healthcare toward EHR adoption, as well as the factors that are inhibiting EHR adoption.

  Incentive payments to physicians have dramatically accelerated EHR software purchasing and implementation. Passed in 2009, the Health IT for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) provides physicians up to $64,000 each ‘for showing that they are meaningfully using health information technology’, by purchasing and using CCHIT-certified (www.cchit.org) EHRs. According to the 2010 CapSite Ambulatory EHR and PM Study, 42% of all physician practices indicated they had purchased an EHR in the previous two years— up from 37% a year earlier.


Physicians must also purchase EHRs in order to report to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) a number of Clinical Quality Measures (CQMs), as well as maintain Problem Lists and Medication Lists. Clearly, EHR templates are required to capture these elements of the patient encounter to meet CMS guidelines.

Dragon Medical Practice Edition is the speech recognition solution from Nuance ® Healthcare designed for use not only by doctors but also nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, therapists, and other care providers. For practices with less than 25 physicians, Dragon Medical Practice Edition is the only real-time speech recognition solution which fits busy clinicians’ needs.

  Dragon Medical Practice Edition introduces a faster, more efficient way for medical professionals to create medical records, medical correspondence, or email messages. Dragon Medical Practice Edition introduces a new, faster speech recognition engine that is over 20% more accurate than previous versions. This solution turns voice into text three times faster than most people can type, with up to 99% accuracy, using any Windows ®-based EHR system. Dragon Medical Practice Edition includes vocabularies covering more than 90 medical specialties.

  WHY USE DRAGON MEDICAL PRACTICE EDITION?
Here are just a few reasons why Dragon Medical Practice Edition is for you:

• Improves the quality, efficiency, and profitability of the care you provide

• Raises clinician satisfaction

Physicians who use Dragon Medical Practice Edition report that it makes the practice of medicine more enjoyable and that they can get home in time for dinner—no more late nights and weekends catching up on dictating/typing and signing patient charts.

The New Philips DPM-8000 Takes over the #1 Position from the Olympus DS-7000

Within a few days, Philips will be shipping the long-awaited Digital Pocket Memo 8000 digital recorder. In brief, Philips has managed to knock the Olympus DS-7000 out of the #1 position by introducing higher accuracy, less dropout, best ergonomic design, largest high-resolution backlit color display, faster boot up and a new laser sensor wear free slider control wrapped in an impressive looking stainless steel case. Click KnowBrainer Digital Recorder Face-Off for a more in-depth review.

SpeechWare TableMikes

SpeechWares TableMike Line of microphones: 3-in-1 TableMike, 6-in-1 TableMike and 9-in-1 TableMike  If you would like more information on these products visit http://www.knowbrainer.com/ or call 615-884-4558

SpeechWare 6-in-1 TableMike

SpeechWare 6-in-1 TableMike (Great with Dragon Medical) Product Overview - If you would like more information on these products visit http://www.knowbrainer.com/ or call 615-884-4558

Dragon Medical Hardware

Dragon Medical Hardware Overview, If you would like more information on these products visit http://www.knowbrainer.com/ or call 615-884-4558

SpeechWare 9-in-1 TableMike For Dragon Medical

SpeechWare 9-in-1 USB TableMike - Product Overview
If you would like more information about this product visit us at http://www.knowbrainer.com or give us a call at 615-884-4558

Dragon Medical Practice Edition 10 Pack

Dragon Medical Practice Edition 10 Pack Overview - If you would like more information on these products visit http://www.knowbrainer.com/ or call 615-884-4558

Dragon Medical 12 Upgrade

Dragon Medical 12 Upgrade Information - If you would like more information on these products visit http://www.knowbrainer.com/ or call 615-884-4558

Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2 / Dragon Medical 12 vs. NaturallySpeaking Professional

Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2 / Dragon Medical 12 vs. NaturallySpeaking Professional

Dragon Medical 12 Microphones / Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2 Microphones

Dragon Medical 12 Microphones / Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2 Microphones

Dragon Medical 12 Digital Recorders / Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2 Digital Recorders

