Voice-activated technology working the kinks out
The technology that allows people to talk to a computer is expected to go mainstream in 5 years
By Brenda Rios KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
In a few years, people will be able to order pizzas over the phone without ever talking to a person, change a TV channel with a word or two and file expense reports or update inventories from their cars by speaking into a cell phone.
Technology that allows computers to understand speech has been in the works for more than 30 years, but getting it right and widely accepted has proven more difficult than researchers expected.
Experts say they've finally worked through some major stumbling blocks such as unreliable cell phone connections and background noise that make it tough for computers to pick up a voice. The technology will likely go mainstream within five years.
They expect cell phones and cars to be the areas where voice-recognition could have the biggest growth. Concern over distracted driving makes using speech to dial phones and handle other tasks in cars even more urgent.
Some of the new technology, reminiscent of HAL, the talking computer in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," is already here:
The Infiniti Q45 from Nissan allows passengers to change the temperature and audio controls with voice commands. OnStar, a Troy, Mich.-based subsidiary of General Motors, has launched a system in which subscribers pay a fee so they can make phone calls and get weather, stock quotes and e-mail read to them through computers that understand voice commands.
United Airlines has a system that allows callers to get flight information by saying a flight number or arrival and destination cities for a flight. The computer asks questions and the caller responds by voice.
Last month Sprint PCS launched a system that allows its customers to buy plans that will let them get basic traffic reports or horoscopes read to them by uttering commands into their phone's speakers.
Even directory assistance has a system that allows callers to say the name of a city and person or business they are trying to reach.
But speech recognition technology is expected to become more sophisticated. Companies are spending millions to make that happen. The 185 or so worldwide companies working on speech recognition hope to cash in on what could be a vibrant, new market.
Forrester Research estimates that voice-based commerce will reach or exceed $450 billion -- three times the projected amount for on-line retail sales -- by 2003.
"It's going to be very big," said Ira Brodsky, president of Datacomm Research Co. of Chesterfield, Mo. "Anybody who has a phone will be using these kinds of services whether they know it or not."
Brodsky said the technology will become popular because it will focus on practical uses such as getting directions or traffic reports while driving.
And the technology has improved, making speech recognition possible. The cost of hardware and software has gone down. Faster microprocessors process information in seconds vs. the several minutes it took a few years ago. And wireless networks are more reliable.
"It all depends on having the infrastructure in place," said Judith Markowitz of Markowitz Consultants in Chicago.
Markowitz said investors have been leery of funding technology companies, but speech recognition businesses have received money to pay for research and development that has improved the accuracy of software.
When the software hit the market in 1984, many thought the age of talking computers had arrived, but consumers quickly learned they would have to get training and often spend hours figuring out how to make it work.
Software that understands conversational speech has yet to be fully developed.
Emmett Coin, CEO of ejTalk, a speech recognition research and consulting company in Detroit, said speech recognition systems will need to understand conversation to be fully accepted by the average person.
"The more it mimics our human innate pattern of speech, the easier it will be and the less we will know it is there," Coin said.
Most commercial systems require specific voice commands or work by recognizing particular words that act as commands.
For instance Just Talk Inc., an Ann Arbor, Mich., speech recognition company, has developed software that allows businesspeople on the go to update their computer calendars, contact lists and even their sales inventories with a phone call. While the system can't understand conversation, it picks up particular words from a caller's sentence.
Commands essentially limit the field of words a system has to recognize helping to increase the rate at which computers can accurately understand speech.
Much of today's software can reach up to 90-percent accuracy, even higher with training, experts say. But strong accents, high-pitched voices and speech impediments can throw accuracy rates off.
Background noise can also confuse voice-recognition systems. Unlike people, computers cannot focus on a particular speaker and drown out the rest of the background noise, explains Raymond Gunn, CEO of Clarity, a Troy company that makes software that enables computers to separate a speaker's voice from other noise.
Gunn said Clarity's software can boost a system's accuracy rate from 90 percent up to as high as 97 percent.
Background noise is a particularly big issue in cars and public places where people use cell phones.
People at homes and offices can always type on a PC, but people who are driving or walking through an airport can't open a laptop. They could speak into a speakerphone or cell phone.
"Speech recognition and synthesis is the only way to truly have the office in the car," Markowitz said.
Markowitz said businesses eager to make or save money by having employees take advantage of mobile offices initially will push the technology forward. "They'll have specific needs such as a sales force on the go who needs access to information."
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