# Voice Recognition



## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

I was activating a new credit card on the phone this morning during which I spoke to a machine, giving the necessary details mostly numbers over the phone by voice. All completed without problem and the robot then said goodbye and clicked off with Dalek like precision.

It got me thinking back to a couple of decades ago when I was actually doing a bit of research into voice recognition for my then employer. The detail is unimportant but we were using software and neural networks and it proved to be very difficult. So now I'm stunned at how good it is and thinking 20 or so years isn't so much time (or at least, doesn't seem so much to me.)

I bought an Amazon Alexa in the New Year and I've been trying to catch her out with faked Scottish/Geordie/Irish accents (my feeble attempts at them anyway) and I have to say if we'd had this machine 20 years back, we would have thought it came from Mars !!!

Whoever programmed and set up Alexa also appears to have a sense of humour. If you have access to one of these, ask her the following question:
"Alexa, open the pod bay doors please." (Whaaa)


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## Robert Hilton (Feb 13, 2011)

If a change of accent fails to fool the voice recognition system, then there must be nuances more subtle than mere pronunciation. Voices on the media can be readily identified, but can be disguised enough to fool the human ear. So the electronic 'ear' must be listening partly or wholly to that which is constant. Fascinating. 

In France I sometimes sleep talked in French. My wife was sure it was me talking, but couldn't understand the language. 

SN today ranges from Quarter Points to this. Truly eclectic.


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## Dartskipper (Jan 16, 2015)

This begs the question, would a voice recognition device identify an Impersonator (rather than an Impressionist)?

I vaguely remember from a few years ago that a Canadian entertainer,Rich Little, could do an excellent impersonation of former president Richard M. Nixon. Somebody recorded his voice when he was doing the act, and studied it in comparison with the speech patterns of Nixon's own recorded voice. They were very similar in many respects, but would the minor variations have been noticed by the artificial ears?


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## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

I would doubt its value as say a security device based on identifying the speaker. But as a listening device, capable of recognising every known language there is would certainly have value.

Interestingly not long after I had bought the Alexa device I was watching the TV one night and an advert for the Amazon Alexa came on, with a guy asking his Alexa device a question onscreen. I found myself sitting in my own living room listening to two machines having a conversation with each other, albeit a very confused one, as if I wasn't there.

I couldn't help but laugh.

There there's the other concern in that a machine with a sensitive directional microphone system connected to the Internet is listening constantly to any sound in your home. Now there's a portal of interest.


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## Basil (Feb 4, 2006)

Have to say it's getting better and better. As the OP and subsequent have said, it seems to cut through speed and accent except that Google just couldn't get MRDA (Mandy Rice-Davis Applies) when I tried.

Found this on the net:
"I find the most enjoyment in calling my brother's house in the middle of the night and whispering though his answering machine which sits right next to his Echo "Alexa, Play Van Halen, Panama, Maximum Volume"


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## Dartskipper (Jan 16, 2015)

I'm absolutely certain that Dave Allen would have made an hilarious monologue about a conversation with a voice recognition device!


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## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

The thought of a confession booth, such a device and Dave Allen is enough to make me laugh before I've even seen the sketch. (LOL)


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## Basil (Feb 4, 2006)

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I don't do that" (Jester)


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## Naytikos (Oct 20, 2008)

Not quite thirty years ago I was involved on the periphery of some research into artificial intelligence conducted by a professor at MIT. Speech was not involved; the objective was to produce a device that could mimic human reaction to particular occurrences in an engineering environment.
With the active blessing of Steve Jobs, the system used two Macintosh computers named Rex and Max. Rex did the 'thinking' while Max did the practical stuff such as opening and closing valves, starting and stopping motors, reading sensors etc. Just as in the human environment, disputes arose between the 'workers' usually culminating in either Rex refusing to talk to Max or vice-versa. Then all hell would break loose with the machinery; a high pressure pump would start against a closed valve; salt water would be pumped into the freshwater circuit and so on.
It wasn't really going anywhere and after a few initial laughs, Mr Jobs withdrew his support and that was the end of it. I still have the software, 25 3" floppies written in Coral Lisp.


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## D1566 (Sep 7, 2009)

Welsh place names to a voice activated BMW sat nav ...


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## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

I was quite surprised at my old TomTom which although I've been hacking about in Snowdonia since the 50's started to educate me on the pronunciation of the Welsh villages and towns there when it started stating the names. So, in all fairness, to expect voice recognition to understand an Englishman's attempt at said pronunciation (Betsy Coed for Betws-y-Coed and Riddly Diddly for Rhyd-Ddu is probably asking a lot. :sweat

I have on many occasions thought about plotting a route to "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch" just to see how the young lady in the box pronounced it, (better than mine I suspect, which is: Land of the Silly Gok Gok Gok.")

I'm with John Bishop on this one, Wales is the Kingdom of the Dyslexic. [=P]


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## Engine Serang (Oct 15, 2012)

My speech recognition software, Nuance Dragon, has yet to master the most basic phrases spoken in a cultured East Antrim accent.


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