Newsgroups: comp.speech
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From: daphne@netcom.com (Daphne Gould)
Subject: Re: ASP capable sound cards???
Message-ID: <daphneCy785H.Fn3@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <00986655.C6D68880@violet.ccit.arizona.edu>
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 22:36:53 GMT
Lines: 65

In article <00986655.C6D68880@violet.ccit.arizona.edu>,
bill hemmings <hemmings@Violet.CCIT.Arizona.EDU> wrote:
>After talking to Dragon Dictation Systems, I'm left wondering.....
>
>They claim their software (large-vocabulary speech recognition)
>works best on the IBM version sound cards, specifically only the
>ASP-equipped ones. And they sell such a card, along with their
>software, for an additional $300, if you "don't have one".
>
>They further say recognition is substantially worse with any
>other type of sound card. Does anyone have any direct experience
>in this area? How much should an ASP sound card cost, and if you
>have a source in mind, please mention a phone number.
>
>Is it true that the ASP chip by itself costs about $50?
>
>What about the "Easy Options by IBM" model AC523? Apparently it
>comes with an ASP chip. Supposedly $299 "list price". Funny,
>the box only says IBM, but this is obviously a Creative Labs
>product!    Being 'dumped' because of problems with OS/2? ??

Concerning DragonDictate for Windows and sound cards.

When used with the IBM ACPA card (which Dragon Systems will sell you), 
DragonDictate for Windows will download signal processing code onto the 
DSP on that card.  When used with any other Windows sound card, 
DragonDictate for Windows will perform the signal processing using the 
main Intel processor.  

This means that not having a IBM ACPA card will slow down the performance 
of your system by some small fraction because of the signal processing load.

To reduce the impact of this signal processing, DragonDictate for Windows 
makes two adjustments when run without the IBM ACPA card.  (1) The signal 
processing algorithms are simplified to provide a little less information 
to the recognizer but run much faster.  (2) The "computation", which 
corresponds to how much work the recognizer does, is adjusted down so 
that the recognition takes less time but is less accurate.

The net effect is that the recognition accuracy with a regular sound card 
is slightly less than the accuracy achieved using the IBM ACPA card.  And 
the system is a little more sluggish when the microphone is turned on 
(even if you are not speaking).

The actual effects vary depending on your system configuration but 
(within an order of magnitude) you can expect to lose about 10% of your 
CPU when you do not have an IBM ACPA card and get 1-2% more recognition 
errors.  Your mileage may vary :-)

Because of this, Dragon Systems recommends using the IBM ACPA card with 
DragonDictate for Windows if you expect to be using your dictation system 
most of the time or if you have a slower system (low-end '486).

Note that the acoustic models generated for the IBM ACPA card are 
compatible with those generated by other sound cards.  This means that 
you can start using DragonDictate for Windows on a sound card and then 
upgrade to an IBM ACPA card if you want more performance without 
retraining.  (This assumes that you do not change microphones.)

Joel Gould
Lead Engineer, DragonDictate for Windows
Dragon Systems

(Please do not e-mail me at this account; it is my wife's.  I can be 
reached at joelg@dragonsys.com.)
