Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Google Voice Search becomes more personalised

It was two years ago when the Google launched its voice search, what is news, however, is that Google wants its voice search to now adapt to users' accent and voice tone. The service started with a very wide focus, so much that it couldn't be called focus at all. The company wanted to cover all sorts of speech, for different pitches, genders and age. It didn't work.

Earlier it didn't understand you
Those who tried this service initially, found it irritating that their voice couldn't be recognised by the system. For the same reason, many people don't use voice commands on their phones either. Google has tried to find a way around this issue and has come out with personalised voice recognition this time.
It comes with Google Mobile App
Voice Search feature comes along with the Google Mobile App and those who have an Android phone, can search for the term "Voice Search" in Android market.
The facility is available for use for those having Android version 2.2 and higher. The voice search service is, however, not available in all mobile phones and languages.
You may turn off personalization
It is an opt in service right now, and once Google has your permission, the voice searches are recorded by Google and the data thus created is used to build a speech model, especially customised for every user. Accuracy improvements start early and are expected to build as the service grows mature.
Google, at the same time, emphasizes it takes the issue of privacy seriously and if the users want it so, they can turn off personalized voice recognition.
Will it work right out of the box?
The first time Voice Search was launched, Google envisioned it would worked right from the box, without any additional effort required for the users. That's the reason, the speech models were created to accommodate a large variety of people across the world. It was difficult to make it work, and it turned out the right way, either. This time Google is trying to get it right by concentrating on the individual.

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