# What is this person putting up to her mouth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2022, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-person-putting-up-to-her-mouth/963433 "2022-04-25T19:45:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-person-putting-up-to-her-mouth/963433/1 "2022-04-25T19:45:57Z")
We’ve been watching the civil proceedings against MTG, and all throughout, this woman to the judge’s right (the court clerk, I assume) has been continually raising a [device](https://flic.kr/p/2ngGhCa) to her mouth. Can anyone tell me what it is? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-person-putting-up-to-her-mouth/963433/2 "2022-04-25T19:49:40Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Can anyone tell me what it is? Yes, that’s a device used by court reporters in a few places (mostly in the South, in my experience). They repeat everything said. It’s very strange. > **[Stenomask](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenomask)** > > A stenomask is a hand-held microphone built into a padded, sound-proof enclosure that fits over the speaker's mouth or nose and mouth. Some lightweight versions may be fitted with an elastic neck strap to hold them in place while freeing the user's hands for other tasks. The purpose of a stenomask is to allow a person to speak without being heard by other people, and to keep background noise away from the microphone. > A stenomask is useful for speech recognition applications, because it allows ... ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-person-putting-up-to-her-mouth/963433/3 "2022-04-25T19:56:33Z")
Ah, I see…court reporter, not clerk. Does the stenomask replace the steno machine you usually used by court reporters? This court reporter’s hands are completely occupied with the mask, so she can’t be using anything else. I’d think there’s more chance of errors with a voice recognition based system, which is analig, as opposed to using a traditional steno machine, which is quite literally digital. With a typo in the transctipt, you can figure out what word was meant, but with an audio track sometimes not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-person-putting-up-to-her-mouth/963433/4 "2022-04-25T20:21:11Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Does the stenomask replace the steno machine you usually used by court reporters? Yes. I don’t get this “technology” at all. However, I’ve only encountered it a handful of times. (the first time, I thought the court report was on oxygen).