User Comments
- Classroom Recording/Distance Education Microphones
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Diane Richmond, Instructional Designer, Truman State University
Al Ducharme, Ph.D, Assistant Dean, University of Central Florida
Michael Welch, Dean, Academic Technology Services, Blinn College
Panopto Endorses The Voice Tracker Array Microphone For Classroom Lecture Capture
Loren Farr, Tulsa Community College
Chris Austin, MasteringCamtasia.com
Lory E. Watkins, University of Washington School of Nursing
Steve Barry, Technologist, Lowcountry Graduate Center
Melanie Plett, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Seattle Pacific University
- Medical Recording/Dictation Microphones
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Dr. Richard Low, President, Infor*Med Corporation
Dr. Harry Baldinger, an IBM ViaVoice Reseller, President, Speak Your Mind, Inc. - Courtroom/Deposition Recording Microphones
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Lynda Batchelor, RDR, Glacier Stenographic Reporters, Inc.
Jeff Styles, M & J Technologies, LLC, Graham, TX - Board Room Recording Microphones
- Doron Mansur, Powerhouse Dictation Systems – Johannesburg South Africa
- Meeting Recording Microphones
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Mike Lanthier, Harcourt Industries Ltd
Jim Barker, Master Products, Developer of the SearchMaster program
Don Johnson, Recording a presentation in combination with an interactive SmartBoard - Conferencing Microphones
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Oliver Thomas, Information Services and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Sally Goldberg, Documentation Specialist, Remote Meeting Facilitator, Flint Ink
Kevin Masui, Ascolta
Chris Dalansky, Institute for Software Research, Carnegie Mellon University - Speech Recognition Microphones (Dictation)
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Bruce MacLeod of Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman LLPM
Charles van Cleef, Holmes & Moore, PLLC
Chuck Runquist, Former Product Manager, Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Bob Gann, CPA, Minneapolis, MN - Speech Recognition Microphones (Voice Control)
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Stephen F. Zeigler, Ph.D., CEO and Founder of SpeechStudio Inc.
Mike Dobbles, Director of Engineering, Evolution Robotics
Chuck Crosby, CEO, Leverence, Inc.
Robert Medeksza, President, Zabaware, Inc. - Disabilities Microphones
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Jeff Symons, Evaluator for Project Threshold.
Adele Gould, Voice Tracker™ User.
James W. Hays, Voice Tracker™ User. - Home Automation Microphones
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Richard J. Helmke, President, HomeSeer Technologies LLC
Robin W. Pegg, Automation Specialist, Toiz Automation, Buffalo New York
Daniel Bigham
Classroom Recording/Distance Education Microphones
The Voice Tracker™ array microphones have proven to capture the instructor audio across the front of the classroom and also to capture the student’s questions and answers.
We have found the Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker to be an effective microphone to use in our classrooms as part of our lecture capture technology. The arrays have proven to capture the instructor audio across the front of the classroom and also to capture the student’s questions and answers. As a community college our typical classroom size is 32’x45’ and our experience is it captures the room audio very well. They have been easily mounted from the ceiling and placed on the desktop. It allowed us to move away from wireless lapel type microphones and all of the problems they entail. We have about 60 rooms equipped this way.
Michael Welch
Dean of Academic Technology Services
Blinn College
Tulsa Community College is using the Voice Tracker™ array microphones with Anystream/Echo 360 automated lecture capture system.
The microphone gives our nursing faculty the freedom of capturing lectures without worrying about audio issues. The microphones have also been useful in capturing presentations by speech students. The Voice Tracker™ allows the presenter to have a range of movement without worrying about technical glitches. We've deployed the Voice Tracker™ in 12 classrooms and they have been highly reliable with our automated lecture capture systems. They are more fool proof than any other microphone system we have used over the years.
Loren Farr
Manager of Media and ITV
Tulsa Community College
Chris Austin uses the Voice Tracker™ Array Microphone for recording in combination with Camtasia Software.
