Voice recognition involves the conversion of audible speech to text or to commands to instruct a computer program. It has been used in IVR (interactive voice recognition) systems such as a company phone directory, phone customer service, and dictation software. Anyone who has used voice recognition knows that it is not perfect. The software must overcome different accents, speech patterns, background noise, and many other challenges. It also has many limitations, some of which are intrinsic to its nature. First, most people are unable to use voice recognition at work, either because talking to their computer would distract their co-workers or because the voice recognition software would pick up other people’s speech.

Secondly, if you have ever tried talking for even a few hours, you have probably noted that your vocal cords become tired. Using voice recognition for long periods of time would probably have the same effect. Finally, depending on what your goals are, the value that you receive from using voice recognition may not justify using it. For example, if you find that you have to spend a significant amount of time correcting mistakes after using voice recognition, it may not make sense to use it. That being said, my own personal experience and from other anecdotal evidence shows that using voice recognition can still be a viable alternative to typing.

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