What is a dictation foot pedal?

A dictation foot pedal is a switch you press with your foot to control a recording while you type. It starts and pauses playback, and it rewinds and fast-forwards, so the typist's hands never leave the keyboard. Philips describes its pedal as one that starts, pauses, rewinds and fast-forwards audio with a slight movement of the foot tip ¹. The pedal records nothing. It only controls a recording that already exists on a recorder or a computer.

The pedal exists so a typist never takes their hands off the keys

Transcription is a loop of playing, stopping, rewinding and typing. Without a pedal, each pause means reaching for a button on the recorder or the mouse, and that interrupts the typing. A history of dictation machines describes typists using playback machines with foot pedals to control the speed of a recording and to reverse and repeat it ².

The same design survives in current products. The control is a pedal, the audio is a file, and the typist's hands stay on the keys. The dictation machine guide explains where the pedal sits in the whole workflow, from the recorder to the typist.

A modern pedal sends ordinary key presses to the computer

One modern example is the OM System AS-2700 kit, whose foot switch has three pedals ³. That switch is HID keyboard compatible, and a free Windows configuration tool can customize it ⁴.

HID stands for Human Interface Device, the class of USB and Bluetooth devices that includes keyboards. A keyboard-compatible pedal sends the same kind of signal as a key press, so any transcription program that responds to keyboard shortcuts can use it. Check the software's shortcut list before you buy, because the pedal can only do what the program maps to a key.

Check availability too. The AS-2700 transcription kit is no longer available as a bundled product ⁵. Check the vendor's current product list before you buy.

Philips foot controls connect through a SpeechMike docking station

Philips' foot control is a different design. It connects to a docking station that is connected to the computer, and the order in which those parts are connected matters. The SpeechMike question describes the handheld microphone and its docking station in more detail.

When a foot pedal does not work, check the connection order and the power

Start with the fix Philips gives for the SpeechMike Premium Air. If the computer cannot detect the foot control, Philips says to disconnect the foot control and the docking station, reconnect the foot control to the docking station first, and then connect the docking station to the computer ⁶.

Then work through the usual causes in this order:

1. Check the recording device. If the dictation audio is silent or too quiet, Philips' troubleshooting table says to select the SpeechMike as the default recording device in the Windows sound settings ⁷. The Philips SpeechMike manual gives the full table.
2. Reconnect in the order above. Unplug the pedal, the docking station and the computer connection, then plug them back in the order Philips gives.
3. Check the power. If the SpeechMike does not work at all, Philips notes that some computers limit USB output power to 100 mA, which may not be enough ⁸. Its fixes are the supplied power supply unit or a self-powered hub ⁹.

If none of these steps works, Philips' troubleshooting says to contact the Philips partner you bought the device from ¹⁰. We did not find an equivalent troubleshooting list for the OM System pedal, so ask its seller for one.

A pedal controls playback, so the rest of the workflow still matters

A working pedal does not fix a poor recording. The microphone position, the room and the file format still decide how clean the audio is for a typist. Read the microphone guide and the dictation machine guide before you buy the rest of the kit. The terms are defined in the dictation foot pedal glossary entry and the transcription foot pedal entry.

For related questions, see is there a device that types what you say, can you use a voice recorder for dictation, and what is a SpeechMike.

For the whole subject, see the dictation overview.