On the Kindle Digital publishing forum, there is a discussion about Dragon naturally speaking and a question has come up that I don't know the answer to.

One member was asking about using a microphone at a library and was concerned that it would disturb those around him. Do they make a microphone that fits over the mouth sort of like what a fighter pilot would wear or one of those gun talkers that you see that has the big foam rubber thing around his mouth?

I suggested the "Cone of Silence" as found in Get Smart, but as I remember that thing was very practical either.

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THE TRAC BALL ALWAYS LANDS IN THE GUACAMOLE  

 

DNS Prefered 11, WinXP Pro SP3, PENTIUM 4 CPU  3.40 GHz, 2.0 Gb RAM, REAL TECH High Definition Audio

There are a couple of microphones that fit your criteria. 1 model is called the Sylencer. These microphones are designed for court reporters and you'll find additional information on court reporter and transcriptionists forums. However, be warned that these types of microphones are difficult to master and that's where the court reporter forums will come in handy because these microphones require controlled breathing and even under the best circumstances, they are never quite as accurate as a traditional microphone.

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Lunis nailed it. When I first started working in an office environment I used the Sylencer because I was self-conscious. For most purposes, though, the Sylencer (or other steno-mask) type of products are more trouble than they're worth. They are not as accurate as a good headset or desktop microphone, and it's hard to overstate how unnatural it is to breathe and dictate using one of these -- hardly NaturallySpeaking, har har.

I've been dictating in shared office spaces for years, and for the most part people don't mind. You don't have to shout to get Dragon to work (on the contrary, it works best if you're speaking at a normal volume), and people tend to tune you out. If privacy is necessary because you're working with personal information or trade secrets or security matters, that's one thing. But if you're just looking to avoid being a disturbance, don't worry about it. You won't be. You might even win a few friends when they see how cool this whole speech recognition thing is.

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Eric Wright At work: DNS 12 Pro. At home: DNS 11.5 Pro,  KnowBrainer 2011, and Utter Command by RedStart Systems; Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac

 

Appetite for Dictation - My Blog

I TOTALLY agree!

MDH

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JTBIGTOAD, before I started utilising the SpeechWare microphones, I used to utilise the Sennheiser ME-3, which I found "accurate" while dictating QUIETLY in a library environment. A significant amount of my MPhil was dictated, as I was not permitted to remove or photocopy some specialists books due to their great age. It was an absolute blessing to be able to dictate the text that I wish to cite in my thesis in this manner.



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DNS 12.0 Professional, Windows 7, Intel Core i7 2630QM, 16GB of RAM. Second-Generation SpeechWare 6-in-1.

I've had a couple of comments from co-workers when I was using DNS.

 No one actually said they were annoyed, but I'm sure it's possible it might bother someone.

I'm actually surprised DNS has been working as well as it has given I seem to be "breaking all the rules".

I have a $20 - $30 Logitech head set, using integrated sound,  and I even have it plugged into the front sound ports, which is suppose to be another no-no and the office environment can be fairly noisy (and there have been complaints about that noise).

 But, as I commented in another thread, I did switch from  "go to sleep" and "wake up" to "stop listening" and "listen" because I thought it might sound better to "passing ears" at work.

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Help! I can't see vowels!! (and sometimes "y")

Completely non-scientific, but this is just further evidence that 90%+ of the speech recognition experience is your dictation style. Excellent equipment from reputable vendors is worth the investment for folks who are serious about their productivity or working hands free. Really, the reduction in times you have to "correct that" upon increasing your accuracy from 95% to 97% to 99% to 99.999 repeating forever is astounding, but as long as you've got a system that meets the recommended (not minimum) specs, a decent microphone and a good dictation style, you'll do fine. Keep on keepin' on.

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Eric Wright At work: DNS 12 Pro. At home: DNS 11.5 Pro,  KnowBrainer 2011, and Utter Command by RedStart Systems; Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac

 

Appetite for Dictation - My Blog

You may want to consider purchasing the boomo microphone. It does a great job at picking up a very soft voice. So you can confidently dictate without bothering anyone who might be working around you. It also has a great deal of noise canceling ability. So that you can dictate in a very noisy environment and still speak softly.

The main reason why I purchased this microphone was because it was very accurate and would allow me to dictate without being a bother. I have every confidence that you would be able to use this in an environment like a library without being a bother to anyone.