voice recorder
A dictation device , also called a dictaphone or dictaphone , is an audio recorder for analog or digital recording of speech, which provides the user with means to further process the recordings in a suitable manner. By using a dictation machine, the tasks of formulating and writing are separated from one another and can be carried out by different people. The term Dictaphone is the brand Dictaphone the Columbia Phonograph Company back.
Analog voice recorder (1970s)
Thomas Alva Edison uses an Edison Business Phonograph (1907)
Dictaphone ( ca.1920 )
Voice recorder - steno-cassette 30 ( 1970s )
Sony voice recorder with mini cassette ( 1980s )
Olympus VN-2100 digital voice recorder introduced in 2008
Range of functions
To distinguish them from other recording or playback devices, dictation devices usually have the following properties:
- Limited sound quality, comparable to the frequency response of the telephone
- Possibility to change the sound carrier quickly
- Robust sound carrier that remains undamaged in everyday office life
- Various remote control functionalities: on the microphone, next to a record button, usually a rewind button and a play button
- for the typing office footswitches for playing and rewinding
Early dictation machines
The dictation machine was invented in 1877 by Thomas Alva Edison in the form of the phonograph . In its original form, however, the device was not suitable for everyday use because the aluminum foil used for sound recording tore easily and often became unusable after a few playbacks. In 1886 Alexander Graham Bell , his cousin Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter received a patent for the graphophone , which could record the voice on wax cylinders.Dictation machines only became popular after the turn of the century, the Edison Business Phonograph came on the market in 1904, from around 1910 the American market dominated equally by the two manufacturers Thomas A. Edison Company and Columbia Phonograph Company . From 1907 Columbia used the brand name Dictaphone , Edison followed suit with Ediphone in 1917.
From the end of 1898, Carl Lindström also built phonographs in Berlin that could play Edison wax cylinders. For use as a dictation machine, it was sold from around 1910 under the name Parlograph ; Most of the devices for playing music no longer used wax cylinders. Lindström's devices were sold in France under the name Parlophone .
In Great Britain, the Roneo Co. built the Rhoneophone, which was also exported to France.
Compared to modern mini devices that can fit in ballpoint pens, devices from the early 20th century were very large and unwieldy. Nevertheless, they revolutionized the processes primarily in the executive offices. Because now it was possible to dictate independently of the staff present and to have the notes written down at a later point in time. The devices were equipped with special devices such as foot-operated start-stop switches (with Edison using air pressure from a balloon that you had to step on) and hearing tubes (for easy listening in noisy typewriter rooms). The wax rollers were extinguished with the help of special devices, each of which scraped off a thin layer of the roller and thus also the grooves it contained ( called shaver ).
Types of voice recorders
Magnetizable storage media
A decisive improvement was the recording on magnetizable plastic storage media. Initially on tape (developed by BASF in 1935) or on magnetic disks with a diameter of 20 cm ( AEG model Kurier or Assmann 640). Later, at belt-driven dictation compact cassettes , mini or micro cassette used. In order to achieve longer recording times, the tape speed of 4.75 cm / s that is usual for compact cassettes is reduced to 2.4 or 1.2 cm / s for devices operated with mini or micro cassettes and less than 1 cms / s for digital NT Cassette . This narrows the frequency response and limits the sound quality of the recordings. Analog dictation machines are therefore not suitable for recording music. Compared to digital devices, however, they offer the advantage that rewinding is easy and that tape passages can be easily transferred. At times, devices were available for use with microcassettes that were hardly larger than a microcassette itself, and versions with autoreverse were also available. There were other developments overseas such as sound paper and Dictabelt .
Due to the displacement by digital devices, analog dictation devices are still in use today, but are of little commercial importance.
Digital
Digital dictation machines usually record audio data on a digital data storage medium using a lossy compression process . This digital data can be copied, archived and processed as required. In particular, due to the technical progress of speech recognition systems , digital solutions have achieved a far greater performance than analog ones.
The properties of a digital dictation machine differ greatly depending on the price range and user group of the device. The development of digital dictation machines began in the mid-1990s. In 1997 the SpeechMike was launched by Philips .
Storage technology
As a rule, flash memories that are permanently integrated into the device are built into the device , but replaceable memory cards are used in higher-quality devices , which allow significantly larger capacities. Devices with MiniDisc as a storage medium have a special position . These devices were manufactured almost exclusively by the Sony company. However, these devices have never got beyond a niche existence.
Compression method
In order to make the capacity of their devices useful and to simplify further processing - such as archiving or sending via the Internet - manufacturers use different compression methods. Proprietary audio codecs are mostly used, while the manufacturer-independent DSS and DSS Pro processes are used in high-quality devices .
ergonomics
Since professional users of dictation devices may perform hundreds of operating steps on their devices per day, very high ergonomic requirements are placed on high-quality dictation devices. To meet this, z. B. slide switches are used, housing shapes and materials are optimized or frequently used functions are made accessible particularly quickly.
