A handy thing to have around:
Liu Li-cheng points out that overseas many doctors use voice entry systems to prepare prescriptions. In busy factories, where workers often don't have a free hand to spare, simple commands can be used to get the computer to operate. Simple bank telephone voice systems allow customers to inquire about their accounts. Successful development of voice entry systems would make life much more convenient for everyone.
But Liu confesses that given the current level of technology, their sales channels are limited. "So far we've only sold 100-200 sets of voice entry technology, with most of the customers being research units," he says. This shows that most of the people who buy this software do so not to use but to study.
Although the market is still limited, Liu is still very confident about the future of voice entry systems. Once they are successfully completed, the Chinese language market around the world could be calculated "in the hundreds of millions."
Lack of a database:
Although virtually every country in the world has people investing their energy in devising a computer voice entry system, there is little exchange among them. "The grammar, pronunciation, and even thought processes differ from nation to nation, so there is little of reference value to share," says Wang Hsiao-chuan. Voice system researchers in fact are rather isolated internationally.
As for which language is relatively at an advantage in computer voice entry, Wang Hsiao-chuan replies, "it's hard to say." He indicates that the advantage of English is that it has no tones, but it also has the problem of too many words and sounds. You have to put more than 10,000 words into the computer before you can use it, and the number of words is increasing all the time. Although the Chinese syllabary only adds up to 1,000-plus common sounds, much more pared down than English, it has those four tones which are not easy for the computers to recognize. He says, "Anyway, if the computer can't understand human thought processes, there is a bottleneck in voice entry no matter what the language."
Further, domestic research into voice entry does not necessarily face only technical problems. The biggest problem is the lack of a "language data base." Because computers are quite "stupid," they need people to input all the data they will require, so it is vitally important to provide the computer with a complete database.
"Love" you, not "leave" you:
For example, computers do not hear, like people, with ears, but decide what it is someone is saying from an analysis of the tone, frequency, and other variables. When a genteel-voiced young lady whispers "I love you," and an 80-year old granny without a tooth in her head says the same thing, although you and I can tell it's identical, in the computer analysis, if the older woman's voice data is lacking, it might hear, "I leave you." It's only a slight difference in verbiage, but polar opposites in meaning. To get the computer to get "love" and "leave" straight, you have to tell it more about how to say "love." The tones of how the young girl, the elderly man, the young Romeo, and the granny say "love" must all be entered into the computer. And the more "love" the computer receives, the more it understands what all these different pronunciations of "love" have in common. If you can speak Mandarin Chinese, whether it be "Taiwan Mandarin," "Chekiang Mandarin," or even Mandarin with a Sinkiang accent, the computer will become accustomed to the user's inflections. And the computer can still accept "love" from someone speaking perfect standard Mandarin. Here the computer is ahead of people, for it has no prejudices about people's provincial accents and origins, and in the future if you give it "love" the chance that it will understand correctly will be very high.
Perfect lover:
But in terms of domestic language data bases, only the Institute of Electronic Information Systems of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has such a data base. And even this only has the voice data for Chinese from about 100 people. Similar operations overseas require the voice data from at least 1000 people before they can really be useful.
"If the data bank is comprehensive, with the help of a grammar and a complete electronic dictionary, computer voice entry systems should have a real future," concludes Professor Wang. Already several scholars are cooperating to establish a voice data bank that is practicable and publicly trusted.
Although research into voice entry is advancing step by step, there are still many bottlenecks. But don't feel too deflated. In fact, the sense of anticipation of the birth of a computer that will follow your every wish is somewhat romantic. Just imagine: A computer that tamely obeys in everything, just like a perfect lover . . . .
[Picture Caption]
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The more different voice characteristics you plug into the computer, the more accurately it will be able to differentiate words in the future. (drawing by Lee Su-ling)
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In researching computer voice input, analysis of voice frequency is a crucial step.
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Voice computers are still rather stupid. Don't speak carelessly or it won't have any idea what you're talking about. (drawing by Lee Su-ling)
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One microphone can replace a complex keyboard. Voice entry is really appealing.
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Voice entry is very helpful to busy assembly line workers, and some mechanical actions can be performed entirely by machines following simple voice commands.
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A voice entry system needs to fit on such a small PC board, so that in the future it can hopefully replace keyboards.
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Successful development of a voice entry system would be a boon to those who have vision problems. You just have to talk to the computer and it will do whatever you say.