Voice recognition is a standard part of the smartphone package these days, and a corresponding part is the delay while you wait for Siri, Alexa, or Google to return your query, either correctly interpreted or horribly mangled. Google’s latest speech recognition works entirely offline, eliminating that delay altogether — though of course mangling is still an option.
View More Google’s new voice recognition system works instantly and offline (if you have a Pixel)Category: Speech Recognition
Google introduces educational app Bolo to improve children’s literacy in India
Google is expanding its suite of apps designed for the Indian market with today’s launch of a new language-learning app aimed at children, called Bolo. The app, which is aimed at elementary school-aged students, leverages technology like Google’s speech recognition and text-to-speech to help kids learn to read in both Hindi and English. To do […]
View More Google introduces educational app Bolo to improve children’s literacy in IndiaGoogle Cloud’s speech APIs get cheaper and learn new languages
Google today announced an update to its Cloud Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech APIs that introduces a few new features that should be especially interesting to enterprise users, as well as improved language support and a price cut. Most of these updates focus on the Speech-to-Text product, but Cloud Text-to-Speech is getting a major update with 31 […]
View More Google Cloud’s speech APIs get cheaper and learn new languagesTencent AI Lab loses key executive
Chinese internet giant Tencent just lost a leading artificial intelligence figure. Zhang Tong, who previously worked at Yahoo, IBM and Baidu, has stepped down after directing Tencent’s AI Lab for nearly two years. The scientist will return to academia and continue research in the AI field, Tencent confirmed with TechCrunch on Thursday, adding that it […]
View More Tencent AI Lab loses key executiveGoogle updates its speech services for developers
Google Cloud’s Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text APIs are getting a bunch of updates today that introduce support for more languages, make it easier to hear auto-generated voices on different speakers and that promise better transcripts thanks to improved tools for speaker recognition, among other things. With this update, the Cloud Text-to-Speech API is now also generally […]
View More Google updates its speech services for developersSay “Aloha”: A closer look at Facebook’s voice ambitions
Facebook has been a bit slow to adopt the voice computing revolution. It has no voice assistant, its smart speaker is still in development, and some apps like Instagram aren’t full equipped for audio communication. But much of that is set to change judging by experiments discovered in Facebook’s code, plus new patent filings. Developing […]
View More Say “Aloha”: A closer look at Facebook’s voice ambitionsSnapchat launches its first speech recognition lenses
Snapchat is today launching new lenses that respond to voice commands. The company says it’s now rolling out a series of lenses that will animate when users speak simple, English words like “hi,” “love,” “yes,” “no,” and “wow,” as opposed to taking some other action – like opening their mouth or raising their eyebrows, as has […]
View More Snapchat launches its first speech recognition lensesBMW’s Alexa integration gets it right
BMW will in a few days start rolling out to many of its drivers support for Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. The fact that BWM is doing this doesn’t come as a surprise, given that it has long talked about its plans to bring Alexa — and potentially other personal assistants like Cortana and the Google […]
View More BMW’s Alexa integration gets it rightSpeech recognition triggers fun AR stickers in Panda’s video app
Panda has built the next silly social feature Snapchat and Instagram will want to steal. Today the startup launches its video messaging app that fills the screen with augmented reality effects based on the words you speak. Say “Want to get pizza?” and a 3D pizza slice hovers by your mouth. Say “I wear my […]
View More Speech recognition triggers fun AR stickers in Panda’s video appMicrosoft launches a unified API for all of its AI speech services
At its Build developer conference in Seattle this week, Microsoft is putting a lot of emphasis on its AI and machine learning services. For the most part, that means launching new services and bringing some existing services to new places. With the plethora of different AI services the company now offers, it’s maybe also no […]
View More Microsoft launches a unified API for all of its AI speech servicesGoogle launches an improved speech-to-text service for developers
Only a few weeks after launching a major overhaul of its Cloud Text-to-Speech API, Google today also announced an update to that service’s Speech-to-Text voice recognition service. The new and improved Cloud Speech-to-Text API promises significantly improved voice recognition performance. The new API promises a reduction in word errors around 54 percent across all of […]
View More Google launches an improved speech-to-text service for developersELSA raises $3.2M for its A.I.-powered English pronunciation assistant
ELSA, an app whose name stands for “English Language Speech Assistant” (and not the popular Disney character!), has raised $3.2 million for its A.I.-assisted language learning platform that teaches people how to speak English. Unlike other courses that focus mainly on teaching grammar and vocabulary, ELSA uses artificial intelligence and speech recognition technology to help… Read More