Range of functions
Depending on the structural complexity of the device, a wide range of functions can be supported. Professional devices allow e.g. B. to over-speak dictations or to partially delete them or provide a more efficient management of the recordings (date and time stamp, author identification, index marks, etc.).
Interfaces and software
Only entry-level devices do without an interface to the PC, since without it no electronic processing can take place. A common application would be, for example, the connection to speech recognition software.
Writing station software and workflow management programs are offered for high-quality devices. It is also often expected of such devices that special accessories - such as foot switches - are available.
Smartphones
Smartphones can also record dictations in professional quality using special software, so-called dictation apps. The outstanding advantage of these dictation apps is that the dictations can be sent directly to a typist or speech recognition software at any time, from any location via cellular network or WiFi. As a rule, these recordings can also be listened to with the standard transcription systems and written / transcribed by internal or external typists. Even automatic transcription using speech recognition software is no longer a technological challenge today. Modern dictation apps offer these recording qualities.
As universal devices, however , smartphones, MP3 players and tablet PCs did not inherently have operating elements that were clearly intended for dictation and that would enable the ergonomic properties mentioned above for serial dictation. Therefore, special dictation apps have been developed that offer these features on devices with touch screens. Today they are called dictation machines with touch screens or smartphone dictation machines. Since 2015, very professional dictation apps have also been available that even have patented slide switch controls for touch screens. Dictation apps are just as easy to control as the above. analog or digital dictation machines. Such patented slide switches for touch screens are available for right-handed and left-handed users.
The problem that the smartphone cannot be ergonomically held while dictating because the microphone is at the bottom and the loudspeaker at the top during "normal operation = telephoning" has also been solved. With the so-called 180 ° flip functions of the different dictation apps, the smartphone, the MP3 player and the tablet PC can also be held in such a way that the microphone is at the top and the loudspeaker is at the bottom, as is the case with analog or digital dictation machines.
If the dictator uses a high-quality headset and a modern dictation app on his smartphone, MP3 player or tablet PC, it is even possible to dictate hands-free while driving in a quality that almost corresponds to that in the office.
Today, free dictation apps are available through the AppStores that are in no way inferior to a professional dictation machine.
Since a smartphone, an MP3 player (e.g. Apple iPod touch) or a tablet PC are more like computers that can be used to make phone calls rather than being mobile phones, not only monofunctional apps can run on them, but also via With professional dictation apps, voice solutions can be easily integrated into any other apps, modern business processes and databases. So z. B. customer data, patient data or client data via so-called integrations in a database with the language file. As a result, not only can the following processes of writing be processed by internal or external typists or by speech recognition, the written dictation can also be automatically imported into the database as text for the corresponding process. In this way, language can also streamline the documentation processes in companies, authorities and organizations whose employees do not yet use an analog or dictal dictation device and, above all, save time.
Historical types
In the 1950s to 1970s, there were also disk devices that recorded on magnetic discs. With the “Assmann” system, for example, a groove on a plastic plate with a magnetic track on the floor was used as a sound carrier. The early devices looked like record players, except that the tonearm had a magnetic head instead of the needle system. Later devices had a lid that covered about two thirds of the record and in which, in addition to the actual tonearm system, a special mechanism was built. This drove a pointer on the surface of the lid, which slid over a scale. The surface of the scale was designed as a recess and was thus designed so that paper strips printed with the same scale could be inserted there. The pointer could be pushed down electromagnetically and then punched a mark in the paper strip. In this way, the individual dictations were marked on the plate. The paper strip was then labeled and handed over to the typist together with the plate, who could use the strip to individually control and process the dictations.
The Dictaphone Ultravox saved the recording on a magnetizable film in A5 format, which could be archived together with the transcript in a space-saving case. The film was pulled into the device through the opening at the top over a roller. It turned while the magnetic head moved one step from left to right on a horizontal rail after each turn. When listening, dictation positions could be jumped to by manually moving the sound head using a slide switch without coils.
Rols recorded on a tear-off, disposable dictation tape. Stenocord, Philips, Sanyo, Sony, Olympus, Grundig, Assmann, Compur, Olympia and Lanier all worked with a dictation cassette.
See also
swell
- ^ A b History of the Dictation Machine - Ediphone and Dictaphone. (No longer available online.) In: www.recording-history.org. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on May 23, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory . ( Gutenberg [accessed May 23, 2015]).
- ↑ a b Dictating Machines. In: www.officemuseum.com. Retrieved May 23, 2015 .
- ↑ Company presentation of dictation solutions from Philips Speech Processing, p. 6 ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ German Patent and Trademark Office
