IBM Strives For “Superhuman” Speech Tech
NEW YORK — IBM unveiled new speech recognition technology on Tuesday that can comprehend the nuances of spoken English, translate it on the fly, and even create on-the-fly subtitles for foreign-language television programs.
Historically, speech technology required the user to limit his speech to a fixed set of phrases in order to interact with a device. With IBM’s Embedded ViaVoice 4.4 software package, introduced on Tuesday, the company hopes to allow users to speak commands using phrasing that is natural to them.
In a demonstration today at IBM’s headquarters here, for example, users changed a simulated radio station, by speaking any of the following phrases: “Play 92.3,” “Tune to 92.3,” or “Tune the radio to 92.3.”