Become a Marketplace Partner

Search SBC

Search internet.com

internet.com IT Developer Internet News Small Business Personal Technology Search internet.com Advertise Corporate Info Newsletters Tech Jobs E-mail Offers

Enter a keyword...

...or choose a category. choose one... Communications Computer Industry Companies Computer Science Data Graphics Hardware Internet and Online Services Mobile Computing Multimedia Networks Operating Systems Programming Software Standards Types of Computers World Wide Web

voice recognition Last modified: Friday, September 28, 2007
The field of computer science that deals with designing computer systems that can recognize spoken words. Note that voice recognition implies only that the computer can take dictation, not that it understands what is being said. Comprehending human languages falls under a different field of computer science called natural language processing. A number of voice recognition systems are available on the market. The most powerful can recognize thousands of words. However, they generally require an extended training session during which the computer system becomes accustomed to a particular voice and accent. Such systems are said to be speaker dependent. Many systems also require that the speaker speak slowly and distinctly and separate each word with a short pause. These systems are called discrete speech systems. Recently, great strides have been made in continuous speech systems -- voice recognition systems that allow you to speak naturally. There are now several continuous-speech systems available for personal computers. Because of their limitations and high cost, voice recognition systems have traditionally been used only in a few specialized situations. For example, such systems are useful in instances when the user is unable to use a keyboard to enter data because his or her hands are occupied or disabled. Instead of typing commands, the user can simply speak into a headset. Increasingly, however, as the cost decreases and performance improves, speech recognition systems are entering the mainstream and are being used as an alternative to keyboards.
Speech Research Links  Excellent collection of speech related resources on the Web. 21st Century Eloquence home page 21st Century Eloquence is a reseller of voice recognition software products. Their site contains information on voice recognition products, comparisons, articles, a newsletter, and downloadable demos. Voice recognition opinions page Offers excerpts from various voice recognition experts. Center for Spoken Language Understanding The Center for Spoken Language Understanding is a research group dedicated to spoken langauge research. These pages describe current research, the CSLU toolkit, CSLU speech databases, and CSLU publications. Webopedia's "Did You Know...?" Section Use this Webopedia knowledge section for an in-depth overview of specific technologies and occurrences in the areas of Computer Science, The Internet, and Computer Hardware and Software. Webopedia's Quick Reference Section Use this Webopedia reference section for information on common Internet and computer facts and occurrences.	Related Categories Biometrics Communications Pervasive Computing Related Terms artificial intelligence biometrics natural language pervasive computing VXML Shopping voice recognition Products Compare Products,Prices and Stores Shop by Category: Software 188 Store Offers Cellular Phones 70 Model Matches PDAs 38 Model Matches