Maybe you will have a little difficulty understanding what speech recognition is as one of the latest technologies. However, have you ever searched for a route somewhere through a digital map on your smartphone with your voice? Or, have you ever done the same thing when translating text? That is the essence of giving you a more realistic idea.
In this case, sometimes speech recognition technology will overlap with voice recognition technology. However, both of them will make your life easier since they are commonly used in the business sector. For more details, please read the following explanation!
What is Speech Recognition Technology?
You can guess what is meant by speech recognition as the name has given you a clue. In short, this technology will convert human speech to text.
To carry out its functions, this technology uses natural language processing and machine learning.
In the early 1990s, engineers used the term automatic speech recognition due to its relation to machines. However, the two are now mere synonyms with no difference in terms of function.
So, what is the difference between this one and voice recognition technology? Even though both of them process someone’s voice into an electrical signal which will then be digitized, there is one thing that is a further characteristic.
Speech recognition is able to process almost all speech depending on language, accents, and other things. Meanwhile, voice recognition will be limited to specific voices that previously underwent the customize step first.
Speaker-independent and speaker-dependent is the principle that distinguishes the two. Speech recognition experiences a more complicated process, due to the diversity of input received. Meanwhile, voice recognition will focus on single input that allows users to get personalized responses.
How Does Speech Recognition Work?
The development of voice user interfaces involving machine learning and artificial intelligence has been underway for many years since dealing with phonetic units and discovering their similarities is not a simple matter. In short, the process will focus on matching speech to generic voice patterns.
Here are the five stages that have been summarized on how speech recognition works:
- Someone’s vibration will be detected by a microphone to process voice input into an electrical signal
- The electrical signal will be processed by the system into a digital signal
- Digital signal entering the preprocessing unit to reduce any noise which will affect the result
- The software analyzes digital signals by using acoustic modeling to record phonemes, speech unit, and mark off one word from another
- Understandable words and sentences are generated from constructed phonemes by using language modeling
Thus, it can be concluded that speech recognition technology processes an input spontaneously. This is different from voice recognition technology which relies on templates from the user and the program needs to be given special treatment to realize it.
Voice recognition technology has three stages of the process. Firstly, the program will refer to input adjustments that are made several times on the microphone system through the user’s voice. Then, the program will work with pre-existing statistical average samples for comparison. The result is finally used as a template for the next process.
The Example of Speech Recognition Use
This one has three main applications that can be found in daily life, including:
Writing Assistant. At this point, you can convert your speech into text. Thanks to platforms such as Speechmatics and Google or voice translation for running it. Another try is by using Siri which is available on Apple’s Notes app.
Voice Control. Do you want to play music or find out the directions, while driving your car? Keep going without significant disruption as your voice can give them the commands!
Helping the Disabled. Auto-captioning, text relays, and Dictaphones are the other manifestations of speech recognition. People with disabilities can be facilitated by hardware that is engaged with media to display them.
On the other hand, voice recognition will refer to more specific things, such as Google’s voice assistant telling calendars or reminders. With a note, you have made a reservation in advance to arrange everything.
Hands-free Calling, which allows you to call specific people from contacts via voice recognition, is another example.
To support business performance, Voice Biometrics is used in the financial and banking sectors as a method to secure customer data in any form. Meanwhile, you can find Voice Picking in the warehouses’ sector which will make it easier for someone to do their job hands-free.
Speech recognition is a technology that converts speech into text with a spontaneous process, so you will get the results in a short time. Meanwhile, voice recognition requires a series of adjustments in advance for personalization. Therefore, its use will be closely related to the business sector, although you can use it as an assistant.