Difference between revisions of "Timeline of speech and voice recognition"

 

This is a '''timeline of [[Speech recognition|speech and voice recognition]]''', a technology which enables the recognition and [[translation]] of [[spoken language]] into text.

| 1877 || || Invention || [[Thomas Edison]]'s [[phonograph]] becomes the first device to record and reproduce sound.  The method is fragile, however, and is prone to damage.<ref name = "Phonograph">{{cite book|last1=Newville|first1=Leslie J.|title=Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30112/30112-h/30112-h.htm|accessdate=21 June 2016}}</ref>

| 1936 || || Invention || A team of engineers at [[Bell Labs]], led by Homer Dudley, begins work on the [[Voder]], the first electronic [[speech synthesizer]].<ref name = "History">{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=738|title=History of Information Database|accessdate=21 June 2016}}</ref>

| 1939 || March 21 || Invention || Dudley is granted a [[patent]] for the Voder, US patent 2151091 A.<ref name = "History"/>

| 1939 || || Demonstration || The Voder is demonstrated at the 1939 [[Golden Gate International Exposition]] in [[San Francisco]].  A keyboard and foot pedals were used to have the machine emit speech.<ref name = "History"/>

| 1939–1940 || || Demonstration || The Voder is demonstrated at the [[1939 New York World's Fair|1939-1940 World's Fair]] in [[New York City]].<ref name = "History"/>

| 1962 || || Demonstration || [[IBM]] demonstrates the Shoebox, a machine that can understand up to 16 spoken words in English, at the [[1962 Seattle World's Fair]].<ref>{{cite web|title=IBM Shoebox|url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/specialprod1/specialprod1_7.html|website=IBM|accessdate=21 June 2016}}</ref>

| 1971–1976 || || Program || [[DARPA]] funds five years of speech recognition research with the goal of ending up with a machine capable of understanding a minimum of 1,000 words.  The program led to the creation of the Harpy by [[Carnegie Mellon]], a machine capable of understanding 1,011 words.<ref name = "PCWorld"/>

| Early 1980s || || Technique || The [[hidden Markov model]] begins to be used in speech recognition systems, allowing machines to more accurately recognize speech by predicting the probability of unknown sounds being words.<ref name = "PCWorld"/>

| 1990 || || Invention || Dragon launches [[Dragon Dictate]], the first speech recognition product for consumers.<ref name = "PCWorld"/>

| 1993 || || Invention || [[CMU Sphinx|Sphinx-II]], the first large-vocabulary continuous speech recognition system, is invented by [[Xuedong Huang]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lee|first1=Kai-Fu|title=An Overview of the SPHINX Speech Recognition System|url=http://www.ri.cmu.edu/pub_files/pub2/lee_k_f_1990_1/lee_k_f_1990_1.pdf|website=Carnegie Mellon University|accessdate=21 June 2016}}</ref>

| 2002 || || Application || [[Microsoft]] integrates speech recognition into their Office products.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Thompson|first1=Terry|title=DO-IT|url=http://www.washington.edu/doit/tech-tips-are-you-talking-your-computer-again|website=University of Washington|accessdate=21 June 2016}}</ref>

| 2006 || || Application || The [[National Security Agency]] begins using speech recognition to isolate keywords when analyzing recorded conversations.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Froomkin|first1=Dan|title=The Computers Are Listening|url=https://theintercept.com/2015/05/05/nsa-speech-recognition-snowden-searchable-text/|website=The Intercept|accessdate=21 June 2016}}</ref>

| 2007 || || Invention || [[Google]] introduces [[GOOG-411]], a telephone-based directory service.  This will serve as a foundation for the company's future Voice Search product.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kincaid|first1=Jason|title=The Power Of Voice: A Conversation With The Head Of Google's Speech Technology|url=https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/13/the-power-of-voice-a-conversation-with-the-head-of-googles-speech-technology/|website=TechCrunch|accessdate=21 June 2016}}</ref>  

| 2008 || November 14 || Application || Google launches the Voice Search app for the [[iPhone]], bringing speech recognition technology to mobile devices.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Markoff|first1=John|title=Google Is Taking Questions (Spoken, via iPhone)|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/technology/internet/14voice.html?partner=rss&emc=rss|website=New York Times|accessdate=21 June 2016}}</ref>

| 2011 || October 4 || Invention || Apple announces [[Siri]], a digital personal assistant.  In addition to being able to recognize speech, Siri is able to understand the meaning of what it is told and take appropriate action.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Daw|first1=David|title=What Makes Siri Special?|url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/242479/what_makes_siri_special_.html|website=PCWorld|accessdate=21 June 2016}}</ref>

| 2014 || November 6 || Invention || [[Amazon.com|Amazon]] announces the Echo, a voice-controlled speaker.  The Echo is powered by Alexa, a digital personal assistant similar to Siri and Cortana.  While Siri and Cortana are not the most important features of the devices on which they run, the Echo is dedicated to Alexa.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Welch|first1=Chris|title=Amazon just surprised everyone with a crazy speaker that talks to you|url=http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/6/7167793/amazon-echo-speaker-announced|website=The Verge|accessdate=21 June 2016}}</ref>

* [[Speech recognition]]

* [[List of speech recognition software]]

[[Category:Speech recognition]]

[[Category:Technology timelines|Speech and voice recognition]]