What is the difference between back-end and front-end speech recognition?
Front-end speech recognition takes place in real-time at the location where the user is dictating. On the other hand, back-end speech recognition takes place on a remote machine in a network. This is not real-time recognition; the results are produced in batch mode. Back-end speech recognition used for transcription is inherently more difficult than speech recognition for interactive dictation (front-end speech recognition). One particular reason is that back-end recognition is typically tasked with transcribing speech that is recorded over the phone or a voice-recorder. Such recordings have higher noise levels and lower bandwidth than what is typical for recordings made with high-quality, noise-canceling, close-talking microphones. The recordings used for back-end transcription also generally reflect faster speaking rates and poorly-enunciated speech.
