By now you might have noticed that voice recognition hardware and software are growing exponentially. Companies including Google, Amazon, and Apple are developing technologies that allow humans to access the internet and control connected devices by using their voices.
The introduction of products such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Home has piqued the interest of consumers. They can envision the benefits of these emerging virtual assistants and so can businesses.
Even Microsoft’s Windows is incorporating voice into its product range. For example Windows’ virtual assistant, Cortana, speaks up and guides a user when installing a Windows operating system.
The voice-install method occurs by default upon a clean install of the operating system. Consumers can, however, opt out of the voice-input installation method if they do not want to converse with the assistant.
Engineers are being met with the task of integrating voice into many of the projects they are involved with. It goes without saying that proficiency in artificial or machine intelligence is becoming critical to those working in the engineering industry.
According to a recent report by Research and Markets, just the Global Voice Recognition Market is to reach a market size of $126.5 billion by 2023.
The Chief Technology Officer for Amazon Web Services, Werner Vogels, has said that the future of technology must be human centric instead of machine centric. Utilizing voice is one way of ensuring technology relates more ably to a human user.
To this end Amazon has announced Alexa for Business. These are smart devices that can be peppered throughout the workspace to encourage efficiency and keep a team on track.
Amazon has made the SDK (software development kit) available for the AVS (Alexa Voice Service). With this at their disposal engineers are learning how to embed voice recognition systems into their future designs.
For engineers who want to hear their daily news and other content, these smart audio devices are perfect. And the future of these nifty creations, thanks to the engineers behind the assistants: smaller and more affordable versions.
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Works Cited
McLean, Asha. “The Future of Digital Will Be Human-Centric and Voice Will Reign Supreme.” ZDNet, ZDNet, 30 Nov. 2017, www.zdnet.com/article/the-future-of-digital-will-be-human-centric-and-voice-will-reign-supreme/.
“Voice Recognition Market - Expected to Reach $126.5 Billion by 2023 - Research and Markets.” Voice Recognition Market - Expected to Reach $126.5 Billion by 2023 - Research and Markets | Business Wire, 13 Dec. 2017, www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171213005500/en/Voice-Recognition-Market---Expected-Reach-126.5.