Dragon Medical 12 Digital Recorders / Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2 Digital Recorders

Dragon Medical 12 & Computers / Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2 & Computers

Dragon Medical 12 & Computers / Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2 & Computers

Dragon Medical Practice Edition 2 Support / Dragon Medical 12 Support

Dragon Medical Practice 2 - Dragon Medical 12 and Support

Philips DPM 8000 Professional Digital Pocket Memo LFH-8000

Philips DPM 8000 Professional Digital Pocket Memo LFH-8000 Product Overview -- If you would like more information visit http://www.knowbrainer.com/   or call 615-884-4558

Dragon Medical Tablet Microphone Solution - Speechware TravelMike

The SpeechWare TravelMike, the Tablet-Laptop Microphone Solution - If you would like more information about this product visit us at http://www.knowbrainer.com or give us a call at 615-884-4558

Dragon Medical and Handheld Microphones

HANDHELD MICROPHONE FACE-OFF Dictaphone PowerMic II, Philips Premium SpeechMike, Grundig Digta SonicMic II & Olympus DirectTrec

October 8, 2012

 

Introduction:

While preparing to review the new Philips Premium SpeechMike LFH-3500, it occurred to me that the most effective way to do so would be in the context of the top rated handheld speech recognition microphones. The following review consists of 3 parts: (1) My personal take on the evolution of speech recognition microphones (2) A general consensus of 8 we went with speech recognition experts on the pros and cons of what we believe to be the top 5 handheld microphones (3) My personal assessment of what the numbers mean If you wish to skip past the brief microphone history, click Pros and Cons. If you wish to skip further ahead to my conclusions, click recommendations.

Evolution of Speech Recognition Microphones

 

When we first began using DragonDictate speech recognition software in the 1980’s it seemed to be incredibly impressive technology. Never minding the very deliberate pause after each and every word, we waited with baited breath to see another (hopefully correct) word miraculously appear on our somewhat blurry little screens. It was fun! It was frustrating! It was not very practical. Back then, the couple of wired headset microphone choices available to us were more than adequate. In 1996, NaturallySpeaking continuous speech recognition was released. With the emergence of this new technology, we had a viable tool for professional as well as personal use. That being the case, we needed microphones designed to better utilize this increasingly more sophisticated software and microphone manufacturers have responded.

Hand Held Microphone History:

Around the turn of the century, Philips dominated the handheld microphone market by introducing the 1^st non-USB SpeechMike which combined programmable buttons with a rollerball handheld mouse/microphone. The 1^st units even included a 3 level volume control for various environments (a feature we really could have used on the SpeechMike II and III). One of the main problems with the SpeechMike II was the daily necessity of having to remove oil from the plastic rollerball with rubbing alcohol. Some end-users even resorted to cutting off the thumb from a pair of latex gloves so that they didn’t have to clean the ball so often. Eventually Philips replaced the SpeechMike with several USB models of the SpeechMike II which kicked everything up a notch. The plastic ball was coated with mother-of-pearl to resist oily fingers. A number of other handheld microphone manufacturers, like Grundig and Olympus, additionally took a shot at the handheld market which remained firmly in Philips grasp until about 4 years ago when Nuance upped the ante by releasing the Dictaphone PowerMic II. As the manufacturer of both Dragon Medical and the PowerMic II, Nuance enjoyed the advantage of being able to embed the PowerMic II application right into Dragon Medical but another advantage was the introduction of idiot proof programmable buttons that not only allowed you to program the usual dozen or so NaturallySpeaking hotkey commands but additionally permit the end-user to program any NaturallySpeaking, personal or even a third-party macro by simply typing the name of the command into the button field. Within a few months after the PowerMic II’s introduction, it literally took over the market that Philips had dominated for over a decade. Philips answered that challenge by introducing the SpeechMike Air and the SpeechMike III about 2 years ago. Although Philips didn’t market the 1^st wireless handheld microphone (that distinction belongs to the Grundig Digta CordEx) Philips made it work. Although the SpeechMike III introduced a new look and feel, including an antibiotic housing, it was unable to recover the market share it lost to Nuance so Philips went back to the drawing board and came up with the SpeechMike Premium LFH 3500 (think of it as the SpeechMike IV) which introduced additional programmable buttons, large playback speaker, automatic mute (when you lay the microphone down on a flat surface), integrated pop filter, precision stainless steel laser scanned self lubricating removable trackball, improved signal-to-noise ratio, completely redesigned more sensitive extended-range jar proof microphone element, higher accuracy, polished surface (to reduce unwanted fingertip noises), motion sensor, ergonomically improved and most importantly… SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED noise filtering. This is the 1^st handheld microphone that can effectively be used in a crowded Emergency Room. In my opinion, the greatest problem with other handheld microphones is noise filtering. Fortunately, Philips seems to have found a solution. A handheld microphone just might be your best option if:

