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I have been evaluating SpeechWare’s Table Top microphone with Dragon NaturallySpeaking and these are my findings. My conclusions are at the end of the report.

Here is a video showing the product……………….

Date of evaluation:	October, 2009
Evaluation product:	USB 6-in-1 TableMike Desktop microphone with Earphones – TBMK02
Objective of evaluation:	To evaluate the USB 6-in-1 TableMike Desktop microphone for performance with Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software.
Equipment used:	A new USB 6-in-1 TableMike Desktop microphone provided by SpeechWare, Belgium, Acer TravelMate 5720 laptop
Dragon NaturallySpeaking version	Professional version 10.1 (supports Vista and XP)
PC operating system:	Windows Vista Home Premium (on Acer TravelMate 5720, Intel core duo T7300 – 2 GHz dual core, 2 GB RAM)

Background

A lot of users of Speech recognition do not like to use headsets for a number of reasons including e.g.

• Users with limb disabilities have a problem fitting and removing the headset
• Even regular users can find it is a distraction to continually put on and take off a headset
• A headset may become uncomfortable to wear after a long time.
• Users may sometimes feel somewhat self conscious when wearing a headset in an open plan office

A table top microphone can solve these constraints. However, table top microphones do not always give good results with speech recognition programmes such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking, particularly in the area of cancellation of background noise.

This is an evaluation of SpeechWare’s USB 6-in-1 TableMike Desktop microphone with Earphones – TBMK02

TableMike description

 

The TMBKO2 is an extremely well – engineered shotgun highly unidirectional back electret condenser microphone with integrated USB sound card, power amplifier, digital microphone, digital speaker and stereo earphones. It has a foot and hand control switch, lock switch and special speech modes.

The user presses the lock switch for long duration speech. Repeat pressing of the hand control switch or stepping the foot control activates the microphone temporarily.

This microphone allows you to chat with others on VOIP applications such as Skype as it is not only a microphone but also a high-grade digital multimedia desktop sound box with much better sound than typical speakers on a PC.

An advantage of the TableMike is that the connecting tube from the base to the capsule is flexible and can be adjusted so that you can even dictate standing up by pointing the microphone element upwards.

A nice feature is the presence of a reassuring indicator light in the microphone element which tells you when the microphone is switched on an active.

SpeechWare, Belgium describe the USB 6-in-1 TableMike Desktop microphone as follows:

1. Built-in USB sound card and interface
2. Foot pedal (or hand switch) control
3. Built-in Speaker with volume buttons for Voice over IP (VoIP)
4. Outstanding Voice Recording
5. Outstanding Speech Recognition
6. Music (built-in audio port and bundled Stereo earphones).

SpeechWare claims that it is the first shotgun highly unidirectional USB Desktop microphone, successfully integrating all these functionalities in one single small unit and that it matches or exceeds the performance of the finest (and more expensive) microphones. It is claimed to be ideal for Skype and specially “tuned” for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. The microphone element is certified with a top “5 Dragons” by Nuance (check http://support.nuance.com/ compatibility/default.asp choose “Dragon NaturallySpeaking” in the “Select a Product” dropdown menu, and then “Desktop Microphones” in the “Select a Device Category”)

SpeechWare also produce a non – USB version, namely the Standard 2-in-1 TableMike Desktop microphone – TBMK01 for direct connection to a PC’s sound card via a line in jack. This requires a good internal PC soundcard for maximum performance. This unit was not tested but as it has the same microphone element as the USB version, performance should be identical provided the sound card is a high quality one.

The panel has the following elements:-

1. Loud-speaker
2. Microphone lock button
3. Volume increase button
4. Volume decrease button
5. Indicator light to show that the microphone is active
6. Hand control switch
7. Volume adjustment
8. Earphone jack
9. Foot control switch

The microphone’s technical specifications are as follows:-

Microphone:

• Pattern: back condenser
• Directivity: cardioid
• Sensitivity: -29dB±3dB 35mv/Pa
• Frequency response: (100-10000) Hz
• Optimum pick-up distance: (10-50cm)

Loudspeaker:

• Max output: 2.5W
• Frequency response: (200-15000) Hz
• Impedance: 4 ohms
• Earphone:
• Max output: 105mW(dual)
• lmpedance: 32 ohms

 Setup

The USB 6-in-1 TableMike Desktop microphone came with an excellent user guide to aid setup.

The USB 6-in-1 TableMike Desktop microphone’s USB cable was connected to a rear USB port in the laptop. As the microphone is “Plug & Play”, Windows recognised the device immediately and installed it as the default device for recording and playback. The microphone capsule was positioned approximately 6 inches from the mouth. The optional foot pedal was not used.