I've been recording live classes, meetings, and presentations for several years using Camtasia Studio and a variety of microphones. In an attempt to accurately record the presenter or instructor along with the questions and comments of students and audience members, I've used wireless microphones, shotgun microphones, and multiple microphones mixed together with an external mixer. Some solutions were simple, some complex. But none of them came close to the results I'm now getting with the Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker Array Microphone. It's incredibly simple to set up and it does a great job of capturing the voice of the instructor during the lecture and the comments of the students without the complexity and expense of a multiple microphone setup or the massive background noise of other solutions. I really wouldn't record a live event without it!"
Chris Austin
MasteringCamtasia.com
Lory E. Watkins uses the Voice Tracker™ Array Microphone in combination with the ClearOne XAP 8000 for picking up students' questions in large classrooms.
Picking up questions from students in our classrooms has always been a problem even though we have tried many approaches such as PZM microphones on the tables, push to talk microphones mounted on the tables, and microphones hung from the ceiling. We recently installed Voice Tracker array microphones on the ceilings, and the operators seem to like them for picking up questions from the students.
We are using the ClearOne XAP 8000 to accomplish acoustic echo cancellation. We haven’t had any problems with the ClearOne Automatic Echo Canceller and the Voice Tracker mics. They work fine together. The ClearOne also provides level control, filtering, etc.
The XAP 8000 provides phantom power, which needs to be turned off because the Voice Tracker gets power on a separate cable. (If the phantom power is turned on the Voice Tracker makes one hell of a noise!) The inputs to the ClearOne are via Phoenix block connectors and we came out of the Voice Tracker using Belden 9451 cable and into the ClearOne unit.
Lory E. Watkins
University of Washington School of Nursing
We are capturing some of our classes using Sonic Foundry's MediaSite.
We are a higher education institute that offers classes from multiple universities and colleges in the state of South Carolina. We were using wireless microphones, but found that the student responses couldn't be heard. In a lecture class that's fine, but so many classes now are discussion and group work, we needed a way to capture that audio. In addition, it frees the instructor from the podium, or having to remember to turn on the WL mic. Finally, I believe the money I save on batteries for the WL mics will pay for the purchase of the Acoustic Magic Microphone and I don't have worry about batteries dying during the lecture.
Steve Barry
Technologist
Lowcountry Graduate Center
Dr. Melanie Plett uses the Voice Tracker™ Array Microphone for recording class session for remote web conferencing.
We are using two Acoustic Magic microphones along with a lapel mic and an inexpensive audio mixer to mic our classroom for use with web conferencing software. This allows students to view class from a remote site, and also allows us to record our class sessions. We have found that placing two Acoustic Magic microphones in the front of our classroom allows students to be heard from anywhere in the classroom if the student speaks up.
Since the instructor often has his/her back to the microphones, and since it is imperative that his/her voice is heard, we have determined that a lapel mic is helpful, though not absolutely necessary.
Melanie Plett, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
Seattle Pacific University
These are working great in our lecture capture classrooms.
We had been using lapel and handheld mics for the instructors, plus your mics for the audience. However, when we switched to Panopto, we re-evaluated our mic installs and found that we could better mic the whole room with just the Acoustic Magic mics - once we had it set on the right configuration option. We are well pleased! This will be our 7th lecture capture room and we are looking at doing probably 3 more this summer.
AcousticMagic rocks!
Diane Richmond
Instructional Designer
Truman State University
Medical Recording/Dictation Microphones
Infor*Med Corporation, manufactures Praxis, the number one selling Electronic Medical Program in the small and medium size practices. Praxis employs a CONCEPT PROCESSOR for speech recognition to speed up charting, while increasing the quality of the written output.
