I get a lot of compliments for my deep Scottish accent, but when it comes to voice apps like Siri and Alexa, my voice is more of a disadvantage than an asset. When Apple and Amazon were building their voice assistants, they didn’t seem to have a Scottish accent consultant on speed dialing.
If voice recognition is supposed to be the .way of the .future – and that’s what we should be aiming for – then search engines and voice assistants need to begin to better understand complex accents. Not all of us speak public English with a high school accent.
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Mozilla (the .creators of the .Firefox browser) is trying to solve the .problem by asking people to volunteer their votes in a database called Common Voice By matching voices to given phrases, Mozilla hopes that their database will eventually become an invaluable tool in the .future for any application that depends on voice recognition.
Subscription to Common Voice
Register for “Shared Voice”
Before we go any further, let’s address the .privacy issues first, as I already hear them popping up.
Common Voice’ – a Crowdsourced Database For Voice Recognition Improvement”/>
While you can register using your Firefox, Github or Google account, you can register via email instead. Just open an anonymous disposable email account and no one will understand what you are saying.
After you create an account and log in, you will see your dashboard
Common Voice’ – a Crowdsourced Database For Voice Recognition Improvement”/>
There are two sections – Speak and Listen In the .“Speak†section, you are asked to give your opinion. Listen is when you listen to other people’s voices and compare them to the .phrase they should have said. Then you must indicate if this is correct.
Speak
To take part in the .conversation section, you need a working microphone that picks up your voice clearly. You also need to give the .Mozilla site access to this microphone.
Common Voice’ – a Crowdsourced Database For Voice Recognition Improvement”/>
When you click on the .“Speak†section, you are given a set of five random phrases to speak. The instructions are very clear on the .screen and easy to follow.
Common Voice’ – a Crowdsourced Database For Voice Recognition Improvement”/>
You simply click the .microphone icon below and read the .sentence in your normal voice. Don’t use an unnatural accent or speak too slowly.
The whole point of the .exercise is that the .database learns to understand the .accents of people as they usually speak. In other words, everything becomes meaningless.
When the .first phrase is done, in the .upper right corner you will see options to play the .clip and overwrite the .clip if you don’t like it.
Common Voice’ – a Crowdsourced Database For Voice Recognition Improvement”/>
If you’re happy with that, it moves on to the .next one and continues until all five phrases have been completed. Then click the .blue Submit button to submit your clips to Mozilla for review.
Common Voice’ – a Crowdsourced Database For Voice Recognition Improvement”/>
If you now return to your dashboard, you will see that these phrases have been assigned to you.
Common Voice’ – a Crowdsourced Database For Voice Recognition Improvement”/>
Then just rinse and repeat. The more contributions and accents Mozilla receives in its database, the .more successful the .project will be.
Listen
After people have submitted their phrases to Mozilla, they need to be validated to ensure that the .voice fragment matches the .phrase. This is what volunteers also use.
Back on the .dashboard., you will see the .Listen section on the .right. In the .”Leading Participants” section, you can see that some serious statistics have been collected.
Common Voice’ – a Crowdsourced Database For Voice Recognition Improvement”/>
To start checking your voice phrases, go to the .”Listen” section and you will be presented with a phrase and a play button.
Common Voice’ – a Crowdsourced Database For Voice Recognition Improvement”/>
Press the .play button (make sure your speakers are on!) And you will hear the .recorded voice. If you decide that the .phrase was pronounced correctly, click Yes. If there is a mispronunciation, something else said, or some other mistake, press NO.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Common Voice’ – a Crowdsourced Database For Voice Recognition Improvement”/>
This is just one of the .many projects Mozilla is currently implementing (go to the .main Mozilla website and click Projects at the .top – it is constantly changing). Crowdsourcing is a great way to deliver worthy projects, and it’s always worth taking your time to help create something useful for the .future.
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