Article - Speak Up For More Independence

Use Voice Recognition!

For generations, fiction writers have created future civilizations where people were able to control machines by simply talking to them. One of the Star Trek movies even used this theme as a comic device when a trip back to the present left a computer obstinately non-respondent to verbal commands. To the writers, voice recognition capabilities reflect the ability to work more easily with machines, particularly computers. To a person with low vision or a physical disability, voice recognition can mean independence.

Engineers have been intrigued by voice recognition and voice activation for decades. As computer chips became more powerful, designers could pack more instructions into voice recognition programs. The biggest problem with voice activation and voice recognition is the ability for the computer chip to distinguish speech from all the other noise in the environment. The program must also recognize all the variances of the human speech, from accents to dialects to speech impediments. It's accuracy, with everything working properly, is questionable.

Some businesses have woven accurate voice recognition into very confined environments with limited ambient noises. An example of this is the Voice Response Unit (VRU), those mechanized voices that answer your telephone call and redirect you based upon your verbal response. There are also VRU's for the airline and other industries where very specific responses are expected.

As consumers, we have seen voice recognition programs on personal computers improve in their capacity to be trained to recognize speech patterns and respond appropriately. These programs are commonly used for dictation purposes and maneuvering around some common office programs. With all their improvements, these programs still have their problems.

Due to the demand for hands-free dialing capabilities while driving, cell phone technology has been a leader in voice recognition, incorporating a type of speed dialing by recognizing spoken names. Not perfect, by any means, but improving.

We've seen voice recognition come and go in typical consumer products. Although we get excited by the possibilities, the overall market has proven unimpressed, or there would be more evidence than what is around currently.

Robert Fortner explained the exasperation of Voice Recognition in Rest in Peas: The Unrecognized Death of Speech Recognition. That's too bad, because it is a lost opportunity to improve life for people with physical disabilities.

To date, there are very few reliable voice recognition products available for purchase:

• Voice Dialer - a speed dialer for any telephone. Simply pick up the phone, say the name and the Voice Dialer will dial the correct number for you. This voice recognition product is 'speaker dependent' (trained to hear a particular voice), allowing for better speech pattern recognition.

• Voice Activated Telephone - a speakerphone that can be answered by saying "Hello!" between rings.

Each of these products offers independence to people with limited use of their hands or to people whose vision is limited. The result is greater satisfaction with their ability to control their own environment and less dependence on caregivers to attend to these common tasks. In most cases that translates into lower cost of care and increased quality of life. A great combination!

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