Google Brings Voice Recognition To Your Browser

If you are willing to give Google Chrome 11 beta release or the current version of Google Chrome Canary build a try you'll find an interesting little piece of functionality supported. Using either of these browsers, a microphone, and some html 5 code embedded in Google's translations page you can dictate the word(s) or phrase that you wish to be translated. No joke... it works well too!

Simply look for the microphone icon in the lower right side of the input text box and click on it, you must have your mic on of course and you are only afforded a few seconds to input your command. If you want to play around a bit you can also go to the sandbox app created by Google. A headset mic might work best but my testing with a desktop mic has produced good results.

Is Voice Recognition Back? For Real This Time?

CNN technology writer John D. Sutter has compiled a case for why we should be taking voice recognition seriously. It's a story that has been written many times over the past few decades, but Sutter or at least some of the sources he's tapped believe that this time it might really stick. I'll admit that that it's a technology that has always been of interest to me and that the phone systems that I've used of late seem to be excellent at recognizing numbers and specific commands. The advancements of voice recognition technology. in particular applications that are aimed at cell phones and smartphones, is really looking like we may finally have a keeper.

"If you compare us to human performance, we are rapidly closing the gap," said David Nahamoo, IBM's chief technology officer for voice research.

Check out Sutter's article!

There are more than one way to catch a criminal

The Globe and Mail has an interesting tale of a Colombian drug lord who constantly had his facial features altered by plastic surgery to avoid capture. In the end he was undone by his voice! the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) aided Brazilian authorities in tracking down Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia through the use of voice recognition software. “The way you use your voice is as individual as fingerprints,” said Jim Hunter, a partner in Sao Paulo security company. “If they have a sample of a known voice and they get an unknown sample of sufficient length, they then test the unknown against the known.”