With the constant development in the fields of AI and compute learning, voice recognition and speech production technologies have seen some leaping progress in the past years. In an every-day setting, this is exemplified by the use of voice assistant systems at home – such as Alexa, Google Home, and Siri – which have gained tremendous popularity. Estimated statistics suggest that over 1/4 of the US adult population own some form of smart speaker device – that’s about 66 million people in the US alone (Perez, 2019).
The high demand of these home systems and voice assistants has in turn triggered a continuous effort to try and further develop them. More particularly, people want voice systems that are as human as possible. The obstacle of natural-language processing has been eminent in this field for years and continues to be the issue that creating the barrier between current voice systems and ones that are able to fully comprehend and produce language that is virtually indistinguishable from that produced by humans (English, 2019). For example, the many popular voice assistants require a “wake word” that triggers them to “listen” (for the iPhone its “Siri” for Amazon’s Alexa its “Alexa”), and this word must be repeated before everything that is aimed towards the voice assistant (Ciligot, 2019). But wouldn’t It be more convenient if, once activated, the voice assistant is able to distinguish conversation aimed at them or at others?
Improvement and increased use of these home voice systems come with a variety of benefits. Scheduling, smart homes and offices, hand-free driving, and entertainment are among the most popular uses for these systems, aiding people in little day-to-day tasks to increase efficiency and decrease the effort needed to execute them (Gerencer, 2019).
Do you have a voice assistant? How does it help you in your daily life?
Ciligot, C. (2019). 7 Key Predictions For The Future Of Voice Assistants And AI | Clearbridge. [online] Clearbridge Mobile. Available at: https://clearbridgemobile.com/7-key-predictions-for-the-future-of-voice-assistants-and-ai/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2019].
English, T. (2019). 6 Technology Trends That You Should Keep an Eye On in 2020. [online] Interestingengineering.com. Available at: https://interestingengineering.com/6-technology-trends-to-watch-in-2020 [Accessed 5 Oct. 2019].
Gerencer, T. (2019). Top 10 Ways to Use Voice Assistants | HP® Tech Takes. [online] Store.hp.com. Available at: https://store.hp.com/app/tech-takes/top-10-ways-to-use-voice-assistants [Accessed 5 Oct. 2019].
Perez, S. (2019). Over a quarter of US adults now own a smart speaker, typically an Amazon Echo – TechCrunch. [online] TechCrunch. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/08/over-a-quarter-of-u-s-adults-now-own-a-smart-speaker-typically-an-amazon-echo/ [Accessed 3 Oct. 2019].
Hi Daniel,
Interesting read. Yes, I do have a Google Home and and I could use Siri, but actually I do not use either of them. I think that the fact that you have to ‘call’ them everytime you want to use them, is a bit of a hurdle. Especially if I take into account that I only save a few seconds by using Siri or the Google home.
Personally, I hope that in the future the use of your voice is quicker than performing it manually.
Do you use any voice recognition devices?
Hi Sven,
Thank you for your comment! I do use voice recognition devices and I must say that I totally agree with what you say. However, I still use Siri quite frequently especially while driving as it a lot more convenient and less dangerous than using your phone manually. I’m sure that we will experience major advancements in the upcoming years with regard to voice recognition and I’m excited to see how this technology will be further developed.