• You find headset microphones to be uncomfortable
• You are self-conscious about wearing a headset in front of others
• You like the idea of using a hand-held microphone with programmable buttons that additionally doubles as a mouse controller
• You dislike having to continuously don and remove your headset
• You need an easily portable microphone that you can take from place to place
• You take the time to arrange your hair just the way you like it and THAT IS HOW YOU WANT TO KEEP IT!

Below is given a general consensus of 8 speech recognition experts on the pros and cons of what we believe to be the top 5 hand held microphones, followed by our ratings.

Pros & Cons

Dictaphone PowerMic II Pros: MSRP: $499/$399 Street Accuracy: 99% Noise Cancellation: 7 out of 10 Overall Rating: 9 out of 10

• 99% Accuracy
• Official Nuance Dragon Medical Practice Edition microphone
• Rugged construction and extra thick cabling
• No other handheld microphone comes close when it comes to the ease and flexibility of programming the buttons. The PowerMic II is also the first model to introduce the ability to program any NaturallySpeaking macro, third-party macro or personal command. Note that this feature is now included with the Philips SpeechMikes
• The perfect microphone for network deployments because the PowerMic II application is automatically installed with Dragon Medical
• 90 day manufacturer warranty

Dictaphone PowerMic II Cons:

• 90 day warranty
• Only works with Dragon Medical
• More expensive than competitive units
• Barcode Reader option is high priced

Philips SpeechMike Air Pros: MSRP: $499 (wireless) & $309+ (wired) Accuracy:99% Noise Cancellation: 7 out of 10 Overall Rating: 10 out of 10

• 99% Accuracy
• Very well constructed including lots of informative lights
• The only handheld WIRELESS microphone in this group
• Vibrates to signal when you were wondering out of range and chirps if you go completely out of range
• Doubles as a desktop microphone and can be used from a distance of up to 14 inches
• Includes AC adapters for use in other countries
• Use on multiple computers by leaving the base station and relocating the removable Bluetooth dongle
• LFH-3200 & LFH-3215 are lower priced wired versions of the SpeechMike Air that additionally include a micro antimicrobial skin
• 1 year manufacturer warranty

Philips SpeechMike Air Cons:

• Cannot be pared to more than 1 Bluetooth adapter

Philips SpeechMike Premium LFH 3500 Pros: MSRP: $335 Accuracy:100% Noise Cancellation: 9 out of 10 Overall Rating: 10 out of 10

• 100% Accuracy
• Doubles as a desktop TableMike that can be used from a distance of up to 16 inches when combined with the complementary KnowBrainer TableMike adapter (KnowBrainer Website Store Exclusive)
• Recipient of Nuance’s highest 6 Dragon rating
• Very well constructed including lots of informative lights
• More sensitive than any other handheld microphone (longer-range)
• Improved signal-to-noise ratio over other Philips handhelds
• 2 additional programmable buttons over the LFH 3200 series
• Jar/bump free-floating decoupled microphone element
• Antimicrobial housing
• Like the PowerMic II, the LFH 3500 allows you to program any NaturallySpeaking factory or end-user commands into the programmable buttons but extends this functionality to all versions of NaturallySpeaking. The PowerMic II limits this functionality to Dragon Medical
• Built-in high precision “CLICKABLE” stainless steel laser scanned self lubricating removable trackball
• Largest playback speaker in its class
• Automatic microphone mute when setting on a flat surface
• Integrated pop filter
• Programmable buttons can be used to program any NaturallySpeaking factory or end-user personal macro (like the PowerMic II)
• Auto volume control (increases or decreases volume input as you move in or away from the microphone)
• 1 year manufacturer warranty

