Impossible Made Possible

In 1969, John Pierce, a researcher for Bell Labs, declared that it was “not easy to see a practical, economically sound application for speech recognition…” (Reddy 6). He discouraged further investigation of this new advancement because it required artificial intelligence, something that certainly would not progress very far. Fortunately, the speech recognition research industry eventually recovered from this discouraging event and expanded tremendously. New developments began to appear rapidly, changing many important aspects of life for various groups of people. Speech and voice recognition technology has significantly impacted society because of its versatility, adding a new level of convenience and accessibility to the modern world.
According to Oxford University’s online dictionary, speech recognition is “the ability of a computer to recognize and respond to the sounds produced in human speech” (“Speech Recognition” par. 1). This means that a person can speak commands that will then be carried-out by the computer. Voice recognition is defined as “computer analysis of the human voice, especially for the purposes of interpreting words and phrases or identifying an individual voice” (“Voice Recognition” par. 1). This definition is very straightforward; voice recognition describes the ability of a computer to recognize a person who is speaking and decipher what that person is saying. These terms are often used interchangeably, so it is important to clarify their distinction. It is also essential to note that the use of “computer” in these definitions refers to the core machinery of various devices, not only familiar desktop and laptop computers. Once an individual gains an understanding of these key concepts, a brief history of ...

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