[solero]

I was wondering if it's possible to get somekind of add-on to my ipod (20GB) that enables me to record interviews on it. Sound quality is very important! Do you know any?

Furthermore, I have heard about an auto-transcription program that basically transcribes everything recorded to text. Is this true or am I dreaming? If yes, what's it called.

I run both OS X and Windows, so compatibility isn't a problem.

[naphtali]

This is a very interesting topic for me too! I tried to look for such a solution to record and transcribe lectures but I'm afraid I haven't had any satisfactory combination (mainly because of the software limitations)


There are some iPod accessories that allow you to record with your iPod (from http://www.apple.com/ipod/accessories.html):
- Griffin iTalk
- Griffin Lapen Mic (for use with iTalk or other microphone adaptor)
- Belkin Universal Microphone Adaptor
- Belkin Voice Recorder

Unfortunately, I've heard that the recording software on the iPod is rather crippled and can only produce low-quality recordings. Not sure how significant that is for recording interviews per se, but voice recognition programs do require that your voice recordings be of a certain level of quality before they can work.


Some dictation/speech recognition software:
- ViaVoice (Mac only)
- iListen (Mac only)
- Dragon Naturally Speaking (Windows; also works with Palm devices etc)


Some digital voice recorders:
- Olympus (apparently Mac-friendly)
- Sony (Windows-only) - from experience, has efficient codec that produces high quality audio recordings that are small in file size.

- About.com article on some voice recorders


Important:
- Voice recognition programs need to be trained by you first, and they work based on these user speech patterns. This means that they will not transcribe what others say as accurately (if at all).

(from iListen product page) all the rules of using iListen also apply to transcription. You must have a trained user profile for the person who is speaking, and the speaker must say punctuation such as "period" and "comma.

For experience, the same applies to NaturallySpeaking (and probably ViaVoice as well). NaturallySpeaking, a market leader of some sort, is a little more impressive because certain program versions allow you to use your Palm as a transcribing tool.

[solero]

Wow, that is without a doubt the most complete answer to a question I have ever seen - I'm very impressed, and extremely thankfull

I'll look a the different solutions you have posted "naphtali", and post my thoughts when I get there - I have to finish my exams first (last one on monday)

[Since EBCDIC]

One central point not explicitly covered by that excellent answer is that the iPods contain a DSP (digital signal processing) chip which records at a lower rate than is demanded by iListen (etc.). This was a cost decision by Apple, as the higher-rate chip costs more and there wasn't/isn't considered enough of a market to eat into the profit margin. (This is why people use the Olympus recorder.)

When new iPods are released you should check out the recording rate to notice when they are bumped up. (Then someone please post here to tidy up this thread.)

I'm still (just before MWSF '06) for some combination of software on my G4 PowerBook, headset-with-microphone, and external recorder (with or without iPod) to really dive into voice recognition.