Evaluation

I evaluated the USB 6-in-1 TableMike in terms of:-

1. Clarity of the instructions in the quick setup guide
2. Dictation accuracy in Dragon NaturallySpeaking with no noise in the background
3. Dictation accuracy in Dragon NaturallySpeaking with simulated office noise in the background
4. Voice clarity with VOIP (Skype)
5. Comfort

Results

Clarity of instructions in the quick setup guide

The guide included with the product was extremely informative.

One point made in the guide was to expect Dragon to tell you that the sound will be too loud in the audio setup wizard and to ignore this. This indeed occurred and was ignored with no problem.

Dictation accuracy with no noise in the background

A new user profile was created in Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the USB 6-in-1 TableMike Desktop microphone.

The following are screen captures of the new user profile setup in Dragon NaturallySpeaking:-

Note the extremely low flat yellow noise floor in the above screenshot. This is a highly desirable result for a microphone for use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Note the high speech to noise ratio of 26. This is a highly desirable result for a microphone for use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

And when the “play” button was pressed in the above screen, playback was found to be extremely clear with very high voice fidelity.

Next, a five-minute enrolment text training passage was read in order to allow Dragon to acclimatise my voice with the 6-in-1 TableMike. The enrolment text was completed easily with no re – reads of sentences required as is the case with some microphones.

Next, dictation accuracy was measured by reading the “Rainbow Passage” 3 times and averaging the result. See Appendix I for the procedure.

The results were as follows:-

Speech recognition mode	Accuracy
Dictation accuracy (percentage accuracy in dictating the “rainbow passage” with no background noise (average of 3 readings)	98.6%
Dictation accuracy (percentage accuracy in dictating the “rainbow passage” with loud simulated office noise in the background (average of 3 readings)	98.0%

 
It was noticed that when the simulated office noise was introduced in the background, Dragon’s volume metre to the right of the dragon icon on the Dragon menu bar did not “react” to the noise by turning green as is the case with many headsets and other microphones.

Voice clarity with Skype VoIP

A test call was made to Skype’s Echo/Sound Test Services and played back through the microphone’s speaker. Playback clarity was excellent. A Skype call was also taken from someone using this microphone and the caller’s voice was crystal clear.

Comfort

Clearly, a Table microphone such as this one excels in this department for the obvious reason that a user can benefit from not having to put on a headset microphone, adjust the fit and put up with the sensation of the headset on the head for long periods. Another advantage of the TableMike is that the connecting tube from the base to the capsule is flexible and can be adjusted so that you can even dictate standing up by pointing the microphone element upwards.

Conclusions 

1. The measured accuracy in Dragon NaturallySpeaking was 98.6%. This is a most excellent result and is the same, and in a lot of cases better than you would typically get from the best wired headset available for Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
2. The accuracy with office noise in the background only dropped to 98.0% percent. Again, this is a most excellent result and is similar in performance to a high specification wired headset with active noise cancellation technology.
3. Normally, even with an exceptionally good wired headset microphone, I will typically get about 98.2% accuracy and this typically falls by a few percentage points in the presence of background noise.
4. Voice clarity with Skype was excellent due to the high quality loudspeaker built in to the base.
5. The unit is exceptionally well engineered and robust and is easy to work with and provides a high level of hands free convenience.
6. The microphone is not inexpensive at €279 + delivery + VAT However, you get a quality engineered product which pays for itself in terms of accuracy with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, its hands free convenience, ease of control by users with disabilities and its excellent performance with Skype.

For further information on the product or how to purchase, contact Peter Maddern at Speech Empowered Computing

Appendix I

The Rainbow Passage

 

The rainbow passage

When sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colours. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Throughout the centuries men have explained the rainbow in various ways. Some have accepted it as a miracle without physical explanation. To the Hebrews it was a token that there would be no more universal floods. The Greeks used to imagine that it was a sign from the gods to foretell war or heavy rain. The Norse men consider the rainbow as a bridge over which the gods passed from Earth to their home in the sky. Other men have tried to explain the phenomena physically. Aristotle thought that the rainbow was caused by a reflection of the sun’s rays by the rain. Since then physicists have found that it is not reflection, but refraction by the raindrops which causes the rainbow. Many complicated ideas about the rainbow have been formed. The difference in the rainbow depends considerably upon the size of the water drops, and the width of the coloured band increases as the size of the drops increases. The actual primary rainbow observed is said to be the effect of super position of a number of bows. If the red of the second bow falls upon green of the first, the result is to give a bow with an abnormally wide yellow band, since red and green lights when mixed form yellow. This is a very common type of bow, one showing mainly red and yellow, with little or no green or blue.

335 words

Count number of incorrect words = “A”

% accuracy = (335 – A)/335 X 100%