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From: network@hgcvax.uucp (craig chaiken)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Voice recognition/speech synthesis products
Summary: I have the COVOX Voice Hardware
Keywords: voice speech
Message-ID: <687@hgcvax.uucp>
Date: 31 Dec 88 08:19:32 GMT
References: <300@holin.ATT.COM>
Organization: Hartford Graduate Center, Hatrford, CT.
Lines: 29

In article <300@holin.ATT.COM>, doc@holin.ATT.COM (David Mundhenk) writes:
> November PC Tech Journal has an ad in the back from
> "COVOX,Inc." (TM?) listing "Speech Products" including "Synthesizer-
> $79.95", "Digitizer-$89.95" and "Voice Recognition-$49.95".
> 
> Anyone familiar with these products? I got money for these for Christmas
> but don't want anyone to waste money on junk.  :v(
> The prices sound almost too good to be true....
>
I purchased all three COVOX products several months ago.  The best
classification for these products is "experimental."  That is, the products
function, but are not sophisticated enough to handle real applications.  The
hardware simply consists of an analog to digital convertor for sound input,
and a digital to analog convertor for sound output.  Voice recognition and
synthesis are performed totally in software.  The voice recognition is
very poor; the software is supposed to recognize 64 words, but I was never
able to achieve even 50% reliability.  The voice synthesis is very slow
on even 80386 machines.  It is hardly understandable on XT's, but is
quite realistic on my 80386 machine.

This is not to say that I do not recommend the products.  The COVOX
Speech Products are the least expensive hardware around for dabbling
in voice I/O, and for the price they perform pretty good.  However,
do not bother integrating them into serious applications, because
they just aren't sophisticated enough.

Craig Chaiken
Hartford Graduate Center
Computing Services