Philips SpeechMike Premium LFH 3500 Cons: n/a
Grundig SonicMic II Pros & Digta CordEx: MSRP: $299 (wired) & $499 (wireless) Accuracy: 99% Noise Cancellation: 7 out of 10 Overall Rating: 9 out of 10

• 99% Accuracy
• Includes weighted desktop stand
• Digta CordEx model is wireless
• Doubles as a desktop microphone with a 15 inch range
• Doesn't need to be held close to your mouth like most handheld microphones
• You can program 3 functions into each button (single click, double-click and long click)
• 1 year manufacturer warranty

Grundig SonicMic II Cons:

• Included configuration utility may not be obvious to new end users but we include a KnowBrainer pictorial step-by-step guide

Olympus DR-2300/2200/1200 Pros: MSRP: $249+ Accuracy: 98% Noise Cancellation: 7 out of 10 Overall Rating: 8 out of 10

• DR-1200 is push button. DR-2200 includes a slider control and the DR-2300 adds a barcode scanner to the DR-2200
• Very well constructed and durable
• High quality metal rollerball
• Auto volume control (increases or decreases volume input as you move in or away from the microphone)
• Considerably less expen$ive than the competition
• 1 year manufacturer warranty

Olympus DR-2300/2200/1200 Cons:

• Doesn’t include the usual DVD to install the button configuration utility
• No manufacturer user guide

Note:
 We felt that the absence of a user guide and configuration utility were unacceptable so we are including a complimentary DVD with the DirectTrec configuration utility along with a pictorial step-by-step on how to program the buttons along with setting up your microphone for use with NaturallySpeaking.

Conclusions: 1st Place ~ Philips SpeechMike LFH-3500 (Click to See) Philips and Nuance currently dominate the handheld microphone market but Philips raised the bar by introducing significantly improved noise filtering (far beyond any other handheld microphone), antimicrobial housing, automatic mute, the best accuracy of any handheld microphone, flexible long range jar proof microphone element, largest playback speaker, desktop stand for hands-free use (KnowBrainer exclusive) and an integrated pop filter. The LFH 3500 is also less expensive than the Nuance PowerMic II. Additional manufacturer information available at www.dictation.philips.com

2nd Place ~ Dictaphone PowerMic II (Click to See) Unlike other handheld microphones, the PowMic II doesn’t require installing a configuration utility because it is already built into the Medical versions of Dragon. Our favorite feature is the idiot proof button programming tab. Programming is as easy as typing the name of the command you wish to deploy and you are not limited to a handful of Dragon functions or hotkeys, as with all other handheld microphones. While we appreciated the versatility of the programmable buttons, we had to subtract points for Nuance limiting this microphone to just the medical versions of NaturallySpeaking along with a 90 day warranty. Additional manufacturer information available at www.nuance.com

3rd Place ~ Philips SpeechMike Air (Click to See) Philips introduced the 1^st wireless handheld microphone that can double as a desktop microphone with a 14 inch reach range. This microphone even warns you if you move the microphone too far from the base. Additional manufacturer information available at www.dictation.philips.com

4th Place ~ Grundig Digta SonicMic II (Click to See) The 2 most compelling reasons for choosing the SonicMic II over other handheld microphones was price (although slightly higher than the Olympus DR-2200) and the fact that the Grundig microphone doubles as a desktop microphone with a 15 inch range. The notably more expensive SpeechMike Air is the only other microphone that can double as a desktop microphone. Even though the SonicMic II only has 3 programmable buttons, we liked the fact that all 3 buttons can be programmed with single click, double-click and long click functionality enabling you to program up to 9 functions. Additional manufacturer information available at www.grundig.de

