I have begun using the windows speech recognition software, all I will not add any of the documentation so we can see the amount of errors that come from using this software.  It is really fun however, using speech recognition software for writing your documents.  It is kind of like having your own personal secretary, though it can be a pain hassle to get going first.  It is a fun experience to say the least.

I think this will be a fun experiment, to see how well Microsoft built in speech recognition software works compared to dragons naturallyspeaking software.  Users with Windows Vista will be able to experiment with this to, just press start in type speech recognition software and press enter.  So far, not only has my writing speed been increased significantly but it also is pretty fun to work with.  Setting up and getting it started however can be quite frustrating.  Some of the problems include: trouble getting certain words to processed correctly depending on your accent, setting it up to better understand your accent is quite time consuming, and the tutorial took a good 10 to 15 minutes.

Seems to have some troubles and lacks some of the features that would be desired for the end all speech recognition program, though it works well for dictating.  If you do anything like freelance writing for living I would consider upgrading dragon naturally speaking software for its add functionality and greatly decreased error rate.  Few of the average consumer though and do not have that kind of money to put into the dictating software don't worry, the Microsoft speech recognition software does work and has some nice features that can make your life easier, especially for a freelance writer.

This program you can go with the standard version for only $49.00 and this is a great deal, though many people will not be willing to put this money down for dictation software without realizing its true potential.  When you purchase dragon naturally speaking essentially you give Microsoft's speech recognition software with a lot more customization improved functionality and vastly improve accuracy when dictating your speech.  This is essentially an investment for most freelance writers as the increase in productivity and not as much loss in the creative process from trying to take thoughts and put them on paper.  I will be in the early testing this product in the near future once I receive my copy of the program.  Look for that within the next week all explain what I like and dislike about dragon naturally speaking but from what I can tell I will love it.

Some additional functions that I would like to utilize with speech recognition software include is attempting to combine keyboard, mouse, and speech together in a video games such as world of war craft.  I have some interesting ideas such as possibly the dual boxing a healer and DPS using voice commands to control the healer entirely.  This opens up to the possibility of soloing your own instance by yourself, this could be a thing of real answer to the problem of low population servers for some people.

To say the least I'm excited for speech recognition software to improve greatly in the coming years.  I can anticipate that for some great content created with this type of software, and possibly computer games created to utilize this type of software creating a more immersive experience.  But really one thing that I can look forward to is actually having a conversation with my computer which is a very high possibility with the next windows release, I suspect.  I just pray that this type of technology doesn't hit the back burner with Microsoft and other high end and corporations with the 3D fad.