【NEC】 VWP-100 Series

In October 1982, NEC announced the VWP-100 Series -- the world's first voice word processor for creating text by inputting via voice rather than through key or pen-touch input.

The features of this product were as follows:

1) It employed monosyllable input, a voice-based text input method suited to the Japanese language.In Japanese, the monosyllabic sounds "ah", "ee" and "ooh" correspond 1-to-1 with kana letters (Japanese phonetic letters). Therefore, this method is suited to input of Japanese language sentences using voice. Also, with voice recognition of monosyllables, there is no limit on the number of words which can be recognized, so the system is also suited for inputting data containing many proper nouns, such as names and addresses.

2) High-precision analysis was achieved using digital signal processing LSI, and a high recognition rate was achieved by employing monosyllable recognition based on a time normalized matching system developed independently by NEC. Recognition could be done instantaneously (approx. 250ms) using multiprocessor based dedicated hardware.

3) The system had a 40 x 25 character CRT display, and a vertical/horizontal scrolling function enabled editing and display of texts with up to 90 characters in one line. Thick and thin lines could be drawn with simple operation, and table generation was easy. The system was also equipped with powerful editing functions, such as arithmetic functions for calculating numerical data in documents.