Putting speech recognizers to work: While advances in signal processing and algorithms would extend their usefulness, limited models are already meeting many inspection and inventory applications

An inspector sits by a factory assembly line, examining subassemblies for a complex electronic system. As each part goes by, he speaks into a microphone connected to a computer system: “Accept… Accept… Rework [pause] solder [pause] terminals… Accept… Accept… Scrap… Accept…”