It is critically important for a physician to work hands-free in his environment, so that his main concern is only his patient. The Voice Tracker™ enables medical practitioners to use voice recognition software, such as Dragon Naturally Speaking™, to enter information into Praxis. The Voice Tracker™ is the first array microphone I have used that works effectively in a physician's office.
Dr. Richard Low
President
Infor*Med Corporation
Harry Baldinger is a medical doctor as well as a Reseller/SW Developer/Trainer of IBM's ViaVoice SW. Harry has been using the Voice Tracker for 6 months.
The Acoustic Magic desktop array mic with USB, is a wonderful tool to enable voice dictation for professionals like doctors and lawyers. It works extremely well with IBM's ViaVoice Pro version 10 speech recognition software. It's advantage over other input devices is that it allows the user to sit back at the user's desk, moving with the normal desktop flow of papers, leaving your hands free. As opposed to some wireless headset devices, the user is not wearing any transmitting electronic gear on or near the user's ears or head. It does require a relatively noise-free environment to work optimally. This can be easily achieved in any office, even a busy office, by simply closing the door.
Dr. Harry Baldinger
President
Speak Your Mind, Inc.
Courtroom/Deposition Recording Microphones
Lynda Batchelor uses the VoiceTracker™ for courtroom recording.
I use the Acoustic Magic mic daily (along with the FTR digital recording software) to record depositions, hearings, teleconferences, etc. I have used many different kinds of microphones in the past, in all price ranges, and the Acoustic Magic mic is by far the best of the bunch. My experience with the Voice Tracker™ is that it hears everything better than I do. For one thing, it's usually better situated in the room (I'm at an end of the table whereas it's smack in the middle of the table). Anyone that's difficult to hear in the room is always clearer on playback, thanks to the mic.
Because it scans toward each speaker, it picks up each speaker with the same intensity as their speech. It picks up the speakers who are talking over the main speaker, and it even picks up people who are located behind the microphone!
The Voice Tracker™ reduces background noise very effectively. I had one obnoxious situation with an overactive heating system. The Voice Tracker™ minimized the noise from the heater, and it turned out that I could understand the speaker upon playback better than I could hear the proceedings on-site.
Lynda Batchelor, RDR
Glacier Stenographic Reporters, Inc.
Jeff Styles uses the VoiceTracker™ connected to the PA system for Comissioner's meetings.
We recently installed a microphone system in a old historic courtroom in Graham, TX (Young County Courthouse) and the Voice Tracker accomplished our goals with great success!
The courtroom is used for Commissioner's meetings as well as trial proceedings, so standard cardiod microphones were still required at the Judge's Bench and Witness stand. However, in the commissioner’s meetings, the participants disliked having to “lean up to the microphone” during discussion, so we installed two Voice Tracker microphones on each side of the room and connected them to the PA system.
As a result, the county commissioners and/or meeting participants no longer have to lean up to handheld microphones to be heard by the rest of the audience. The commissioners/participants now simply speak in a normal tone of voice and never have to move! The Judge, as well as many who have attended the commissioner meetings and/or court trials, have expressed their amazement at the capability of a microphone to pick up someone’s voice so far away and still be heard so well through the PA system. The judge’s secretary has already purchased additional Voice Trackers for other rooms.
A modification of the cable provided with the Voice Tracker (with 1/8” connections) was required in order to connect to the XLR Balanced Line input on the PA system. Additionally, since the PA system provided phantom power to the cardiod microphones at the Judge’s Bench/Witness Stand, an external phantom power supply was purchased to avoid the “humming/buzzing” sound when phantom power was turned on in the PA system.
We are completely satisfied with and strongly recommend to anyone the Voice Tracker Array microphone from Acoustic Magic!
Jeff Styles
M & J Technologies, LLC
Graham, TX
Board Room Recording Microphones
Powerhouse Dictation Systems uses Voice Tracker to cover entire rooms for Board Room Recordings.
