Deanstick,

The very first thing you need to do is understand has speech recognition works. Anybody who adopts this as a method for dictating must be willing to adapt to the software rather than the other way around. First of all, read the article referenced after my sign-off. Then go to my web site, click on the button for Links/Articles, and listen to the first 3 sound files on how to sound and how not to sound.

Unfortunately, Martin did not really answer your question.

First, during the last quarter of L&H's existence Dictaphone (Healthcare Solutions) and Kurzweil Educational Systems were part of L&H. These two companies spun off before the ScanSoft acquisition. During this period Dictaphone licensed certain technologies from L&H for use in their products. Certain parts of the DNS SR technology were included in this licensing, which, if I am not mistaken, they still retain through ScanSoft. Therefore, some of Dictaphone's SR application is still driven by DNS SR technology under the hood. However, PowerScribe is based on technology that Dictaphone owns ourtright.

Second, Dictaphone provides Healthcare solutions. These products are workflow/transcription based enterprise solutions, not dictation SR. Although dictation based SR is a part of these enterprize solutions, Dictaphone does not provide a standalone SR product in the same manner as DNS.

As to the accuracy of both, they are comparable. However, the price for Dictaphone products is considerable and based on large network workflow solutions.

As to which products are suitable for your needs depends on what your needs are. If you are looking for a large healthcare based solution for a hospital or clinic, or if you are a radiologist, or other enterprise based operation, such as law enforcement or medical transcription service, for which Dictaphone provides an enterprise workflow solution, then Dictaphone is the way to go. However, if you are simply looking for a standalone, large vocabulary, continuous dictation product for your own individual use, then DNS is the way to go.

The long and the short of it is that neither is better than the other with regard to accuracy because they both employ the same SR technology under the hood, except for PowerScribe, which is a unique and different approach all its own.

Chuck Runquist