Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa has a new taker yet again. And this time it is the automotive giant – Ford. In a bid to improve the overall functionality of the vehicle and enhance the overall driving experience, Ford has teamed up with Amazon to integrate the voice-activated digital assistant in the car. Now Ford drivers can use voice commands to play music, read the weather forecast, and search for nearby locations like a restaurant or gas station.
How does Alexa function?
In the year 2014, Alexa was launched as the ‘brain’ inside Amazon’s Echo. The device can make to-do lists, set alarms, play audiobooks, and engage in voice interaction. Alexa can also be used as a home automation hub to control several smart devices. Voice interaction is perhaps one of the most outstanding features of this device. Through intelligent voice recognition (VR) and natural language understanding service, Alexa can help you in creating meaningful user experiences.
It is the voice recognition feature of Alexa, and its potential to enhance the overall user experience, which is being leveraged by Ford. And it is not Ford alone which is working with voice-activated devices; rather there are several companies who are looking for ways to which they can add voice recognition as an interface in everyday devices. But unlike other users of Alexa, Ford is planning to build an integration which will provide car-to-home voice control with Alexa embedded in Ford’s SYNC 3 infotainment system.
Until now, car owners could turn on their cars from inside their homes using their Echo devices. But car-to-home voice control is seen as a major game changer by several industry experts. For instance, you caen now tell Alexa to set the smart thermometer to a certain temperature or turn on the lights at the house while you are driving.
Is voice recognition the key to enhanced user experience?
Speech recognition technology is undoubtedly the best thing to happen to our generation. Since its conception, the voice recognition technology is reshaping human-machine interaction and revolutionizing how devices are being built and connected. In fact, the technology has such an enormous potential, that it is finding applications in almost every aspect of our lives. Be it building smart homes, easing the work process, or improving the security systems – speech recognition technology finds applications in all of them.
The latest cog in the wheel has been the use of voice recognition technology in the biometrics. In voice recognition biometrics, an individual’s voice is digitized to match against a stored voiceprint template. Acoustic features such as pitch, cadence, and tone are compared to distinguish between individual voices. This feature is seen as a major improvement over the traditional biometrics as it does away with PINs, smart cards, and one-time passwords (OTPs). With voice recognition biometrics, you do not have to worry about carrying ID cards or remembering passwords. Also, chances of identity theft, fraud, and buddy punching can be brought down significantly.
At the same time, VR biometrics is still in a nascent stage. High non-matching rates, difficulty in recognizing voice with background noise, and high investment in recording infrastructure are some of the major issues, which this technology has to overcome. So, it might take some time for VR biometrics to gain mass popularity.
To know more about the voice recognition biometrics
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