As a company specializing in both digital dictation and meeting recording solutions, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the quality of recording the audio component of meetings. We came across the Voice Tracker through WinScribe NZ and have never looked back. We have in excess of 100 units recording meetings and consultations in executive boardrooms across the country.
The Voice Tracker is generally mounted on the ceilings or walls of the rooms, positions to cover the entire room. In some cases where the rooms are very large, we install two units at either end of the room. Our Audio Visual resellers enjoy the ease of installation and setup. Using either WinScribe or Philips systems, we are able to recording the meetings in high quality formats and then either send for transcription or archive for future access. Since using the Voice Tracker, we have not had the need to search for alternative microphones other than delegate units for our applications.
Doron Mansur
Powerhouse Dictation Systems
Johannesburg, South Africa
Meeting Recording Microphones
Mike Lanthier is President of Harcourt Industries, a digital recorder and speech recognition reseller.
We have finished testing the Voice tracker with good success. We noticed that the settings are important for clarity and voice recognition. It worked best with LDS off. We were particularly interested in attaching the Voice Tracker to Olympus recorders so our customers could record an entire room. We tested it with the DS-3000, which has a 3.5mm external microphone jack, as well as a DS 320. I was impressed when the Voice Tracker picked up conversations in another room some several yards away and walls between.
Mike Lanthier
President
Harcourt Industries, Ltd.
Jim Barker is a developer of the SearchMaster program for Master Products.
I am a software developer who includes PowerPoint and narrated AVI movie presentations in my product. The Acoustic Magic microphone exceeds the quality of any microphone I have ever employed. Great sound reproduction and great filtering of background noise. This is a wonderful product, one I wouldn't dream of doing without. My customers consistently compliment me on the quality of the sound in my presentations -- thanks, of course, to Acoustic Magic.
Jim Barker
Developer of the SearchMaster program
Master Products
Don Johnson uses the Voice Tracker™ Array Microphone for recording in combination with an interactive SmartBoard from SmartTechnologies.
We use an interactive SmartBoard from SmartTechnologies together with the Voice Tracker™ array microphone to record presentations in our conference rooms and training labs. This technology - with your microphone - allows us to record audio and the screen display to the hard drive and later burn meetings, presentations, and seminars to CD's for distribution or Intranet Streaming. Your microphone does a remarkable job filtering out extraneous noises such as air conditioning while "zoning in" on the presenter and other speakers throughout the room.
Don Johnson
Conferencing Microphones
Oliver Thomas, Information Services and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Just wanted to send you a quick note to share that the Acoustic Magic microphone is working exceptionally well with our VoIP conferencing application. We are using your Voice Tracker array microphone with eyeBeam VoIP SW from CounterPath.
We were all extremely impressed by it. We have it picking up audio in a 50- person conference room from a corner of the room for a remote connection to Philadelphia, and our guy in Philly can make out every sound in the room. It is far superior to the experiences we've had with Polycom audio units costing 20 times as much. That's a terrific product you've got.
Oliver Thomas
Information Services and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sally Goldberg is a Documentation Specialist and Remote Meeting Facilitator at Flink Ink.
We recently purchased a couple of Voice Tracker™ array microphones to enable us to use Voice-over IP for remote meetings using Centra Symposium internet remote meeting technology in a group setting. The Voice Tracker™ was recommended to us by Centra as the best array microphone available for conducting an internet meeting where many people were meeting in a conference room with one PC and a projected display of the screen.
The Voice Tracker™ was good at picking up several people's voices in a group across a table and could be clearly heard when we conducted a presentation from Ann Arbor, Michigan that was broadcast over the internet to a large group in Frankfurt, Germany. We are very satisfied with our purchase of this microphone and with the excellent and fast service provided by Acoustic Magic.
