The speech recognition functionality also requires that you have a sound card and a microphone. Almost any sound card will work for speech recognition and text-to-speech. The quality of the microphone is a large determinant of speech recognition accuracy. Use a close-talk or headset microphone that is held close to the mouth or a medium-distance microphone that rests on the computer 30 to 60 centimeters away from the speaker. A headset microphone is needed for noisy environments. Speech recognition works best with close-talk microphones.
Inquisit leverages the Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine to allow measurement of both latency and accuracy of spoken responses. To use Inquisit's speech recognition capabilities, you must download and install version 5.1 of the Microsoft Speech Engine.
The speech engine comes preinstalled on these versions of Windows.
For optimal performance, run the Microphone Wizard to adjust microphone input to appropriate levels and the Speech Recognition Wizard to tune the engine to your voice and dialect. You can find both Wizards under the Speech Recognition menu within Inquisit's Tools menu.
Inquisit leverages the native speech recognition engine that ships with Mac OSX. There are no additional installations steps required.