Do You Use Voice Recognition With Your Tablet PC? A Poll and Some Questions

There has been some interesting discussion around the topic of voice recognition on a Tablet PC lately. First there was word about the new release of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. (Marc Orchant takes a first look at the new version.) And then there was an apparent misfire of a demo of Vista’s voice recognition software at the recent analyst meeting in Redmond. (Chris Pirillo has linked to the YouTube video of that failure here.

This recent talk has left me pondering a bit about voice recognition and the Tablet PC. First, I think it keeps getting closer, but I don’t think it is there yet. Second, I really think to use it effectively you not only have to train and practice, (we all know that) but I think environmental conditions in your work environment need to be almost ideal. I tried some training over the weekend and the ambient noise from air conditioners (hey, it is too hot to turn them all off these days in our office) and even street sounds interfered quite a bit. Third, in my case, I need to get over the fact that it probably sounds a bit like I’m crazy sitting in my office talking to myself. Again, that’s tied to our small office environment.

But I’d love to hear from anyone who uses voice recognition in a more suitable environment. Our latest poll asks you a simple yes or not question: Do you use voice recognition on your Tablet PC? Vote and then leave a comment and tell us your experiences with voice recognition. If you’ve tried and given up, tell us that too. I think this can be a winning note-taking technology in the right environment, but it seems to be often overlooked when we discuss Tablet PCs. Is that because no one is taking advantage of it? Or is the technology just not there yet? 

Looking forward to hearing your responses.