Speech-driven "Anywhere-anytime" data entry..

 

 A research team with the Canadian National Research Council's Institute for Information Technology (NRC-IIT) is working on a way to enter data using speech; they've created a multimodal field data entry (MFDE) application to help with data collection during concrete inspections. The researchers say that if workers are are using instruments or taking measurements they can use speech to enter data or information at the same time.


 While background noise was somewhat of a problem the researchers have gone back to the drawing board to identify a better microphone for the application. Even with the noise issue respondents claimed they were able to complete tasks faster while at the same time being able to be more aware of their environment.

 They've worked on actual mobile microphone improvements; Their research won "Best Paper" at the prestigious British Human-Computer Interaction conference, HCI 2007 about microphone performance in noisy ambience.

 They are also seeking the best speech engine for noisy environments:
Per NRC IIT:
"We also plan to look at different speech recognition engines to see if we can improve the accuracy at higher noise levels."

 

Searching, with Microsoft's new Remote Speech Recognition!

 

Rob Chambers has posted a really, really cool implementation of Microsoft's superb speech recognition.. Live Search by speech.

Yep, with a Windows Mobile 5 or Mobile 6 phone, you can now search with your voice. Rob has made a nice video , inclding an amusing search for "Cheesburger in Paradise, near Honolulu, Hawaii" and shows off the rather amazing accuracy of the new downloadable (from your phone) application.

Moreover: The speech recognition is truly remote!
From the Speech team blog, "The speech recognition functionality for the application doesn't actually sit on the Windows Mobile phone. Instead, the phone takes your speech input, sends it to a server, the server does it's recognition magic, and sends the results back to the phone"

Our techie hats are off yet again, to Microsoft (and the SCG in Redmond) for another terrific remote speech recognition accomplishment!

.