It's time for speech recognition to have its say, claims John West, Nuance’s senior solutions architect.
The smartphone and app markets are exploding. iOS app downloads have now passed the 18 billion mark and over 10 billion Android apps have been downloaded to date.
It's a crowded market alright, which is why developers are looking to differentiate their offerings – and one way they are doing so is by taking advantage of the huge advances being made in speech recognition technology.
Speech recognition is nothing new, and it is still perceived by many as clunky and inaccurate. This scepticism is understandable, but the tech has improved to such an extent that it is now being used in in-car systems, to select music, update social media profiles on the move and interact with navigation devices.
It's also used in call centres across the globe, helping businesses manage their inbound calls more effectively, and offer better customer service.
Of course, the recent launch of the iPhone 4S has dramatically increased excitement around the concept. The device's ability to unite speech with smart language understanding, packaged with a personal assistant experience, has proved of high value to the user.
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Combining the potential of speech recognition technology with apps offers new opportunities to engage with customers and generate new revenues.
This is why, earlier this year, Nuance, the US based company behind the Dragon Dictation and Search iPhone apps, launched its mobile developer program, NDEV to give developers with the opportunity to integrate a speech platform within their offering.
In addition to speech recognition, the SDK provides access to a text-to-speech engine, generating natural sounding audio from a text input. This means users can not only speak to their phone and be understood, but the device can talk back.
In this increasingly time poor, hands busy society, any efforts by organisations to make life easier for their customers and employees is sure to be welcomed.
Big brands, such as Amazon, are already using the power of speech to engage with customers. It recently launched a Price Check that lets users speak the name of any product when they are shopping to receive instant prices for that item on Amazon.com.
The app also lets customers scan a barcode, snap a picture or type a product name to return product matches and pricing from Amazon.com and its other online merchants.
It all demonstrates how speech can bring power to the mobile shopping experience.
In another example, online dictionary and thesaurus company, Merriam-Webster, used speech technology to fill a gap in the market. Plainly, it's easier to say a word you can't spell than write it. Voice search can address this need.
The NDEV program has been so successful that Nuance has tailored it to feature three service tiers – silver, gold and emerald – to give developers more flexibility in levels of cost, customisation and service.
While speech recognition technology hasn't been without controversy, there's no doubt we’re now at an exciting time as we begin to see the voice interface become the mobile interface for a lot of customers.
Today, people can quickly use their voice to find and listen to music, access streaming movies, find local retailers, get reviews, make reservations, and more.
With over 6,000 developers creating unique apps using voice speech technology in many languages through the NDEV platform, it is possible to create better experiences for consumers all over the world. The great news is, we’re only just getting started.
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1 comment
Speech recognition software is growing in popularity mainly due to the traffic laws which prohibit users from texting or using their mobile devices with their hands. Not only does it help drivers drive safely but it does also help those who have trouble spelling, and I think you can agree that it is more convenient, easier, and faster than typing something out on your smartphone.
Glen Suh
www.tapit.com
Glen Suh Jan 27th 2012 at 7:10PM
0 0