Sally Goldberg
Documentation Specialist and Remote Meeting Facilitator
Flint Ink, Ann Arbor, MI
Kevin Masui of Ascolta, a Cisco Learner Partner of the Year in 2007
So far Voice Tracker Array mic is the best mic we found to pick up the instructor and students in a large classroom. We use it for our WebEx classroom training sessions in which some students are in a classroom and others are attending from their office or home. We tried a wireless lapel mic at first but that didn’t pick up the other students when they had questions, so the remote students couldn’t hear the questions being asked in the classroom. This also brought up the complaint that classroom students could not hear remote students so we investigated in a speaker/mic combo. We tried one that looked like a polycom conference phone but it only worked well in a really small conference room.
We are currently experimenting with the Acoustic Magic Mic with a Sony external speaker. We found a USB Sony speaker that plugs into the instructors laptop that for some reason doesn’t produce feedback when the WebEx students are talking.
Kevin Masui
Ascolta
Ascolta, Cisco Learner Partner of the Year in 2007, enhances your IT career by providing internetworking and security training when, where, and how you want it.
Chris Dalansky uses the Voice Tracker Array mic to enhance operation of the Sony PCS-TL33 VideoConference System
The two Voice Tracker array microphones are hooked up to two Sony table top video conference units that are in two student conference rooms. The rooms are roughly 15'x15' and, depending on the number of occupants, have really pushed the Sony's built in microphones to their limit.
We were looking around at various condenser mics but were having some trouble finding ones with 1/8" plugs or powered XLR. We have a larger conference /class room that uses two Voice Trackers. We took one of the Voice Trackers out to test with the Sony VTC and it worked very well. We also liked the choice in mounting options that the swivel base provides.
Chris Dalansky
Institute for Software Research
Carnegie Mellon University
Speech Recognition Microphones(Dictation)
Bruce MacLeod of Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman LLP
I have used Dragon NaturallySpeaking on a daily basis in my work as a securities litigator for at least a dozen years. During that time I have experimented with many microphones looking for the optimal combination of accuracy and comfort. I have at last found that optimal combination in the Acoustic Magic microphone array. In an office environment where external noises can be excluded (such as by closing a door) Acoustic Magic is as accurate as the best wired headset microphones (and better than wireless headsets), but without the inconvenience and discomfort of wearing something on your head/ear. I heartily endorse Acoustic Magic for any serious user of voice recognition software in such an environment.
Al Ducharme used Voice Tracker microphone, integrated with Tegrity software for distance learning.
At the University of Central Florida, we use Tegrity to record approximately 300 sessions each in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. We have used several high quality USB microphones over the past 2 years with limited success. One of the problems we were having is low audio from the instructor and absent audio from students. We were considering an expensive traditional audio system with hanging room microphones and wireless instructor microphones. Fortunately, we discovered Acoustic Magic before we made the purchase. We tested the Voice Tracker array microphone, and were amazed to discover that it could pick up students talking in almost a whisper 20 feet away. In addition, the instructor audio contained little noise and allowed the instructor to move about the room without the need for a separate wireless microphone. We feel confident that the Voice Tracker will meet our needs and have decided to use it exclusively in all of our recording classrooms. The description of our test is as follows: We positioned the Voice Tracker microphone on the instructor desk at the front of a 25’ x 25’ classroom directed towards the students. The microphone was connected to the recording computer using the USB adapter supplied by Acoustic Magic. Students were positioned at 10’ and 20’ distances from the microphone and the instructor was behind the microphone sitting at the desk at a distance of approximately 2’. A series of tests were conducted simulating a typical lecture. Phrases were repeated three times, once in a very quiet voice, once in a normal voice and once in a loud voice. The test demonstrated that the Voice Tracker microphone was far superior to the high quality USB microphones we were previously using. The audio from the instructor was recorded with high clarity and low noise and was independent of the speakers voice level. In addition, the instructor could move away from desk without loss in audio quality. The student audio was amazingly clear. Even at distances of 20’ students voicing questions in extremely low voices could be heard in the recording as if they were sitting next to the instructor.
Listen to the audio recording.
