🚀 go-pugleaf

uu@nope.net (uu) wrote in message news:<3fb82a4a.9260565@news.io.com>...
> November 16, 2003
> Southern Drawls Confuse La. Phone System
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>  
> 
> SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) -- Southern drawls have thwarted voice
> recognition equipment used by the Shreveport Police Department to
> route non-emergency calls.
> 
> A switchover to a lower-tech, touch-tone system -- in which callers
> hear a voice recording they can respond to by pressing a different
> number for each division -- is scheduled for Monday, said spokeswoman
> Kaycee Hargrave.
> 
> The voice-recognition system asked people to name the person or
> department they wanted. More often than not, the system just didn't
> understand, and they wound up at the wrong place, said Capt. John
> Dunn, who oversees police communications.
> 
> ``In Louisiana, we have a problem with Southern drawl and what I call
> lazy mouth. Because of that, the system often doesn't recognize what
> (callers) say,'' he said.
> 
> Interim Chief Mike Campbell knows all too well how frustrating the
> voice recognition system can be.
> 
> ``I can count on one hand when I have been transferred to where I've
> wanted to go, and I know the system. I can imagine how frustrating it
> would be for a citizen,'' he said.

Some voice reco systems for tracking packages, getting stock quotes or
accessing contact lists seem to work very well, even taking into
account accents.  I've seen a particular system work with Texans,
Chinese, Mexicans, Afghanis and several other accents.  In my
experience, a well built (and tested) system based on Philips, Nuance
or Speechworks speech recognizers should have worked, given a
reasonable SNR (15db+).

Does anyone know who the vendor was for the Shreveport system?