5th Place ~ Olympus DR-2200 (Click to See) Although not quite as accurate as other handheld microphones, we were impressed by construction and pricing of the DR-2200. If you're looking for high quality and affordability, you'll get the best bang for your buck with the Olympus DR-1200 but if you require a barcode reader, nothing comes close to the price break on the DR-2300 model. Although it's common for microphone manufacturers to omit proper instructional guides, I was surprised that Olympus didn't include a button programming utility. Fortunately, I was able to download the Olympus Directrec configuration utility from the Olympus website. Note that if you decide to purchase this microphone from KnowBrainer, we additionally include the Olympus Directrec configuration utility on DVD along with pictorial step-by-step instructions. Additional manufacturer information available at www.olympusamerica.com I feel it's important to point out that all 5 of these microphones worked exceedingly well in Dragon with the only limitation being that the PowerMic II can only be used in the medical versions of Dragon. This review was dictated with the new Philips SpeechMike III LFH 3500

Previous Reviews: If you would like to see some of our previous reviews check out the following: KnowBrainer TableMike Face-Off KnowBrainer Headset Microphone Face-Off KnowBrainer Telephone Microphone Face-Off KnowBrainer Digital Recorder Face-Off KnowBrainer Wireless Microphone Face-Off KnowBrainer USB Soundcard Face-Off (coming soon)

  Current Gold Standards: The following is a list of microphones that we consider to be #1 in their microphone categories we: Best Wireless Microphone = Samson Airline 77 Best Combo Telephone Wireless Microphone = Jabra Pro 9470 Best Handheld USB Microphone = Dictaphone PowerMic II Best USB TableMike =Speechware 3-in-1, 6-in-1 & 9-in-1 Best Wired Headset Microphone = Audio-Technica Pro 8HEmW Best Bluetooth Wireless Microphone = VXi BlueParrott Xpressway Best Digital Recorder = Olympus DS-7000 Best Speech Recognition Application = NaturallySpeaking 12 & DMPE Lunis Orcutt - Developer of KnowBrainer 2012 and founder of KnowBrainer Speech Recognition Forums (the world's largest speech recognition forum) Chat Live w/a Nuance Gold Certified Speech Recognition Solutions Provider

Choosing a Microphone for Dragon Medical

Speech Recognition Microphone Selection Comparative Review If you would like more information about these products visit us at http://www.knowbrainer.com or give us a call at 615-884-4558

Dragon Medical and DeskTop Microphones

TABLEMIKE FACE-OFF SpeechWare Desktop,     Sennheiser MD 431 II, Buddy Desktop DSP, Olympus ME 31 & Audix

January 22, 2012

 

Introduction:

While preparing to review the new SpeechWare 3-in-1, it occurred to me that the most effective way to do so would be in the context of the top rated speech microphones. The following review consists of 3 parts: (1) My personal take on the evolution of speech recognition microphones (2) A general consensus of 12 of the world’s leading speech recognition experts on the pros and cons of what we believe to be the top 5 desktop microphones (TableMikes) (3) My personal assessment of what the numbers mean If you wish to skip past the brief microphone history, click Pros and Cons. If you wish to skip further ahead to my conclusions, click recommendations. Note that while only one of these microphones could achieve the 1^st place overall rating, each is still an excellent choice for speech recognition.

Evolution of Speech Recognition Microphones

 

