Smart Speaker: Voice Recognition of Everything

Article by: Asst. Prof. Suwan Juntiwasarakij, Ph.D., MEGA Tech Senior Editor

Voice recognition allows consumers to multitasking by using machine learning and sophisticated algorithm. Technology companies are interested in making voice recognition a standard for most products. One goal of these companies may be to make voice assistants speak and reply with greater accuracy around context and content. Moreover, research shows that use of virtual assistants with speech recognition capabilities expected to be unceasingly increasing.

How Does It Work?

Speech recognition is technology that can recognize spoken words, which can then be converted to text. A subset of speech recognition is voice recognition, which is the technology for identifying a person based on their voice. Voice recognition software works by analyzing the voice humans make. It filters what is said, digitizes it into a format it can read, and then analyzes it for meaning. Based on algorithms and previous input, it can then make a highly accurate educated guess to what humans are saying.

Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple are among the world top’s tech companies that are already offering the feature on various devices through services like Google Home, Amazon Echo (Alexa), and Siri. These companies are working toward making voice recognition a standard for most products. One popular goal of these companies is to make voice assistants speak and replay with greater accuracy around context and content.

Smart Speakers

A wireless speaker with an integrated virtual voice assistant, a smart speaker performs tasks such as seeking information, play music, shopping online, etc., upon receiving voice commands from users. Since Amazon introduced its pioneering Echo speaker into consumer market in 2015, the smart speaker has gained increasing popularity among consumer. The market became more dynamic after Google entered the competition with its Google Home speaker and shipment figures went up dramatically from 6.57 million in 2016 to 92.25 million in 2019. The United States is the largest country market, followed by the Chinese market.

China: Where the Opportunities Grow

Smart speakers have a world opportunity for growth. Much of that opportunity comes from expansion into non-English-speaking countries. At the end of 2017, smart speaker sales were largely confined to English-speaking markets, with more than 95 percent of sales in the United States and the United Kingdom. However, at the beginning of 2019 these speakers are spreading their linguistic wings, and sales take off in countries in which the majority of the population speaks Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian, or Japanese. From a market-by-market perspective, it is clear that voice search growth is being driven by the key Asian markets, with India, China, and Indonesia coming out on top.

One measurement of utility is the frequency of usage. In six countries mentioned above, most smart speakers are use daily, but it is a slender majority. Indeed, based on a sample of countries with relatively mature smart speaker markets, these devices are only the seventh-most used device on daily basis. The smart speaker’s usefulness also partly depends on the range of applications for which it can be used. In most markets, they have most commonly been used to play music, which arguably is not that disruptive. Deloitte research from mid-2018 showed that smart speakers’ No.1 application across five countries was to play music, except in Canada where checking the weather was the top usage, in most other markets, weather was the No.2 applications.

Take-Home Message

All thing considered, while voice recognition can be challenging, the long-term benefits are significant. Whether on a speaker or any other device, voice recognition and voice assistants open up the benefits of computing to everyone. It is probably that people over time will end up talking to speakers much more than they do today. Voice may never become the dominants user interface with technology, but it is very likely to become a core one, particularly for those who are vision-impaired and/or may struggle with keyboards or small buttons. The technology would be very much of help for an aging society.