"We do not foresee a complete elimination of the keyboard, but voice activation goes a long way in expediting greater use of the PC," said HCL Infosystems products manager Arun RS. And the voice commands will be adapted to various new application products in the future customised to the requirements of end-users, such as banks, telecom, insurance etc.

The company has already started working on an interactive voice response (IVR) system to be used in telecommunications and is expected to come out with this product in three months.

What started with an aim to promotePC use among single users is now likely to get more and more oriented towards applications, according to Arun and this would be the company's USP.

HCL has a tie up with US-based Dragon, who is the global leader in speech controlling the computer. HCL is Dragon's exclusive distributor here and the training centre for Dragon's South-East Asian network. But there was a hitch. The computer was earlier programmed to understand only British or American accents and the Indian English was a different ball game.

HCL worked with Dragon in developing a software that understood Indian English, to ensure its popularity here. This was launched in end January 1999 and the response has been very encouraging, said Arun.

The customer can opt for any of the three packages: Point and Speak (Rs 5,995) is the cheapest. This package comes free with an HCL machine. It allows multiple users on a single system, an accuracy of 95 to 98 per cent, a built-in vocabulary of 2,30,000 words and an active vocabulary of 30,000 words.Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred (Rs 17,995) allows for dictating, correcting and formatting text and has a host of additional features enabling the computer to read aloud what has been dictated etc.

A Dragon package for professionals (Rs 39,995) is designed for top management needs, automatic work flows, allowing for multiple functioning through a single-voice command etc.

HCL is planning to introduce a `Dragon NaturallyMobile', a mobile recording device the size of a cellphone and having the dictation automatically transcribed into a computer at a later date.

All these have opened up new vistas in PC usage. The transcription industry (medical, legal, insurance etc) are assessing the potential of the Dragon packages. For now, this industry will find the package useful as it would expedite transcription at double the rate (than typing), corrections would also be made faster, recordings could be done on the mobile phone if need be. "It will take at least 18 months to two years to develop a speakerindependent solution," said Arun.

This would imply that the computer would understand any accent and would have a 100 per cent accuracy in transcribing. Then these systems could be used in hotel kiosks, in ATMs, plastic cards usage (where computer will identify the user by his voice) etc. Currently users have to undergo a small training session provided by HCL during installation, to `speak' in a manner understandable by the computer.

Meanwhile, voice activated computers are expected to have an exponential growth in the Indian market. Already 380 numbers have been booked in Chennai and Bangalore alone with another 60 from Delhi. Apart from the retail sales, the Dragon package `Point and Speak' is going to be tailored in HCL machines which would account for another 4,500 users every month, said Arun.