View the layout of the testing site. 
Al Ducharme, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean, Distance and Distributed Learning
University of Central Florida
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Panopto Endorses The Voice Tracker Array Microphone For Classroom Lecture Capture
"Panopto's presentation capture suite is used in a wide variety of scenarios, from educational lectures to corporate meetings to personal, self-serve video multimedia capture from the desktop. These different scenarios demand different types of capture hardware, and Acoustic Magic's Voice Tracker microphone fills an important and surprisingly broad requirement: far superior to integrated laptop and webcam mics, more versatile than professional directional mics, and free of the hassle of lapel or headset microphones, the Voice Tracker is ideal for a simple, self-serve presentation recording setup. In our tests, it delivered as promised: excellent sound quality, even at a distance, consistent and configuration-free speaker tracking, and near-elimination of ambient noises like vents, fans, and traffic drone. In an echo-prone room with bare floors, high ceilings, and bare brick walls, the Voice Tracker produced professional-sounding audio with no fuss. Panopto is proud to recommend it to our customers; it is an exciting product that fills a niche underserved by existing solutions."
Eric Burns Chief Technical Officer, Panopto Inc.
Charles van Cleef of Holmes & Moore, PLLC uses the Voice Tracker™ for Speech dication.
I received the Voice Tracker™ this afternoon and have to say that it seems to be working superbly. At present, I am using it with Dragon Naturally Speaking version 8, and find the accuracy to be comparable to the headset microphone I was using, but with far less hassle: a rare out-of-the-box, on-my-desk solution.
Thank you for a fine product. I have no doubt that after I have spent a respectful period evaluating it, we will order others.
Charles van Cleef
Holmes & Moore, PLLC
Chuck Runquist performed the testing for Naturally Speaking Certification.
I recently tested the VoiceTracker™ array microphone under a wide range of environmental and training conditions.
My overall conclusion is that the Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker™ array microphone represents a significant advance in technology in far field/array microphones and demonstrates capabilities that are superior to previous array microphones. Properly set up, tuned, and enrolled under Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 6, the AcousticMagic Voice Tracker™ Array Microphone is highly recommended for speech recognition. The accuracy performance of the Voice Tracker™ Array Microphone equals that of close talk headset/microphones, provided that it is used under normal or moderately high noise conditions.
Additional conclusions:
- The Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker™ array microphone exhibits accuracy degradation at clear speech interference levels above approximately 76 dB. This is normal behavior for non close talk microphones. However it should be noted that the Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker™ array microphone has significantly better noise canceling capabilities under the above test conditions than any array microphone previously tested. Other array microphones generally fail (accuracy results below 65 percent) for clear speech background noise above approximately 64 dB.
- The VoiceTracker™ is effective well beyond the two foot limitation of previous generation arrays.
- When LDS™ is engaged, recognition performance in an environment where noise is coming from behind or from the sides of the microphone is improved by several percentage points.
- When training is performed in a noisy environment, accuracy reduction caused by interfering speech behind the talker is only a few percentage points.
Test Conditions:
- Ambient home office room noise.
- Ambient noise with clear interfering speech added (CNN Headline News) at normal listening levels (72 to 76 dB) and high-volume listening levels (82 to 86 dB).
- Interfering speech located eight feet behind, eight feet to the side, and eight feet in front of the array.
- User training in low noise and high noise environments.
- Voice Tracker™ microphone operated in various combinations of its four modes.
Chuck Runquist
Formerly Product Manager for Technical Solutions & Dragon NaturallySpeaking™ SDK product manager
Bob Gann is a professional person using the Voice Tracker in his daily work.
I have been using voice recognition software for several years and found the headset microphone far too confining. I have utilized a number of other desktop microphones including the GN Netcom Voice Array. None of them even comes close to the recognition results that I obtain with the Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker™.
My search is finally over! I feel confident that this is the last microphone that I will need to train - so much so that I have deleted all other microphone profiles. I can think of no greater compliment!
