Hey group,

I'm trying to find a piece of equipment to solve a problem, and this is the best community that I know of to ask this sort of question. For a voice recognition project, I'd like to connect a basic USB microphone headset to a portable/wearable computing device. The only reason I need the computer device at all is to run the voice recognition and audio output algorithms, so I would like a device that has USB input and a small cheap screen or no screen at all (for my intention, the only input will be the microphone, and the only output will be the audio). I don't care if its Windows, Linux, or whatever, as long as it can be programmed.

I'm not concerned with how much work is involved, so if anyone knows of a good microcontroller setup or something that can be interfaced to USB, I am open to that as well. I studied electrical engineering in college so I'm slightly comfortable with embedded stuff.

I've considered a MID (mobile internet device) or ultra-mobile PC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-Mobile_PC), if anyone knows a good device in this category.

Thanks folks!

I've only worked with a beagleboard briefly but it has USB and audio input/output if I remember correctly. It also has DVI out for a small screen? Might be too big.

If you have an iPhone, could you use that along with the headphones (they include a mic)?

iPhone seems good, as long as you code the processor intensive stuff in C/C++.
Maybe an Arduino? Maybe a GP2X?

Thanks for the great responses. I didn't realize that there were smartphones with USB input; are these the full-sized flat, wide USB ports?

Those mini programmable boards are great, I might get one of those beagleboards even if it doesn't work out for this project :)