Dictating machine is a device that records speech onto a magnetic medium, such as a tape or a hard disk like one used in a computer. A person can later play back the recording and enter the words into a computer. Some dictating machines are small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. Others are desktop machines. Some offices have centralized dictating systems that can record messages dictated over telephones.
To use a dictating machine, a person speaks into a microphone or telephone, which translates the sound waves into electric current. The dictating machine then translates the current into a pattern of magnetization on the magnetic medium. Some machines create an analog pattern—one that is similar to the sound waves. Most of these machines create this pattern on a cassette tape. Other machines translate the current into digital (numerical) code that is then stored on a hard disk.
To listen to the dictation, a person puts the cassette into a transcriber or uses a transcription unit to obtain information from the hard disk. These devices translate the stored patterns back into sound waves.
See also Tape recorder .