Bob Gann
CPA
Minneapolis, MN
Evolution Robotics is a start up company developing a speech controlled robot.
I think the Voice Tracker™ is a major enabling technology for speech recognition. We experimented with the Voice Tracker™ and were able to use it to speech control our robot at a distance from anywhere within a 180 degree range.
Mike Dobbles
Director of Engineering
Evolution Robotics
Speech Recognition Microphones (Voice Control)
Stephen F. Zeigler, Ph D. is CEO and Founder of SpeechStudio Inc.
The Voice Tracker™ provides just the technology our customers need, and will fit perfectly with SpeechStudio Suite.
SpeechStudio began in 1998 driven by the vision that microphones could track voice for individual speakers. Such technology was already available to our military and intelligence customers. SpeechStudio has built extensive tool support for prototyping, developing, debugging, testing and delivering voice command and control - betting on the future of tracking microphones. It looks like the Voice Tracker™ is just what we have been waiting for.
We tested Voice Tracker™ with our SpeechRunner debugging and testing tools and found that it can perform as well as the best headset microphones, especially considering that headset microphone positioning can be a big factor in real use. In short, in medium- to low-level noise environments typical of an office or home, the Voice Tracker™ gives its user the freedom to give voice commands from two to ten feet away.
We plan to resell the Voice Tracker™ with SpeechStudio Suite. We are building special support into our v3.6.2 release to help our customers handle the unique challenges of this new technology. For example, the Voice Tracker user may be too far from a computer screen to get normal visual feedback of recognitions; also, Voice Tracker™ is so good that users may come to forget that it is always listening to them, and may generate commands from casual remarks. SpeechStudio is using its long experience in both telephony and command and control to help solve these issues for our customers.
Stephen F. Zeigler, Ph D.
CEO and Founder
Speech Studio Inc.
Portland, OR
Chuck Crosby is the CEO of Leverence, Inc., a provider of natural language processing (NLP) technology.
I recently purchased the Voice Tracker™ product for use with our PowerTrieve technology. Our users ask PowerTrieve database query questions using their voice. They definitely do not want to put on a headset microphone to just ask a few questions. One of the noisiest environments is my office, because I have an A/C system that blows air into the office and makes a terribly loud noise when it is running at high speed. Other far field microphones that I have tried will fail every time when this thing gets going. The Voice Tracker™ is the first one to actually work. We have also tested this with people talking in my office and in many cases it will ignore them and focus on me. Most impressive!
Chuck Crosby
CEO
Leverance, Inc.
Bothell, WA
Robert Medeksza is the President of Zabaware, Inc.
I was very impressed with the quality of the Voice Tracker microphone for use with speech recognition. Being able to talk with the computer without wearing a headset adds a whole new level of realism and convenience to users of our artificial intelligence software, Ultra Hal.
Sincerely,
Robert Medeksza
President
Zabaware, Inc
Disabilities Microphones
Project Threshold is a non-profit agency that does evaluations for the State of California Dept. of Rehabilitation.
I have tried the Voice Tracker with a number of disabled users, and recommended its purchase. I was very impressed with how easy it was to use the VoiceTracker and more importantly that the voice recognition accuracy was very good. I see this as a very good alternative for people who cannot easily use a headset or don't want to use a headset.
Jeff Symons, ATP, MSME
President
Project Threshold
Adele Gould is a personal user of the Voice Tracker™ array microphone.
Thank you. I want to mention to you that the combination of Dragon Naturally Speaking 8 and the Voice Tracker™ microphone has given me a new life. I have Parkinson's disease and cannot type anymore. I have used Dragon Naturally Speaking 7 with the headset which is included, and I found it too irritating to use the headset every time I wanted to type. Also the voice recognition software made so many mistakes that I was ready to scream from frustration. I did not know whether it was the microphone or the software or both.
