Speech Technology eWeekly - March 21, 2018

Features

When Dolphins Attack: How Voice Assistants and Speech Recognition Software Can be Fooled

If you own a smart speaker, you know that it can be fun trying to trick Alexa, Siri, or Google into doing or saying something it shouldn't—like obeying your friend who imitates your voice commands. While such ruses are fun and harmless, the truth is that bad actors are undoubtedly attempting trickery of a more nefarious nature and voice-controlled systems (VCSs) and speech recognition systems (SRSs) can be easily fooled via clever techniques.

Intelligent Virtual Assistants: Gaining Traction but Confronting Challenges in the Enterprise

Voice is becoming a common interface in the workplace as well as in the home. Business applications haven't been as prevalent. 

Q & A

Q&A: Designing Natural Language Home Assistants Using Amazon Alexa

David Attwater has over 17 years of experience in speech user interface design and testing. He has a specific focus on customer usability testing and is an acknowledged expert in the design and testing of natural language solutions for customer service, including digital assistants. Attwater will present the SpeechTEK University course, "Designing Natural Language Home Assistants Using Amazon Alexa," on Sunday April 8, at the SpeechTEK 2018 Conference. SpeechTEK program chair, James Larson, interviewed Attwater in advance of his conference session.

Speech Technology News

Telestream Introduces Integrated Closed Caption Inserter & Multiscreen Live Streaming Solution

Telestream, a provider of file-based media workflow orchestration, media streaming, and delivery technologies will introduce a unique one-box-solution for closed caption encoding to multiple live streams.

CallMiner Announces Enhancements to Eureka

CallMiner, a platform provider of speech and customer engagement analytics, announced at Enterprise Connect 2018 that the company has made significant enhancements to its cloud-based customer engagement analytics platform, CallMiner Eureka, to increase speed to intelligence, reliability, and scaling capabilities.

Spotify Tests Voice Controls

If you're a regular Spotify user, you may have noticed the music streaming service has been testing a hands-free option that allows users to control the app with their voices.

Microsoft Introduces Dictation to Office Apps

Microsoft is testing voice dictation for Office.

How Chatbots Are Changing the Way Research is Done

Research companies across the globe are starting to look at new ways to keep their respondents engaged in their surveys and chatbots are looking to bridge this gap by changing the way surveys are taken by introducing a conversational approach to surveys.

Progress Launches AI-Driven Chatbot, Progress NativeChat

Progress, a provider of application development and deployment technologies, announced the availability of Progress NativeChat, the artificial intelligence-driven platform for creating and deploying chatbots.

ecobee Expands into Smart Home Solutions with ecobee Switch+, Brings Voice Control to Every Room

ecobee, Inc. launched its smart light switch, the ecobee Switch+, delivering on its vision for invisibly integrated voice assistance in every room of the home.

Vonage Debuts Skills-Based Routing and Real-time Sentiment Analysis Technology

Vonage, a business cloud communications provider, introduced skills-based communications routing and real-time sentiment analysis--intelligent communications technologies that enable businesses to create their own routing plans and analytical view of agent and customer interactions for the contact center via building blocks.

Inside Speech

It’s Time for an End to ‘Speech-Disabled’ IVRs

Too many callers are greeted by dressed-up DTMF or overly ambitious speech offerings. Either way, they're being ill-served.

Industry Voices

The Game Changer in Gaming: Voice Recognition Technology

Familiarity with voice recognition software has increased exponentially with our use of smartphones (thank you Siri!), voice controls in our cars, and smart home devices like Google Home or the Amazon Echo. So why would I want my gaming experience to be any different?

Let’s Step Up the Fight Against Voice Fraud

Service providers lose more than USD $38.1 billion from voice fraud annually, according to the Communications Fraud Control Agency (CFCA). In a voice market where margins are declining, any loss from fraud is too much. Service providers have to take action or face potentially going out of business.