When your speech recognition application is in the Asleep state, it is listening for a wake up command. Your Plantronics USB microphone is reasonably accurate but it's weak on noise cancellation and that works against you; especially in WSR because the developers of WSR chose to make the microphone wake up easily. We suspect they took this path because DNS can sometimes be difficult to wake up from the sleep state; just the opposite problem.

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do short of turning the microphone completely on and off via a hotkey or your mouse. If you're microphone has a mute switch, that would be another option. If this becomes too much of an issue, you may have to consider purchasing a more accurate serious noise canceling microphone.

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teloscientist,

False wake-ups from sleep is supposed to be improved in Windows 7 compared to Windows Vista, according to this blog entry:

What's New in Windows Speech Recognition?

 -Russ

I have experienced the same problem I have been using voice recognition in windows for the past couple years because I'm paralyzed from the neck down I cannot switch any buttons my easiest solution is just to simply right click on the speech recognition microphone and turn it off completely

Quadriplegic,

Are you using Windows Vista? If so, your best bet would be to upgrade your computer to Windows 7.

In Windows 7, there are supposed to be fewer false recognitions of "start listening," which should cause the microphone to stay turned off unless you really say "start listening." There are a number of other subtle but nice improvements when using WSR on Windows 7.

From your other posts, it appears you are using a Plantronics microphone. There are better choices. I use Windows Speech Recognition with a Sennheiser ME-3 microphone, and I'm pretty happy with it. But this microphone wraps around the back of the head and doesn't have a speaker, so I'm not sure but how appropriate it would be for your use.

I think Knowbrainer offers a money back guarantee on the products it sells, which lets you try out a microphone and return it if it does not work for you.

Good luck!

-Russ

My one big complaint with Windows 7 Speech Recognition, compared with Vista, is that it is harder to get the microphone to turn on, and even when it does turn on, there is sometimes a lag time. It's only a problem when the computer is turned on for the first time after being shut down, but sometimes one has to shout at it. Other times, during use, when it is in the "not listening" state, on its own it decides to go into the "do not listen to anything I say" state. I wish they would go back to the settings of the prior version.

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Crohn's News Blog: www.crohns-news.net

Scribe, what kind of microphone, USB pod (if any), and computer are you using with Windows Speech Recognition?

-Russ

It's an Andrea USB pod. I've used three different microphones, a Sennheiser , a Parrott, and a Logitech, with identical results. Two different computers, with one of them rebuilt a couple of different times.

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Crohn's News Blog: www.crohns-news.net

Scribe,

I'll assume the Sennheiser model is the ME-3. Of the three microphones you list, the Sennheiser ME-3 is the best. It's supposed to work well with the Andrea USB pod.

First, figure out if your computer has a built-in microphone. (Most laptops and some desktops do.) If you have a built-in microphone, you should make sure you're really really using the Sennheiser microphone and not the built-in one. Do this:

- open the Sound control panel.
- click the Recording tab.
- click your Andrea USB pod in the list of devices, and then click "Set Default."
- one-by-one, right-click any other recording devices in the list, and choose Disable.
- click OK to close the Sound control panel.

If the Andrea USB pod wasn't your default recording device, that may have been a part of your problem.

Next, run the Microphone Setup Wizard by saying this:

- "show speech options" >> "configuration" >> "set up my microphone"

Hopefully this will get things going properly with your use of WSR. Try it out and see how it goes.

If you still have problems, there was a bug in the Windows 7 Microphone Setup Wizard that caused it to set really bad recording levels (on the high side), and I am not sure if it was ever fixed. If the blue sound meter spikes pretty high and turns orange, you may still have a problem. If you have a techie streak, you can follow the instructions in this MS Speech Yahoo group posting to edit the WSR input levels in the Registry:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ms-speech/message/5652

If you're not too technical, you may want to post about your problem in the MS Speech Yahoo group, where someone is likely to direct you to an easier method for setting the sound levels.

Good luck!

-Russ

Russell, how kind of you to make these suggestions. My preferred microphone is indeed the default microphone on one computer that has an in-built microphone. I don't have a problem with the sound level as such for any other operation, and I think it is just the settings that are now in force in Windows 7 controlling the sensitivity of the microphone on startup (it is never a problem at any time other than startup). Clearly those with booming voices complained that it was too sensitive, and I'm with those with soft voices who liked it as it was in Vista. It's no big deal, I was just registering my vote as someone who would prefer to have the software returned to the initial settings.

 By the way, you are right about the Sennheiser model that I have. However, I am not currently using it, as it is too large for my head and therefore was never comfortable. It would matter with Dragon, which is very sensitive to differences between microphones, but I have found that WSR performs the same with all of them.

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Crohn's News Blog: www.crohns-news.net