Automatic speech recognition An evaluation of Google Speech

Abstract: The use of speech recognition is increasing rapidly and is now available in smart TVs, desktop computers, every new smart phone, etc. allowing us to talk to computers naturally. With the use in home appliances, education and even in surgical procedures accuracy and speed becomes very important. This thesis aims to give an introduction to speech recognition and discuss its use in robotics. An evaluation of Google Speech, using Google’s speech API, in regards to word error rate and translation speed, as well as a comparison between Google Speech and Pocketsphinx is made. The results show that Google Speech presented lower error rates on general purpose sentences but, due to the high average translation speed and the inability to specify vocabulary, was not suitable for voice-controlled moving robots.