November, 2002

Attendees: Valton Wood, Jean Arbour, Jan DeVinney, Kathy Powers, Pauline Lamontagne, Floyd White, Carolyn Bebee

Question was asked regarding the status of the Annual Report - Val will follow-up.

Voice Recognition: Conference call with Peter Cohn

• Training costs from $9000 to $495 per user (current price)
  
• Software hears sounds and matches to database
  
• Continuous speech is user dependent
  
• Training make take a few hours or many
  
  -Best users want to continue working at high level
  -Custom application take more time than
  
  
• Training Process and Effort

-Enrollment - read a story 8 - 9 minutes
-90% accuracy is often easily attainable - the additional 10% is more difficult to -attain - 96% - 98% is attainable through extra training and practice
-Have to self-correct over percent attained
-Failure rate is high without training (3-4 do not use if not trained)
-Training must be one on one to be effective
-Must use software on a daily basis if want to be successful- may take months to be proficient.
-End user training - 6 hours for word type (email, word processor, etc.)
-Extra hours for application specific training

• System Requirements for Pro Model

-Pentium III, 200 , 256K, 98 or higher
-Service pack 6 for NT
-Good sound system or USB IV 1.5 with 512K or better
-Shrink wrap
-Software Cost - $495 (media kit = $45 and materials if needed

• 80% of voice recognition users are non-disabled

Maine Telecommunication Policy

• Telephone based technologies
• 165 TTY's in State
• Approximately 400 people have been trained
• Only 35% of TTY's are answered
• Captioning
• Awareness for people who cannot hear
• Where are TTY's located

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