Have been using the USB philips Speechmike for about four years with DNS 8.0. Getting great output with few dictation errors. Have mikes in exam rooms to do immediate dictation.
What is the latest and greatest (but reasonably priced, I would buy several, for each exam room and my office) microphone today?
I typically will dictate in the room, if reasonably quiet, with the patient there, or just after they leave the exam room.
Thanks.
The latest Philips Speech Mic USB microphone is much prettier than the previous model. It includes a new mother of pearl roller ball that doesn't gum up or need cleaning. It also includes 4 additional programmable buttons. However, the microphone element is still the same as the previous model which means that the newer model is no more accurate than the older one and the technology has become a little bit dated by newer technologies.
There have been a lot of microphone innovations over the last few years and oddly enough, the most accurate microphones are wireless. The Revolabs xTag is an extremely accurate lapel microphone. You can't beat the comfort because it weighs .5 ounces and attaches to your shirt pocket, tie, or lanyard. From a comfort point of view the xTag is unbeatable and you won't have to worry about that cyborg look you get when wearing a headset microphone in front of the patient. Unfortunately environmental noise is this microphones Achilles heel. Although the xTag features a large mute switch, it is probably more ideally suited to a quiet office.
The most accurate and most noise canceling microphone we found is the Hybrid Samson Airline 77. A New Orleans brass band could march within 10 feet of you, playing so loud you couldn't hear yourself dictating and your accuracy wouldn't drop. The microphone also includes a noise gate so if you raise your voice (perhaps because you are becoming a bit frustrated at having to make the same correction 4 times within the same S.O.A.P. Note) the noise gate will lower your volume back to the level when you ran the Audio Setup Wizard.
The new Hybrid Senneheiser BW 900 Bluetooth wireless microphone wraps around your ear like many of the Bluetooth microphones you've seen in use with cell phones but has a slightly longer boom to make it ideally suited for speech recognition, your cell phone and your landline; a first. It's also extremely noise canceling and you would have one microphone that could handle 3 different jobs. You might want to purchase an extra battery if you go this route.
If you don't have a Bluetooth enabled cell phone you might prefer the new Hybrid Plantronics CS70N wireless telephone/microphone which is also very noise canceling.
Our apologies for turning this post into a commercial but we've been having a lot of fun testing microphones for NaturallySpeaking lately and we actually get paid to play. Somehow that just seems wrong . Before you make any microphone decisions, we recommend that you visit our Microphone Comparison Matrix where you can compare pricing, accuracy, noise cancellation and even comfort between the different models.
Lunis Orcutt - Developer of KnowBrainer & Host of the Http://www.KnowBrainer.com Speech Recognition Forum A Nuance Gold Certified Endorsed Dragon NaturallySpeaking Vendor ALWAYS Ask If Your Speech Recognition Vendor Is Nuance Certified
I would prefer a handheld microphone. For my exams I am using a head light and this comes on and off, so an attachment to my head would not work. Even on the ear. Also I use workstations, not a tablet or mobile device.
texasentdoc:I would prefer a handheld microphone. For my exams I am using a head light and this comes on and off, so an attachment to my head would not work. Even on the ear. Also I use workstations, not a tablet or mobile device.
Please see our section on Handheld Microphones. These Sennheiser MD431II is what we consider the speech recognition world's most accurate and noise canceling microphone. Many people use it mounted on a stand. When you go to the page for that microphone, you can watch a movie with how it looks and is used on the stand.
We are not surprised to a getting good results with the Philips SpeechMike Pro. We have been saying that for years even though some people think it is not state-of-the-art. The new improved model 5276 as improvements such as smaller, lighter, more ergonomic, and as KnowBrainer pointed out it has an optical trackball that does not require periodic cleaning. He is also correct in that it uses the same microphone element so you will not see any improvements in accuracy although we believe it was pretty darn accurate to begin with.
Martin
Do the Philips Microphones work with Dragon Medical 10?
Suzanne
Yes, but the Dictaphone PowerMic II (a somewhat similar device) is produced by Dictaphone, a division of Nuance, the manufacturers of Dragon Medical 10, and seems to be more tightly integrated with Dragon Medical, at this point in time.
Furthermore, there have been substantial enhancements in the last few months between the integration features of the Dictaphone PowerMic II and Dragon Medical 10 such that there are now function buttons on it that will allow users to navigate from [variable field] to [variable field] within Dragon macros.
If you're interested in more information on the PowerMic, most of the Dragon Medical resellers that you'll find at www.speechrecognition.com will be able to assist you with that information.
And, in the meantime, here are two brochures: http://www.1450.com/newproducts/pdfs/PowerMicAdvantages.pdf and http://www.1450.com/newproducts/pdfs/Nuance_PowerMicIIDataSheet.pdf
Yours,
Eric Fishman, MDPresident,1450, Inc.http://www.1450.com http://www.speechrecognition.com
A notably lower-priced option to the Dictaphone PowerMic II is the Grundig DigtaSonic Microphone USB microphone which we found to be more accurate than the Philips SpeechMic Pro USB microphone. The Digtasonic also includes programmable buttons and what we believe to be a superior pointing device to the Philips Speech Mic rollerball.