Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology have developed a speech recognition solution for use on noisy factory floors.
The solution allows machines to be controlled using voice commands. Employees speak into wireless headsets or stationary microphones. Loud ambient noise is almost entirely tuned out using directional microphones and a noise-canceling system. It can be housed in the cloud or on company servers.
"For the first time, our technology is enabling people to control machines in manufacturing using voice commands in a reliable, intuitive way. For manufacturing companies, this means increased efficiency and lower costs," said Marvin Norda, project manager for voice-controlled production at Fraunhofer IDMT, in a statement. "The speech recognition technology can handle hundreds of individual commands depending on the application and is not limited to a particular voice. New or modified commands can be quickly added and trained into the system."