BigHand Launches Server-Based Speech Recognition Module

BigHand today launched a server-based speech recognition module aimed at organizations looking to further streamline administrative overheads in the current climate or support an upturn in work as the economy recovers.

The new voice-to-text module also supports voice submission from BlackBerry Smartphones or Windows Mobile, alongside traditional dictation hardware. The BigHand Server-side Speech Recognition add-on is part of the latest Version (3.3) of BigHand's  .NET enterprise digital dictation workflow software.

The BigHand Speech Recognition module, which usesa Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech server from Nuance Communications, includes both a "Speech Recognition only" option, where the Transcription Server sends the resulting text back to the author, as well as a "Speech Recognition with proofing" option where the Transcription Server sends the resulting text to a secretary. The secretary performs any corrections, saves the document, and then submits a copy of the corrected document. Once submitted, the server-based speech file of the original author is upgraded, improving results going forward. The author can still correct his own speech file if so desired.

Moving the correction of the speech file to the secretary completely removes the time burden from the author and enables no change to their current working practices. As a result, even though there is minimal training, the author's speech file continues to improve over time. In testing, the Transcription Server returned a 233-word initial recording with 178 words correctly recognized (76.4 percent). After the first correction, the transcription server improved to recognise 226 of the words (97 percent), and by the third submission the Server based system recognised 232 words (99.6 percent).

The overall total cost of ownership of the new back-end Speech Recognition module is estimated to be as little as one-third the cost of existing digital dictation systems with client-side Speech Recognition integrations. The module is licensed per user or per server, with minimal training required, no client-side installation and, subsequently, no loss of billable time. Additional features include Citrix and Terminal Services compatibility, document templates and bookmarks, acoustic modeling, vocabularies configured in BigHand System Administration, default and custom speaker profiles for different users of BigHand, and support for distributed Transcription Servers.

Aside from the Server-side Speech Recognition module other new features within BigHand 3.3 include:

• Document attachments and links within the workflow;

• New search engine and User Interface improvement;

• Support for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2;

• 64-bit support extended to incorporate Terminal Client;

• Splitting of voice files and extended external sound file support; and

• New and extended application programming interface for third-party developers.