Okko in Speech

The speech application industry got some critical press in recent months (here are some spirited responses, respectively.)

All the more refreshing to come across this New York Times article presenting current work in speech and artificial intelligence. The article highlights broadly what kind of AI applications have moved into the mainstream (or have potential to do so). Speech and natural language understanding, the article claims, have gone furthest.

One thing that is generalizable from both criticisms above is that development of speech-enabled applications has stagnated, in various ways¹. The underlying technology – speech recognition (ASR) – has gone as far as it can. Application designers and developers haven’t adopted. Dictation has learned to understand doctors and lawyers better, but still struggles with conversational speech.

This point may have to be conceded. In terms of commercial applications however, especially speech-enabled voice (IVR) systems, the root cause for stagnation is not necessarily a failure of AI, rather than a maturing of standards and best-practices. Fulfilling expectations that voice applications, much like websites, behave according to certain rules is much to the advantage of the millions who interact with such systems every day.

What I walk away with from the generalized critical, as well as the Times’ optimistic perspective is that, short of a revolution in underlying technologies (which hardly anyone expects), filling practical, everyday niches is where things can still move forward for speech and language processing.  These niches have certainly not been fully uncovered.

Thoughts?

Arstechnica reports today on the release of Microsoft Recite “Technology Preview” for Windows Mobile. The applications lets users record short notes as audio snippets, which can later be searched for content by speaking key words. Apparently it does not entail speech recognition rather than simpler pattern matching, meaning it cannot be searched in text form but may work more robustly, eliminating the effort of training for speaker-independency.

While not a full product yet, this sounds like a nifty little application for cognitive off-loading.

Have you tried Microsoft Recite?

In the wake of Google’s release of its Chrome web-browser, speculation on plans for Chrome on other platforms, including Android have drifted ashore. Naturally this has washed aside much recent IE8 news, which, though not a game-changer, is said to introduce many of the much-needed improvements everyone has been looking for from Microsoft.

In light of the browser war raging, a little add-on for Microsoft’s Live Messenger may not stir many waters, even if it promises real-time chat translation between English and 14 other languages. However it is still refreshing to read about technology, which is geared at opening channels of communication, rather than capturing market shares.

What are Google’s plans with Chrome and Android viz. Microsoft IE on Windows Mobile? Will Microsoft leverage its non-browser language services such as translation and speech recognition like Google has been?

Diligent readers may have noticed that dominant news bits concerning speech and language technologies seem to focus on the cost- or time-saving aspects it. This is understandable, as the big players (Google, Microsoft, Nuance, IBM) have made it their mandate to capture lucrative markets (call center automation, directory assistance). Application of natural language technologies elsewhere, e.g. where it’s fun (in games) or necessary (providing accessibility for visually impaired users), seems to lag.
Not so this week. This week seems to shine under the assistive/accessibility technology star. Note Sourceforge project “Speak as Daisy” – a Microsoft Word plugin that enables creation of XML files with markup for speech synthesis or electronic braille generation. The plugin is said to be available in 2008.
Mac users with need for improved document read back in British English will rejoice over the improved Infovox iVox voices.
Philips and Elsevier develop a speech-enabled diagnostic system for Radiologists.
Behold Nattiq’s USB Hal Pen, which allows blind users to use the company’s accessibility features on any computer with a USB port without installation.
Of course there’s some overlap with time-, cost- and money-saving technologies as well. The FBI has announced widespread use of Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking dictation for report and interview transcription.
Lastly, here’s an a propos rant against call center automation and frustrated end-users, a target group for speech and language technologies all too often neglected. Perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned about usability by the “money savers” employing speech technology, taken from those that rely on speech recognition and synthesis for their daily needs. I don’t know, but F-word spotting as a means for prioritizing frustrated callers seems like an acknowledgement of defeat.

Back after an extensive break. Been working hard on some of my own multi-modal ideas. Keep your eyes peeled.
Looks like it’s been a quiet fall, speech and language technology-wise. After GOOG-411, Microsoft has also added speech to their search engine endeavors (if in a different domain) by speech-enabling Live Search for mobile users. Nuance continues to consolidate the speech tech market.
Exciting news on the IVR front. Finally a serious attempt to integrate various open-source technologies to provide free carrier-grade speech/telephone services is under way. VoiceGlue has managed to combine OpenVXI (VXML browser), Flite (Speech Synthesis) on Asterisk and is planning to integrate Sphinx2 for speech recognition. All components would then be available under some form of the GPL. Could this herald a change in availability of speech telephone platforms for developers unwilling to dish out horrendous per-port costs? Something to follow, anyway.
Lastly, here‘s an article describing the growing role of speech in warehouse management.

There was no shortage of novel uses for speech technology this week. Avaya and the Jersey City’s Liberty Science Center announced speech-enabled exhibits, allowing customers to access information and services in the museum using their voice (and, of course, mobile devices).
Gizmo freaks should love (and everyone else should hate) this bunny, displaying speech recognition and synthesis, while also providing some unified communication capacities.
Also novel, though on a sadder note: speech is finally on the malware radar for good, as TTS trojans popped up using Microsoft’s builtin text-to-speech engine to annoy users by commenting their own malicious behavior. Call it the salt-in-wound virus. This news comes after about half a year after a MS Vista speech recognition security flaw was revealed, whereby the recognizer enables remote execution of content on a computer running speech recognition.

Traditional speech applications made some headlines this week as well: Nuance signs deal with Damovo to roll out speech apps in Ireland, forecasting €1.5m in profits over the next year. TuVox annouces hosted on-demand speech apps for VOIP access.

Lastly, here is an interesting article about the Jetsons and why speech technology hasn’t caught on as much as we have all hoped.

On the WWW today:

• Some recent news about Google and MS voice search offensive.
• Epson chip to feature Fonix DECtalk speech synthesis.

On the WWW today:

• LumenVox announces 400th Asterisk PBX developer employing LumenVox ASR Engine.
• VoiceSignal announces Blackberry 8800 integration.
• Talking Technologies announce real-time speech-to-speech translation software.
• Microsoft PBX with ASR. News seems older, and subsequent of MS’s TellMe acquisition.