Editing Dragon Dictate (section)

==Historical Context==
The exploration of automatic speech recognition and transcription commenced in 1936 at AT&T's Bell Labs. During this period, most research was funded and conducted by universities and governmental entities in the United States, notably the military and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency). Commercial adoption of this technology did not happen until the early 1980s. <ref name=":1">[https://www.dragon-medical-transcription.com/history_speech_recognition.html History of Speech & Voice Recognition and Transcription Software]</ref> In 1982, Covox made a groundbreaking move by releasing the very first commercial product in speech recognition. This significant milestone not only introduced digital sound to the realm of computing but also incorporated an early form of speech recognition technology into the mix. Another business that was established in 1982 and whose final product is now the undisputed industry leader in speech recognition is Dragon Systems. The release of Dragon Dictate in 1990 was a turning point in the evolution of speech recognition technology. It is critical to take into account the technological status of the time as well as the larger socio-economic climate in order to provide historical context:

* Growth of personal computing: This time period corresponded with the increasing popularity of personal computers. Dragon Dictate was released to customers who owned computers, making voice recognition more accessible.
* Advancements in hardware: advancements in computer hardware during the late 1980s and early 1990s in terms of processor power and memory capacity allowed for more advanced voice recognition systems.
* Vocabulary restrictions: Dragon Dictate, like many early voice recognition systems, had a limited vocabulary when compared to contemporary systems. It performed well in dictation tasks but struggled to recognize a large variety of words and phrases.