Did you enjoy the hand-free searching a few years back? I don’t think so. There was an in-built voice search option, but we didn’t pay much attention to it. And yes, with time when the tech got better, people are now enjoying the trend of voice search.
Now it is a convenient option to go with. Many of you might think that the voice search arrived just a couple of days ago. But no, its sources back to the 1950s. Since then the voice recognition system or voice search has crossed many hurdles, improved all the way and now catering to us with its best features. Let’s break down the history and evolution of voice search in more detail.
Evolution of Voice Search
Alright, in 1952 in the Bell laboratories voice recognition was initially started. The Audrey, voice recognition system was invented. Right after ten years, in 1962, the Shoebox technology could decrypt 16 English words in a row. That was a big refinement.
Moreover, in the 1970s, in the same Bell laboratories, another voice search device was developed and this time it could recognize not just a few numbers of words but it could detect multiple voices. So, this ended up handling many words and many types of voices.
During 1971-76, the voice recognition system went one step ahead. The USA Defence team took the step and spent over the voice search technology. Consequently, the Speech Understanding Research program, DARPA SUR. In the research outcome, Carnegie Mellon created the Harpy. The speciality of Harpy was immense and it could decrypt 1011 words.
Afterward, in the 1980s, the development was expecting a big move. The HMM (Hidden Markov Model) was created. This model could recognize the speech and turn it into a speech model. It was based on algorithms to detect unknown sounds and find the best-predicted model for them.
Then in the 1990s, the Dragon company made the Dragon Dictate. Now for the first time, users could enjoy this machine. After six years in 1996, the open voice recognition portal for users was in action, named Voice Activated Portal(VAL). In the next year, 1997, the same Dragon company developed the Dragon NaturalySpeaking that could process 100WPM.
Okay, in 2000, the voice recognition system met new hands. It was the time when the table turned. Along with the preceding years’ development, and new expectations, Google invented the voice search application. Google’s voice search could process huge amounts of speech data and analyze it within a few seconds.
Then Google made voice recognition in the Android sets that could deliberately make the speech model. In 2016, finally Google Assistant was in action. By the time, in 2011, Apple’s Siri was also invented. So, it was a proper heroic growth of the voice recognition systems.
Noteworthy that the Automatic Voice Search System was not only a part of business, securities and to fulfill the human queries. In 1987, voice recognition was in children’s games as well. A doll was manufactured to respond to the speech of the children.
Okay, after Google’s and Apple’s entry into the voice search system, there were other multiple inventions like Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and so forth. The maturing continues. Voice recognition system has now the ability to process so many words together, tagged with AI, a multilingual approach, and yes became an everyday partner of mass people.
Now almost 72% of the common people are smart speakers and big industries, businesses, and websites are in always their minds of enriching their voice search optimization stuff. I think now you have understood how voice searching has been initiated and moved around then became a day-to-day thing in our life.
Voice Search and Artificial Intelligence
We know what voice search is. You speak in front of your smart device or smart engine, then it processes your wave, analyzes it, and understands what you said. Now voice searches have become a prominent thing. Simple, you speak, the processor of your device takes the command and shows you the results.
Now what about the bond between voice searches and AI? The birth of AI was also back in the 1950s. It is now serving the human with the ultimate ease. You don’t have to worry about if you forgot anything or messed up, AI assists you from the dawn to the end of the day.
Fast forward to the 20th century, the voice search is now coupled with AI. Automatic voice search(ASR) generalizes Natural Language Processing(NLP). The AI in voice searches is now at its peak. It understands the human voice command perfectly, filters the noise, and then turns it into text.
AI optimizes the voice signals clear and out. The system is trained in such a way with the predictive models so that it goes far and beyond. Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Voice assistant are all remarkable examples of AI-induced voice searches.
The leverage of voice AI proves how efficient it is. The voice recognition algorithm turns on like below:
- First, it receives the human speech command.
- Then convert the speech into text.
- Filter out the ambient noise.
- Then move to the neural networks where the text is processed.
- And the text is then moved to the AI system.
- The AI is activated and analyzes the text according to its processor data.
- Then find the best match for the user.
Now in every aspect of life, AI voice search is seen. The user ends up using a flexible way to meet his needs.
Different Ways People use the Voice Search on Each Smart Technology
Smart device users like Android or IoS users are familiar with the voice search trend. That’s not the end. Desktop users are also fond of voice searches. Despite the phones and desktops, there are other voice-searching devices. They are solely created to take away the user’s voice command. 72% of smart speakers use their smart devices to carry out their daily searches. And
- Voice search for home applications: Most house applications are now getting smart. If you want to turn off /turn on the smart LED lights, you can command your voice search device.
- Asking for the road routes: While you step out of home and want to know the best routes. The Google Assistant is here to help you. You can ask for the weather, traffic-free routes, and so on. You don’t have to do that manually.
- Local Help: The smart voice searches in your phone or even the smart devices at your home can give the complete” near me” solution. Now what’s that? You can enjoy the local businesses and save your time. You can go search for the nearest spa, then search for the nearest market, then call for the nearest park, and so on.
- Entertainment purpose: You can ask your Alexa or Siri to provide you with the best music list, then provide you the best suggestions according to your music taste. Then you can ask for movies to watch. So, the voice search gives you a complete entertainment view and then gives you the freedom to share your ideas with others. As a group of people can enjoy smart voice searches together. So, it’s a living room staff.
- Used for health purposes: The health sector uses voice search in many cases. Like noting down patient histories, and patient’s current status without typing and just using the voice-over. So, this saves time for the doctors and other hospital workers and they can be more involved in other work.
- Shopping with voice command: There is no comparison to the e-commerce developments with voice recognition. People can find out the best product for themselves with their voice commands. Moreover, e-commerce websites are now optimizing voice searches very seriously as it increases the traffic load. Around 50% of the online population is now using voice searches to check out online stores daily.
- Translating information: Smart voice searches are very much useful for translating information. It has a multilingual feature that enables every user to enjoy a search or query in their own language.
So, the usages of voice search are many, and according to the prediction, this will polish itself according to user’s need in future.