So where is speech recognition at these days? How far away is the day when we (court reporters) are replaced by software or robots or HAL? Turns out that's the subject of a new report by Datamonitor:
Court Reporters Can Breathe Easy
What the Datamonitor report discovered is that the healthcare sector is where all the speech technology is growing, not the legal field. The report indicates that PC-based speech software is not widespread though the technology does have a home in the healthcare industry. Doctors are adapting speech recognition to transcribe medical reports rather than have humans transcribe tapes. While the use of technology in this way is growing, in the legal transcription arena, court reporters livelihoods are not in danger.
Medical Transcription Is Iffy
Due to tighter and tighter budgets coupled with the need to obtain accurate and private patient records, speech recognition providers are finding a target market with doctors. They have something called EHR (Electronic Health Records) now which are updated via digital dictation. Doctors speak into digital recorders and the information is transcribed via speech recognition. The market size for this industry is huge. It's likely going to double within the next five years.
Still, as a court reporter and legal services provider, I'm not worried about the technological changes afoot.
More information here.