Samsung Patent Application Involves Speech Recognition For Robots

 Robots

Samsung recently applied for a patent that hints at new speech recognition engines that will be able to single out speakers in crowded and noisy environments. Conceivably the speech detection algorithm may be able to decipher the speech of multiple speakers talking at the same time.

Anew patent application by the Korean company Samsung hints at new speech recognition engines that will be able to single out speakers in crowded and noisy environments.  Conceivably the speech detection algorithm may be able to decipher the speech of multiple speakers talking at the same time.

According to the patent application,

The speech recongnition method for the robot includes one fundamental acoustic model.  Whenever the noisy environment and the speaker are changed, the speech recognition method generates a plurality of parallel acoustic models in which the characteristic for each speaker are reflected.  As a result, the speech recognition method for the robot can freely recognize one of several speakers, such that it can basically remove mismatch between the model training environment and the test environment thereby improving speech recognition capabilities.

It is unclear at this stage whether or not the patent application relates to Samsung's S Voice technology, or what type of robotic platform the company is developing for the application.

Samsung has its own line of humanoid robots, the Mahru series. The latest, Mahru-Z, was created by engineers at KAIST leveraging earlier Samsung systems, and is intended to serve as a robot maid. You Bum-Jae, head of KAIST’s cognitive robot centre at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, bragged to Ben Goertzel: “It recognizes people, can turn on microwave ovens, washing machines and toasters, and also pick up sandwiches, cups and whatever else it senses as objects.” Mahru-Z is not yet ready for commercial release, but it’s clearly a serious step toward Korea’s stated goal of “a robot in every home by 2020.”

KAIST is also now working on HUBO 2 robot.  Drexel University recently purchased six of the highly advanced robots.  Comparable in size and sophistication to Honda’s ASIMO but built at a fraction of the cost, HUBO 2 Plus is one of the world’s most advanced humanoid robots.  Potentially with advanced in speech recognition being implemented in these robots, they will appear smarter as well.  

SOURCE  United States Patent Office via Engadget

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