Testing Norwegian speech technology

In April this year we were able to report a breakthrough for Norwegian speech technology. We are in full swing now with testing the solution.

Story by: Magne Lunde - 22.06.2009

Last autumn MediaLT started a collaboration with the Swedish company Veridict and IBM, to develop a new, Norwegian speech engine. In the Spring we were able to reap the first fruits of this collaboration, when the first version of a pilot for Norwegian voice control of the computer was ready for testing.

As realistic as possible

In advance of the development of the new speech engine we interviewed disabled users about which features / commands they considered most important. These findings have formed the basis for the set of commands in the pilot version.

Internal testing is now being carried out by employees at MediaLT to improve the set of functions / commands by simulating daily use as realistically as possible.

Error testing

In addition to improving the set of commands we are also working on errors and fine tuning the system in close cooperation with Veridict. If all goes according to plan, the first version will be ready by autumn.

User testing

When the first pilot version is ready, we will initiate user tests. The product will be tested by three user groups: severely motor disabled, dyslectics and visually impaired. On the basis of these tests the first "mainstream" version will be developed.

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