Most of us in our industry associate Speech Recognition with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) application used in a customer service or call center environment. As a provider of Speech Recognition / IVR / Mobile Solutions, Acclaim Telecom Services strives to assist our clients with efficient, effective (and hopefully creative in some cases) uses of various IVR technologies to support their customers.
Recently I saw a wonderful example of how advances in speech recognition help individuals in a much different manner……….. improving the life of individuals who have experienced a catastrophic injury
Carl Hall was an all-American baseball player during his college years at Wichita State. Carl married his high school sweetheart and has 4 great children. In a split second his role as father, husband, and primary supporter of his family changed. In 2010, Carl Hall was paralyzed from the neck down in a tragic car accident.
Carl’s family was the subject of an Extreme Home Makeover project which aired in April, 2011. Besides the obvious need of building a home to accommodate Carl’s special mobility and personal care requirements, technology became a central theme throughout the house. Speech Recognition enabled far greater independence than Carl or his family had ever imagined.
The home incorporated over 250 voice commands that responded exclusively to Carl’s voice. The voice commands ranged from the obvious of controlling lights and doors, cooking appliance control, to controlling automated hoists to help move Carl throughout his home.
You can view the TV program here.
This is but one example of how speech recognition can be applied. Application areas abound in healthcare IVR, high performance aircraft, training, command and control, home automation, video games, mobile telephony, robotics, transcription and more.
Closer to home in our area of expertise, Acclaim Telecom Services would be happy to discuss how IVR, Speech Recognition, or Mobile applications can help your company. The areas of application are potentially limitless.