Question

ABC Daily is a local newspaper company. They have provided both printed newspaper and online news feed for their customer. The chief editor would like to use the latest technologies to upgrade the online news feed system. He just heard about the speech recognition and he is interested to know more about the technology.

(a) Define speech recognition and list THREE potential applications of the technologies

(b) If ABC Daily use speech recognition to automatically create online news feed in real time, what are the possible problems or challenges in using the technology?

(c) Suggest TWO ways to provide news service for the visually impaired in reading ABC Daily

Answer 1

a. Speech recognition system is a disruptive innovation. It is a software using which any kind of spoken speech, words or phrases can be recorded and intercepted and converted into a machine processable format. Then the same can be processed and analysed by the system for further interpretation.

3 common applications of this system are as follows:

· Can be integrated in search engines to facilitate the work of translator

· Some companies are using speech recognition system to authenticate order placement by clients

· Medical reporting can become easy using this system in day to day operations of healthcare

b. Some of the possible problems and challenges which ABC Daily may face in implementation of speech recognition system:

· The vocabulary of speech recognition system is quite limited as the software is in nascent stage. Hence the overall scope of speech recognition system will be limited

· Speech recognition system takes time in processing the speech or words. Hence the speech or words which need to be processed, must be spoken quite clearly and slowly. The overall pace of news processing may get slower at ABC Daily because of this.

· Customization of a speech recognition system is quite costly.

c. 2 ways to provide news service for the visually impaired in reading ABC Daily are as follows:

· The printed newspaper can have a copy in Braille format. This customized copy can be distributed among the visually impaired readers of the company.

· The online news feed can have a special segment for visually impaired where the news will be presented in recorded format.