When we first began using DragonDictate speech recognition software in the 1980’s it seemed to be incredibly impressive technology. Never minding the very deliberate pause after each and every word, we waited with baited breath to see another (hopefully correct) word miraculously appear on our somewhat blurry little screens. It was fun! It was frustrating! It was not very practical. Back then, the couple of wired headset microphone choices available to us were more than adequate. In 1996, NaturallySpeaking continuous speech recognition was released. With the emergence of this new technology, we had a viable tool for professional as well as personal use. That being the case, we needed microphones designed to better utilize this increasingly more sophisticated software. Microphone manufacturers responded. They designed wireless systems. They designed combination headset microphones that could additionally be used with cell phones, landlines and even hydraulic lifters which picked up our handsets for us. While noise canceling and accuracy continued to improve, ultimately many of us still were not happy with our headset microphones, finding them to be rather inconvenient and/or uncomfortable. Physicians and other professionals were often forced to don and then remove their headsets every few minutes, between patients or clients. Other end users, needing to take verbal notes while talking on the phone, put their callers on hold, which was both inefficient and impolite. While handheld microphones such as the Philips SpeechMike Air now allow concurrent use of both a microphone and a telephone, they don’t solve all problems for all end users. Some of us simply need to keep both hands free. Fortunately, microphone manufacturers have also been busily designing high quality desktop microphones. A desktop microphone just might be your best option if:

• You find headset microphones to be uncomfortable
• You like to listen to music through high fidelity headphones while working
• You are physically disabled
• You are self-conscious about wearing a headset in front of others
• You don’t need to be wireless
• You NEED to keep both hands free
• You dislike having to continuously don and remove your headset
• You take the time to arrange your hair just the way you like it and THAT IS HOW YOU WANT TO KEEP IT!

Below is a general consensus of 12 of the world's top speech recognition experts on the pros and cons of what they believe to be the top 5 desktop microphones, followed by our recommendations (rating them from 1^st through 5^th place).

Pros & Cons

Speechware 3-in-1 Pros: MSRP: $279 Accuracy: 100% Noise Cancellation: 9 out of 10 Overall Rating: 10 out of 10

• 100% Accuracy
• Belgian engineering (think Mercedes)
• The most accurate desktop microphone we have tested
• NEW "De Clicking" algorithm (2nd-generation exclusive) ~ The"De Clicking" algorithm filters out keystroke taps, table thumps etc. (clicking) from reaching NaturallySpeaking
• Recipient of Nuance's highest (5 Dragon “Best of Class”) rating
• Detachable microphone boom for easier storage and transport
• Unusually high noise cancellation for desktop microphone
• End-user Programmable On/Off/ momentary switch
• Includes an option to bypass the built-in gooseneck microphone with a headset microphone (for working in noisier environments) which allows you to use the base as a noise filtering USB soundcard.
• The only desktop microphone that can be preset to turn on when booting your computer. This can be especially important to the physically disabled.
• Includes headphone jack and volume controls
• The 1st microphone to include separate specialized settings for speech recognition mode and VoIP/Skype mode
• Speech recognition mode includes a specialized Adaptive Noise Canceling algorithm
• 1st desktop microphone to include Automatic Gain Control
• Only desktop microphone to feature 2 dedicated volume controls for sound playback
• Only desktop microphone to feature a dedicated mic sensitivity control to reject unwanted background noise
• Built-in exclusive audio filtering USB soundcard
• Extremely accurate up to 24 inches (that’s no typo) but can be utilized at even further distances thanks to the built-in Automatic Gain Control feature
• The upcoming 6-in-1 unit (due to be released in early April of 2012) additionally adds a foot pedal option to toggle the microphone on and off, playback speaker and an extra USB port.
• The upcoming 9-in-1 unit (due to be released in early May of 2012) additionally adds a 2nd USB port, telescoping (adjustable) gooseneck, SD card reader and a programmable button to control other applications.
• 2 year manufacturer warranty

SpeechWare 3-in-1 Cons:

• Slightly more expensive than competitive units

Buddy Desktop DSP Pros: MSRP: $170 Accuracy: 98% Noise Cancellation: 7 out of 10 Overall Rating: 8 out of 10 Note that we did not include other types of Buddy microphones, such as the Buddy Gooseneck and Buddy Flamingo, in our testing because they incorporate the same microphone element (without a base).  

