1. Matt Oliverio, Shane Conceicao, and Sean Hanley

2.  Bell Laboratories designed in 1952 the
"Audrey" system, which recognized digits
spoken by a single voice.
 IBM demonstrated at the 1962 World's Fair its
“Shoebox" machine, which could understand
16 words spoken in English and solve
arithmetic on voice command

4.  U.S. Department of Defense’s DARPA
Speech Understanding Research (SUR)
program in the 1970’s was responsible for
Carnegie Melon’s Harpy system.
 Harpy could understand 1011 words
 Harpy was significant because it was the
first to use beam search technology
 A predetermined number of best partial
solutions are kept as candidates and it
predicts how close it is to complete solution

5.  In the 1980’s speech recognition vocabulary
jumped dramatically due to a new statistical
method called the Hidden Markov Model
 Instead of using templates for words and
looking for sound patterns, HMM took the
probability of unknown sounds being words
 This gave the potential for speech recognition
programs recognize an unlimited number of
words

6.  Introduced in 1987 children could train the
doll to respond to their voice
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=play
er_embedded&v=UkU9SbIictc

7.  In the 1990’s faster computers made it
possible for ordinary people to have speech
recognition software
 In 1990 Dragon Dictate came out for $9000
 Seven years later Dragon Naturally Speaking
arrived for $695
 Could understand words at a natural speed
but you had to train it for 45 minutes

8.  By 2001, computer speech recognition had
topped out at 80 percent accuracy and
progress seemed to stall until the end of the
decade
 Google’s voice search app for the iPhone and
Apple’s Siri brought speech recognition back
to the forefront

9.  Interact with the calendar.
 Search contacts.
 Read and write messages
(text and email).
 Interact with the Maps
app and location services.
 Utilize search providers
 Can understand English
(US, UK, Australia),
French, German, and
Japanese

10.  Mobile App that allows
the user to speak one
language into the
phone and produces a
verbal translation
 iPhone and Android
 Thai, Chinese, French,
German, Iraqi,
Japanese, Korean,
Spanish,
TagologEnglish
 German-Spanish

11.  Ford SYNC technology
◦ Music
◦ Directions
◦ Handsfree Calling
◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My
IgbcdOliw
 Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking
◦ Audi, BMW, Fiat, Hyundai, Mercedes,
Jaguar, Porsche, Volkswagen
◦ “One-Shot Destination Entry” and full
control of the “infotainment system”

12.  Microphone on Kinect
 Start by saying “Xbox,”
and then saying one of
the commands on
screen
 Understands English,
French, German, Italian,
Spanish, Japanese
 Minimal background
noise, clarity important

13.  Medical
◦ Allow doctors to talk into patient’s file to record
notes during examinations
 Court of Law
◦ Record and digitize court proceedings in real time
◦ Reduce time and cost, increase efficiency
 Educational
◦ Rapid text-to-speech, aiding kids with disabilities
◦ http://tinyurl.com/5wtl8wv

14.  Speeds up “writing”
 Improvements in spelling
 Beneficial for the
handicapped
 Physically or Mentally
 Ability to multitask
 Frees up physical limitations of
using one’s hands

15.  Inaccuracy
 Slang
 Homonyms
 Quiet environment
 Distinct delivery
 Requires learning commands
 “Speaking to the Paper”
 Professionalism
 Editing
 Expensive

16.  Do you feel that the pros outweigh the cons?
Is it worth investing in this software despite
current limitations?
 Does anyone have Siri? Does it actually help
you?
 Would anyone prefer to use the speech-to-
text software to write papers?