Stenomask - History

History

The stenomask was developed by Horace Webb and two colleagues in the early 1940s. He was proficient with Gregg shorthand but sought a more accurate and faster system of transcription, as shorthand notes can become unmanageable with fast talkers or difficult terminology. Furthermore, until recently, shorthand reporters would verbally dictate transcription notes into typewritten form, resulting in about two hours dictation for every hour transcribing.

Thus, Webb thought he could "repeat it with my voice instead of with a pen". After much experimentation—first with a cigar box and then a tomato can—he arrived at a solution using a microphone inside a rubber Air Force face mask, paired with a coffee pot filled with sound-absorbing material. The result was eventually deemed by the U.S. Navy to be the most accurate method of transcription among "all known systems of verbatim reporting", and was subsequently adopted for use in their court reporting.

Continuing in his father's footsteps, Stephen Webb (Talk Technologies, Inc.) is contributing major advancements to the classical "moose-mask" design. These improvements include a smaller, lightweight design, and a specially designed mask to be used for speech recognition.