I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg, slowly rising up from
the depths of possibility. Amazing stuff.
dp
-----Original Message-----
From: David Goldfield
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2016 9:36 PM
To: Blind-Philly-Comp
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Microsoft makes history: human-like speech
recognition achieved
neowin.net
Microsoft makes history: human-like speech recognition achieved
Chris Schroeder
Microsoft's Speech & Dialog research group
Microsoft has outdone itself. Just one month ago, the company's Speech &
Dialog research and development team beat out IBM's record results,
posting a 6.3 percent WER (word error rate) in the Switchboard speech
recognition test. Those results were pretty close to human performance
but still short. That previous best is no longer valid as that same team
has made history in speech recognition.
In the same test, Microsoft's speech recognition system managed a 5.9%
WER. When the team compared those results with human transcriptionists,
they were identical, making the speech recognition software as accurate
as human beings when it comes to writing/reciting words spoken to them.
Geoffrey Zweig, who manages the Speech & Dialog research group, was
happy to finally make this breakthrough. He said the historic results
were “the culmination of over twenty years of effort". Harry Shum,
executive vice president of the Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and
Research group, couldn't believe the results came as quick as they did.
"Even five years ago, I wouldn’t have thought we could have achieved
this. I just wouldn’t have thought it would be possible".
-Harry Shum
Indeed the achievement is one for the record books. Though there's a
moment for celebration, the team is not done yet. Much has been
accomplished since DARPA started the work to make speech recognition
possible back in the 1970s, but there are still errors in speech
recognition by a computer that could be capable of perfection (or close
to it).
There's also the greater error rate in continuous conversation that will
need some work. In a paper published by Cornell, Microsoft's same speech
recognition software achieved an 11.9% WER in the CallHome testing
portion, where friends and family members carry on open-ended
conversations as the system tries to interpret and report what it's
hearing. Even though that 11.9% WER is also a new best, Microsoft's
software still has plenty of opportunity for growth in that testing
environment.
There's plenty of immediate benefits to this technology for Microsoft.
Shum says that the new technological breakthrough “will make Cortana
more powerful, making a truly intelligent assistant possible". Perhaps
we'll see the benefits in one of the next updates to Cortana across the
Windows 10 platform.
Source: Microsoft
--
David Goldfield,
Assistive Technology Specialist
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