I then ordered the new software (which has just come out) and in reading the manual it mentions an array microphone. I looked on the Internet and discovered your web site and this microphone. There are no words to describe how thrilled I am with the combination -- I do not have to yell, I do not have to put on a headset, and the software makes few mistakes it's incredible!
I thought you might want to know
Thank you so much for your assistance -- and for giving me a new life!
Adele Gould
James W. Hayes is a personal user of the Voice Tracker™ array microphone.
I can't begin to tell you how happy I am with the quick response and the quick turnaround in getting a replacement microphone. My sister and I are both disabled, so a good, quality microphone is absolutely necessary for speech recognition. The new one works wonderfully.
Please do feel free to use my comment about your company. The Acoustic Magic Microphone is no less than a miracle for someone like me, so if my comments can help you, that makes me happy.
James W. Hays
Home Automation Microphones
HomeSeer is a leading provider of home automation SW, enabling users to control home appliances verbally, request information like weather, traffic, stocks quotes, etc., or have their computer read email, place phone calls, etc.
After testing the Voice Tracker™ in a real home environment, we are very impressed with the possibilities of using this device for home automation. We installed the microphone in a 17ft by 22ft family room and connected it to our HomeSeer automation software. From any seating position we were able to give voice commands to control the television, control the lights, etc. It even worked with the television on! For installations where voice recognition is required in a single room, this is an excellent low cost solution.
Richard J. Helmke
President
HomeSeer Technologies LLC
Robin Pegg is an automation specialist at Toiz Automation
I recently installed a Voice Tracker™ in my home to evaluate its performance, and I have finally found a microphone that works exceptionally well. I have been using Hal for the last several years and have had some challenges with it understanding me when I used various brands and models of conventional microphones. I found that I had to repeat voice commands several times in order to be understood.
With the Voice Tracker™, Hal 2000 understands me the first time, from anywhere in the room, even with the stereo or TV turned on. I can speak in a normal voice, without shoutiing.I purchased a second Voice Tracker™ and will shortly purchase a third.
I plan to bring prospective clients to my home to demonstrate the Voice Tracker™/Hal 2000 combination.
Robin W. Pegg
Automation Specialist
Toiz Automation, Buffalo New York
Daniel Bigham
I received my voice tracker in the mail a couple of weeks ago and I'm very pleased with the device. Here's my review if you're interested:
A few weeks ago I decided to go ahead and order the Voice Tracker array microphone. It arrived in the mail, and it was one of those times like Christmas where you tear open the packaging and behold something shiny and new.
After doing some testing I can say that I'm very impressed with the technology. Acoustic Magic has done some very good work on this product, and I'm happy with my purchase.
The first test I did was using the USB connector, which I figured would have the best quality. The results weren't very good: Only 75% accuracy with a command and control grammar from 12 feet away in the kitchen. Perhaps the output was too weak at 12 ft (see below).
The next test I did was with the standard microphone Jack set at about a 15% input level. I arrived at this setting by using sound recorder and testing what the audio coming in at 12 feet sounded like, which even at 15% I felt was louder than the input that was coming in through the USB connector. (Even with the USB connector's volume set at 100%)
The results of the test was 92% accuracy, which is pretty good considering the distance.
The final test I did was setting the microphone input to about 30%. This resulted in only 1 error out of 40, for an accuracy of 97% from 12 feet, which I was extremely pleased with.
There were still some frustrations, such as it interpreting my saying "17" as "70" more often than not, but overall I can't complain. The other thing to realize is that I'm using XP's voice recognition, which is circa 2001, AKA SAPI 5.1. Perhaps if I were to repeat the test with SAPI 5.3 in Vista I would have more luck with the 17 VS 70 problems. My hope is that Windows 7 will include another update to SAPI, but only time will tell.
Anyway, I am extremely pleased with the results. Thank you Acoustic Magic!
Daniel Bigham
