Speech Recognition has been around for quite sometime now. It has helped a lot of people who are suffering with disabilities, but is also used for entertainment, media, and games. Over the years, voice recognition software has evolved into a better, more accurate version that we know today. Most computers, tablets, and Smartphones today are equipped with voice recognition capability that you can use anytime you want.
Speech Recognition Software Basics
Speech recognition is a skill of a program or a machine to identify phrases and words in spoken language, and then translate them to a machine recognized format. The basic speech recognition software is usually composed of a limited vocabulary of different phrases and words. It works by using algorithms that involve language modeling and acoustics.
The acoustic modeling stands for the relation of the units of speech and audio signals while language modeling pairs up sounds with word sequences to help identify words that sounds the same. As technology advances, speech recognition software has been polished and is now more reliable than ever. According to Computerworld, the latest speech recognition software is now 95% accurate compared to older versions.
How Computers Recognize Speech
To better know how your computer’s voice recognition software works, you need to know the basics. In general, there are four different ways that a computer can use to turn spoken words into written form or machine-readable form.
- Pattern Matching
This is the simplest type of speech recognition and is the most popular one being used today. A good example is when you call your bank and get routed to their call center software; you give them your account information by speaking after a beep. When you use this kind of option, the computer isn’t required to do anything complicated as making sense of a full sentence or trying to decipher its meaning. Simply put, they only need to be able to tell the difference between 10 different sounds (spoken words from 0-9) to recognize what your account number is.
- Feature and Pattern Analysis
The English spoken word is mostly built from 46 phonemes (distinct units of sounds), so it’s possible to recognize spoken utterance by learning to pick them out. Compared to trying to recognize the sounds of at least 40,000 words in the dictionary, it’s easier to only recognize these 46 basic sounds. This type of method is usually called the “beads on a string model”. A string of speech can be recognized by breaking it into a set of phones. By figuring out the string of sounds or phones, you can then recognize the words or sentence.
Note: Most speech recognition software get better as you use them because it records all mistakes and corrects itself the next time the same word comes up.
- Analyzing Statistics
Generally, the latest modern speech recognition software uses a complex statistical strategy to figure out what you’re trying to say. The possibility of a phone following another phone, the silence that can exist in between each sound, and the possibility of words following another word to form a sentence are all considered. The system builds a Hidden Markov Model or HMM of your speech segment, which is the computer’s best guess at the beads that are queued on the string. In the HMM, the contents of the string aren’t directly observed but indirectly figured out by the use of the sound spectrum.
Note: Similar to how Statistical Analysis Software works, the computer thinks that it’s always giving out its best guess, and it won’t really know if they are correct until the user accepts their answer and labels it as correct.
- Simulated Neural Networks
In the 80s, scientists created a “connectionist” model where computers mimic the brain activity when it’s trying to recognize patterns. This study became more popular as artificial neural networks or ANN. Some of the speech recognition scientists studied about using neural networks, but HMMs overpowered this because of its effectiveness. Today, the use of ANNs and HMMs are being explored to give this speech recognition software more accuracy.
How Speech Recognition Can Help Your Business
Along with your CRM Software, speech recognition software is proven to also help you grow your business. Here are some of the reasons why.
- Save Time by Typing Less
Even small businesses have loads of paperwork from client issues, reports, notes, proposals, and documentations. Although you can rely on documentation management software, you can also take advantage of speech recognition software by dictating your computer as it types your documentation for you. By doing this, you can speed up your typing by three to four times your usual speed. Try taking on that email backlog with this system, and you will know how helpful it can be.
- Work Anywhere and Anytime You Want
Ideas often come to us when we least expect it. Instead of writing down ideas on a notepad, you can dictate them to your laptops and tablets wherever you are in the world. These notes can be synchronized to the Cloud so you can access them anytime you want. There’s no reason why you should have any downtime when you’re handling a business.
- Let the Software Handle Your Business
If you have good speech recognition software, you can count on it to understand the terms and acronyms used in your business’ industry. As you use these terms every day, the system becomes more efficient in recognizing how these terms work. The more you say these terms, the software adjusts to your preferences as well as to your writing and speaking style. This way, your software can become the business partner you never had. This can help save you time, effort, and cost especially if you are working in the IT industry.
- Easy Transcription
In some businesses, transcription is very important. Whether your business revolves around meetings, consultation or correspondence, transcription is part of it. By having good speech recognition software, you can take a whole stage out of the process. This will also reduce your manpower and cost as you would only use your laptop or tablet with the software to transcribe all of your notes, correspondence or even research for you.
- Time to Build Your Business
With all the time that you save with this automation, you can now focus on the bigger things at hand. You can also analyze and compare your notes to come up with a better idea on how to build your business and make it more successful. Paperwork, transcription, and consultations take a lot of time, so this is a perfect way for you to free up enough time to focus more on important business matters.
Where Is Speech Recognition Software Needed
There are many industries that need speech recognition software. However, here are the top applications that SRS is mostly used for.
- Video games
- Piloting helicopters
- In-car audio systems
- Training air traffic controllers
- Learning a language
- For users with learning disability
- Aerospace activities
- Automation of your home
- Robotics
- GPS or Navigation Systems
Features that You Need From Speech Recognition Software
Just like any other computer software, you need to make sure that what you purchase suits your business needs. These are some of the best features that a speech recognition software can offer.
Voice Recognition—The software that you choose should have the capability of being familiar with voice profiles and accents.
Dictation Capability—To really get the best out of your SRS, it must be able to recognize speech accurately so it can be converted into text. Proper speech recognition software must have no trouble with dictation even if the speaker has a unique accent.
Command Utility—Speech Recognition software should allow your voice to be the guide to pilot your own computer system. It must let you give basic commands like opening programs or setting up your own preferences.
Mobile App Availability—There is an option to install your SRS in your tablets and mobile phones. This is great for when you are away but need to work on some projects.
Set up Recurring Tasks—This is great for saving you time when you have to do recurring tasks. Your software must also learn how you want your tasks done with your own style and preferences.
Customer Support—Self-service and FAQ options are always part of a software package. They are beneficial to both the customer and business owner. However, if the issue is complex, you need to make sure that your software has a good customer support that is available 24/7.
Speech Recognition software can help your business more than you know, and it is worth your hard earned money. There are a number of SRS available in the market today, and you might want to check CrowdReviews.com for a list of reviews of the best speech recognition software.
Trevor Price
Latest posts by Trevor Price (see all)
- Why Document Management Software Is a Must for Every Company - January 13, 2017
- What Are the Best Scheduling Software for Your Specific Needs - January 12, 2017
- What Are the Top Features of Membership Management Software - January 10, 2017