A Voice Recognition is a Computer Software Program or a Hardware Device with the ability to understand and decode human voices. Voice Recognition is also referred to as ‘Speech Recognition’. Voice Recognition is a type of facility which gives hands-free i.e. we can perform our tasks or operate a device without touching it. It makes operating a device, perform commands, or write without having to use a keyboard, mouse, or press any buttons.

Nowadays, a software program ‘Automatic Speech Recognition’ (ASR) is used to work on a Computer System. Automatic Speech Recognition programs are used in various industries like Healthcare, Military, Telecommunication, Personal Computing, Robotics, Video Games, Virtual Assistance (Google Voice, Siri, and Alexa). For a Voice Recognition to work, firstly we need a computer with a Sound Card and a Microphone or Headset as well as a software to perform the Voice Recognition. The Software is “Nuance” for naturally speaking or a “Windows Speech Recognition Program”.

Examples of Voice Recognition:

1. In-car System: The Voice Recognition System in cars can simply allow to commands for using the mobile phone like, Initiate a phone call or receive a call, put the call on the loudspeaker, select radio stations or play music with the smartphone, MP3 player.

The Voice Recognition System capability varies between car make and model. At present, the car system replaced a fixed set of commands to a complete sentence and common phrases. This makes easy to handle the devices without memorizing the fixed set of commands word.

2. Health Care: In Health Care Sector, Voice Recognition System works in the front-end and back-end of the medical documentation process. Currently, the Deferred Speech Recognition is widely used in the industry. The speech recognition of narrative text, as part of a Radiology/Pathology interpretation, progress note or discharge summary.  

3. Military: The high-performance fighter aircraft and helicopters work on Voice Recognition System. The Voice Recognition system of aircraft and fighter jets works on setting radio frequencies, commanding an autopilot system, setting steer-point coordinates and weapons release parameters and controlling flight display. This system helps pilot and reduces his workload and allow the pilot to assign targets with simple voice commands.

Air Traffic Controllers System also use Voice Recognition System. It offers a facility to eliminate the need for a person to act as pseudo-pilot.

4. Education: Speech Recognition help students in learning a new language with proper and correct pronunciation. It helps disabled students to convey their message through voice and let the command work over the task.

Speech Recognition is also very helpful for people who have difficulty using their hands due to some injury.

The Future of Voice Recognition Technology

 The Voice Recognition Technology has reached to our bedrooms but still we at some distance from realizing its true potential. As speech recognition remains limited to a small number of products. The future would be quite good if we practice it with big and reliable products as well. The current digital assistants can interpret speech very well, they didn’t succeed in providing the conversational interfaces that technology providers want them to be.

The progress speed it quite good in Voice Recognition Technology as compared to the past. As we can witness ourselves a quite good change in our surrounding of interacting with the world around us. Google introduced voice recognition system, as well as Amazon, introduced Siri and they both fitted quite aptly with the surrounding and its users.

These smart speakers had a long way to cover up such that to reach into every house. It is targeted that by 2020, about 75% of U.S. homes will get to its reach and use it on daily basis.

The technology will come up to an extent in near future that making coffee just on a Voice Command won’t be an alien thing to perform. As the technology advances in the future, a more complex input-output relationship can be expected. Its latest example is Amazon Echo, which supports voice recognition as well reply verbally. The voice command gets reverted back with an answer in the voice as well.