• 98% Accuracy with new integrated 7G USB soundcard
• Built-in noise filtering USB soundcard
• Includes microphone mute button
• Accurate up to 8 inches away
• Excellent price value
• 1 year manufacturer warranty

Buddy Desktop & Buddy Desktop DSP Cons:

• Currently requires sending the unit to Canada for service and warranty repairs
• Limited (2 to 5 inch) microphone range (9 to 11 inches with the Buddy Desktop DSP)

Audix USB 12 Pros: MSRP: $179 Accuracy: 97% Noise Cancellation: 6 out of 10 Overall Rating: 6 out of 10

• Lowest priced USB desktop microphone
• Headphone jack for optional sound out
• Similar accuracy to the higher-priced discontinued Buddy Desktop 6G
• Button can be programmed to work as an on-off switch or push to talk
• Smallest footprint of any desktop microphone, requiring the least amount of table space
• 1 year manufacturer warranty

Audix USB 12 Cons:

• Not quite as accurate as the new Buddy 7G which has replaced the 6G
• We experienced some unwanted pops and plosives when dictating within the limited 2 inch range. We were able to remedy this by speaking off to the side of the microphone.
• This microphone had a limited 2 inch range, but was actually slightly more accurate from within 1 inch. This concerned us.
• We found the 12 inch boom to be a little shorter than we would like in some situations.
• We do not like membrane buttons at all. We prefer a true hardware button with more of a click feel like the other desktop microphones.

Olympus ME31 Pros: MSRP: $200 Accuracy: 97% Noise Cancellation: 7 out of 10 Overall Rating: 8 out of 10

• Perfect for digital recorders when recording seminars
• Accurate to within 3 feet and can be used from as far away as 4
• Gun style long-distance directional pickup pattern
• Very small footprint; similar to the Audix
• 1 year manufacturer warranty

Olympus ME31 Cons:

• No built-in USB soundcard
• Slightly high priced for a microphone with no built-in USB soundcard
• No actual noise cancellation but because this microphone is highly directional, it marginally rejects sound from the sides and back
• This microphone should only be used in a quiet environment and may occasionally pick up keyboard key clicks

Sennheiser MD 431 II Pros: MSRP: $675 Accuracy: 100% Noise Cancellation: 10 out of 10 Overall Rating: 10 out of 10 Note: The Sennheiser MD 431 II is not really a desktop microphone but we included it in this comparison because of its popularity and the fact that is commonly used as a desktop speech recognition microphone.

• 100% Accuracy
• Stunning noise cancellation (Super cardioid microphone element works great for rejecting unwanted sound)
• Includes on/off slider switch
• 1 year manufacturer warranty

Sennheiser MD 431 II Cons:

• Roughly triple the price of the competition
• Limited 2 to 3 inch range
• This microphone’s unwieldy length makes it difficult to utilize as a desktop microphone because it was primarily designed for vocalists/musicians

Conclusions:

1st Place ~ SpeechWare 3-in-1, 6-in-1 and 9-in-1 (Click to See) The 3-in-1 simply blew our socks off (along with the competition) with devastating accuracy from within 21 inches, and was quite usable from as far away as 40 inches! The 3-in-1 introduces several new technologies built into the world's only speech recognition microphone that contains a circuit board with amenities like de-clicking (specialized filters that prevent NaturallySpeaking from hearing chair squeaks, keystrokes, lip smacks and coffee cup clinks) along with specialized NaturallySpeaking 11 algorithms for higher accuracy. This microphone additionally includes a bypass setting so that you can use it for podcasts, VoIP applications or earlier versions of NaturallySpeaking/DragonDictate. We also fell in love with the additional perks which include the option to add an external headset microphone, headphones, volume controls and a noise filtering USB soundcard. The MD 431 II was unbeatable from 2 to 3 inches but if you spend a significant amount of time dictating, it is all but impossible to comfortably maintain a 2 inch distance from your microphone over any given period of time. Most of us are working with larger monitors, taking phone calls, sorting or referring to papers, and dealing with interruptions and distractions of various sorts. We like to lean back in our chairs. We turn. We fidget. We stretch. Because of the extended range of the 3-in-1 microphone, we have found nothing to match its accuracy when dictating beyond 3 inches. Additional manufacturer information available at www.TableMike.com This review was dictated with the SpeechWare 3-in-1 microphone and by the time I finished testing, I made the SpeechWare 3-in-1 my personal microphone of choice. I informed the fine folks at SpeechWare that the only way they would get back their 3-in-1 prototype was if they “pried it from my cold dead fingers” to quote someone, none of us will ever forget... They wisely elected to let me keep it J

