The Talking Computer Company Ltd, based in Egham, Surrey, has been set up to market the Talking Computer 1000. Bringing together a mish-mash of technology, the TC 1000 is basically a personal computer without a keyboard. It uses Newcastle-upon-Tyne based Aptech Ltd’s Dragon Dictate voice recognition system and has a vocabulary of 25,000 words, expandable to 30,000; 5,000 of these are user-defined commands. A further vocabulary of 50,000 words is also available. Dragon Dictate is a combined suite of hardware and software that runs under MS-DOS, using Rational Systems Inc’s DOS 16M, an extended memory manager system. Using Intel Corp’s 80386 chip, the TC 1000 comprises a voice input and output subsystem, 8Mb of memory, an input microphone and output speakers and there is an optional colour terminal. Compatible with IBM personal computers and running under MS-DOS, it runs most personal computer-based applications, such as word processing, spreadsheets and databases. In addition, it can send and receive both facsimiles and electronic mail messages and is able to communicate over a local area network. Although claimed to recognise a user’s voice after three to four hours, perfection of voice pattern recognition takes approximately three months. The TC 1000 deals with about 30 to 40 words per minute and can dictate text back to the user in a male, female or child’s voice. It is aimed at banking and finance, insurance, security, accountancy, legal and consultancy services. Those interested might include aged executives lacking keyboard skills, the disabled or people suffering from repetitive stress injury. The product, assembled by computer systems manufacturer, Staples Corner, North London-based, AJP Business Computers Ltd, is out now at UKP12,500 for the basic model including one-day training course.
