Nyílt Forráskód Techblog: Testing SIMON speech recogniton software

2009. augusztus 7., péntek

Testing SIMON speech recogniton software

I have tested the Simon listens speech recogniton system for more than a week and I'll write down my experiences in this post. I've also had the chance to test Windows 7 speech recognition, so I can make a rough comparison.

Why we need speech recognition? For the majority it's just for convenience, but for many handicapped people it means the only way to interact with their environment. Or it can make their life much easier. A worthy goal to fight for.

My project goal: to create a speaker (in)dependent engine that can recognise up to 50 Hungarian words with high accuracy.

Possible sources of errors?

1. WORSE RECOGNITION RATE IF: Recording one word several times in one file?
2. No indication of sound input! I must keep Audacity running all times. A little stay-on top window would help that could indicate the current sound strength (like Windows), a switch and the recognised word.

How to avoid common sources of errors?

* Use external sound card or USB microphone to avoid white noise - OK!
* Use a good quality microphone (I used a Logitech S 7500 webcam, it has echo cancellation and provides an almost noise free recording in silence)