2nd Place ~ Sennheiser MD 431 II (Click to See) This microphone is the measuring stick used against all other microphones. From within 2 inches, no microphone we have ever tested is more accurate or more noise canceling. The Sennheiser was significantly more noise canceling than any other desktop microphone. However, negative aspects include a sticker shock price tag of $500 (MAP pricing), unwieldy length for positioning as a desktop microphone and the limited 2 inch range (requiring users to lock their bodies into one position over long periods of time). You can optionally purchase a swing-arm for this microphone, allowing you to change positions, but that increases the price even more. Although this is the most noise canceling and accurate desktop microphone we've ever tested, the 3 negative aspects dropped it down to 4th place. Additional manufacturer information available at www.sennheiserusa.com

3rd Place ~ Buddy Desktop 7G DSP (Click to See) What can we say other than this is the classic desktop microphone that all other manufacturers mimic, and it has recently been improved with the 7G USB soundcard and the introduction of a new process called FilteredAudio (exclusive to the DSP model) . We felt this was a great microphone and continue to carry it on our website because of the price (only slightly higher than the Audix USB 12) and quality. Additional manufacturer information available at www.insyncspeech.com

4th Place ~ Olympus ME31 (Click to See) This is a great microphone with good accuracy for long distance dictation of up to 4 feet and quite accurate within 3 feet. If you need long-distance, this is your best choice but the noise canceling aspects and price lower this microphone to 5th place. Additional manufacturer information available at www.olympusamerica.com

  5th Place ~ Audix USB 12 (Nothing to See) Although this is a reasonable speech recognition microphone, it is only included in the “top 6” because of the lower price. We personally didn't feel the slightly lower price justified offering it on our website, considering how much better the other units scored. Additional manufacturer information available at www.audixusa.com

Previous Reviews:
If you would like to see some of our previous reviews check out the following: KnowBrainer TableMike Face-Off KnowBrainer Handheld Microphone Face-Off KnowBrainer Headset Microphone Face-Off KnowBrainer Telephone Microphone Face-Off KnowBrainer Digital Recorder Face-Off KnowBrainer Wireless Microphone Face-Off KnowBrainer USB Soundcard Face-Off (coming soon)

Current Gold Standards: The following is a list of microphones that we consider to be #1 in their microphone categories we: Best Wireless Microphone = Samson Airline 77 Best Combo Telephone Wireless Microphone = Jabra Pro 9470 Best Handheld USB Microphone = Dictaphone PowerMic II Best USB TableMike = SpeechWare 3-in-1 / SpeechWare 6-in-1 Best Wired Headset Microphone = Audio-Technica Pro 8HEmW Best Bluetooth “like” Wireless Microphone = Plantronics Savi 440* Best Digital Recorder = Olympus DS-7000 Best Speech Recognition Application = NaturallySpeaking 11.5 & DMPE

  *Bluetooth Note: The Plantronics Savi 440 is not a Bluetooth microphone but comes seemingly close by emulating the features of a Bluetooth microphone because it includes a completely wireless headset and wireless receiver. We do not recommend any Bluetooth microphones for use with Dragon Medical 11, NaturallySpeaking 11, DragonDictate 2.5 or WSR because Bluetooth microphones are limited to a 4 kHz frequency response while the previously mentioned speech recognition applications can process frequencies as high as 11 kHz. Bluetooth also suffers from syncing issues and that's why we no longer offer or rate Bluetooth microphones. Lunis Orcutt - Developer of KnowBrainer 2011 and founder of KnowBrainer Speech Recognition Forums (the world's largest speech recognition forum) Chat Live w/a Nuance Gold Certified Speech Recognition Solutions Provider