It seems like a James Bond gadget that Q has invented to foil the enemy - but in fact it is a simple and relatively new technology that is now being taught at Bermuda College.

The voice recognition packages used at the college allow prospective students to speak into a microphone, and as if by magic, the words appear on the screen.

"It can take a semester for a student to get up to about 30 words a minute," said Gerry Begeman, Senior Lecturer in Business Management at the College.

"But with this software, you can get up to about 120 words a minute with about 12 hours of training."

Mr. Begeman will be teaching the class which will begin next month and he said there has been a great deal of interest in the new class.

"It can help prevent repetitive strain injury and help those who have it," he said.

"It is a tool that can be used by the executive, the administrative assistant, lawyers, judges, police or any type of office personnel, student or physically handicapped person.

"Basically it is good for anyone who has to input a lot of data into a computer. We have a physically challenged young man at the college and he uses it and has great success with it."

Mr. Begeman has been monitoring the technology since it came on the market about five years ago. But he said that there were problems with the technology up until recently which made it more bother than it was worth.

"Now it really is a magnificent input technology. The challenge with technology is to make people more productive and effective in their work. I think most people could use this."

Mr. Begeman added that the average cost of a letter was $60 to have it typed and sent. He said that the voice recognition technology could help cut that cost, with executives instead of dictating, speaking directly into the computer, and then have an assistant tidy it up.

"It is much more time efficient than using a Dictaphone and transcribing that into a computer - it takes away one of the steps," he said.

Mr. Begeman also believes that all kinds of administrative assistants should be trained on the software and is now incorporating the course in the Advanced Office Skills offered at the college. And he added that the system can be trained to accept different accents, so regional differences can be incorporated.

"The other day I was teaching mine French. I said to it "bon jour" and spelled it out, and now when I say bon jour, it recognises it," he said.

The programme can also recognise different accents and can be programmed to UK or US and even Australian, Indian English or South East Asian English. It also comes with different programmes for medical, legal and public safety to recognise special words that are every day in these professions.

"This technology is already being taught in two US States, Nebraska and Utah at high school and junior high level - it is mandated as part of their education," Mr. Begeman said.

"I don't think this should replace keyboarding skills - people still will need to key in some things - but it a very workable technology which can make people more effective in their work."

The new voice recognition course provides the students with a laptop, microphone and training manual. The course is on the Dragon Naturally Speaking software and starts on June 2, from 6pm to 9 p.m. and continues on June 4, 9 and 11. For more information contact Bermuda College.