The design of a memory efficient Palantype Transcription System

Machine shorthand transcription systems have been used to provide verbatim transcripts of speech in Law Courts and as transcription aids for hearing impaired people for a number of years. All current transcription systems, however, rely heavily on dictionary look-up procedures in order to give a high quality transcription of the shorthand code. These systems require large memories and are usually expensive and non-portable. This paper describes a new transcription technique which results in a very compact and portable transcription system and which is therefore particularly suitable as an aid for the hearing impaired.