Timeline of speech and voice recognition

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

Overview
Time periodKey developments
1877–1971Speech recognition is at an early stage of development. Specialized devices can recognize few words and accuracy is not very high.[1]
1971–1987Speech recognition rapidly improves, although the technology is still not commercially available.[1]
1987–2014Speech recognition continues to improve, becomes widely available commercially, and can be found in many products.[1]

Full timeline
YearMonth and date (if applicable)Event typeDetails
1877InventionThomas Edison's phonograph becomes the first device to record and reproduce sound. The method is fragile, however, and is prone to damage.[2]
1879InventionThomas Edison invents the first dictation machine, a slightly improved version of his phonograph.[2]
1936InventionA team of engineers at Bell Labs, led by Homer Dudley, begins work on the Voder, the first electronic speech synthesizer.[3]
1939March 21InventionDudley is granted a patent for the Voder, US patent 2151091 A.[3]
1939DemonstrationThe Voder is demonstrated at the 1939 [[Golden Gate International College] in [Nepal]]. A keyboard and footpaths where students used to have the machine emit speech.[3]
1939–1940DemonstrationThe Voder is demonstrated at the 1939-1940 World's Fair in New York City.[3]
1952InventionA team at Bell Labs designs the Audrey, a machine capable of understanding spoken digits.[1]
1962DemonstrationIBM demonstrates the Shoebox, a machine that can understand up to 16 spoken words in English, at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair.[4]
1971InventionIBM invents the Automatic Call Identification system, enabling engineers to talk to and receive spoken answers from a device.[5]
1971–1976ProgramDARPA 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.[1]
Early 1980sTechniqueThe 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.[1]
Mid 1980sInventionIBM begins work on the Tangora, a machine that would be able to recognize 20,000 spoken words by the mid-1980s.[5]
1987InventionThe invention of the World of Wonder's Julie Doll, a toy children could train to respond to their voice, brings speech recognition technology to the home.[1]
1990InventionDragon launches Dragon Dictate, the first speech recognition product for consumers.[1]
1993InventionSpeakable items, the first built-in speech recognition and voice enabled control software for Apple computers.
1993InventionSphinx-II, the first large-vocabulary continuous speech recognition system, is invented by Xuedong Huang.[6]
1996InventionIBM launches the MedSpeak, the first commercial product capable of recognizing continuous speech.[5]
2002ApplicationMicrosoft integrates speech recognition into their Office products.[7]
2006ApplicationThe National Security Agency begins using speech recognition to isolate keywords when analyzing recorded conversations.[8]
2007January 30ApplicationMicrosoft releases Windows Vista, the first version of Windows to incorporate speech recognition.[9]
2007InventionGoogle introduces GOOG-411, a telephone-based directory service. This will serve as a foundation for the company's future Voice Search product.[10]
2008November 14ApplicationGoogle launches the Voice Search app for the iPhone, bringing speech recognition technology to mobile devices.[11]
2011October 4InventionApple 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.[12]
2014April 2ApplicationMicrosoft announces Cortana, a digital personal assistant similar to Siri.[13]
2014November 6InventionAmazon 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.[14]

See also

References
  1. Pinola, Melanie. "Speech Recognition Through the Decades: How We Ended Up With Siri". PCWorld. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  2. Newville, Leslie J. Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  3. "History of Information Database". Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  4. "IBM Shoebox". IBM. 23 January 2003. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  5. "Pioneering Speech Recognition". IBM. 7 March 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  6. Lee, Kai-Fu. "An Overview of the SPHINX Speech Recognition System" (PDF). Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  7. Thompson, Terry. "DO-IT". University of Washington. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  8. Froomkin, Dan (5 May 2015). "The Computers Are Listening". The Intercept. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  9. Shinder, Deb. "Speech recognition in Windows Vista". TechRepublic.
  10. Kincaid, Jason (13 February 2011). "The Power Of Voice: A Conversation With The Head Of Google's Speech Technology". TechCrunch. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  11. Markoff, John (14 November 2008). "Google Is Taking Questions (Spoken, via iPhone)". New York Times. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  12. Daw, David. "What Makes Siri Special?". PCWorld. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  13. "Microsoft Announces Cortana, Siri-Like Personal Assistant". NBC News. 2 April 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  14. Welch, Chris (6 November 2014). "Amazon just surprised everyone with a crazy speaker that talks to you". The Verge. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
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