Speech Technology Magazine Blog » Google Talks Speech with Europe Show Organizers

David Burke, engineering director at Google and a scheduled keynote speaker for this year’s SpeechTEK Europe conference (which takes place in London May 25 and 26) gave a preview of his speech recently during an interview with the event organizers. In the first of a two-part interview, he talks exclusively about smartphones, Android, and Google’s plans for speech on the Web.

Burke makes some bold predictions about where the mobile and computing markets are headed. Among them, he believes smartphone shipments will surpass PC shipments in two years and dialogue-based services will give way to rich interactive experiences over the Web or as packaged applications. Speech technologies will be part of those applications.

David Burke, engineering director at Google

As for Google’s plans for speech, Burke says the company “has been working hard to enhance the speech capabilities on Android with each new release of the platform.” First came voice search, followed by the capability to use speech for any text input box, and then Voice Actions, which allow users to take common but complex multistep actions and speech-enable them. Examples include commands for sending text messages and email, calling a business or contact, listening to music, or setting the alarm.

“We plan to continue to enhance speech in Android in future releases. Expect to see more capabilities, more languages, faster and more accurate recognition and synthesis as well as API improvements,” Burke says.

For the full interview, click here.

STILL TO COME: In the second part of our interview, to be available later this month, Burke describes why smartphone users are set to embrace speech applications and the other speech technologies Google is working on  now.

Burke is just one of more than 50 speakers from around the world who will address SpeechTEK Europe attendees. Speakers hail from a wide range of business environments, including Barclays Bank, Deutsche Telekom, Nuance Communications, Loquendo, Openstream, Voxeo, Belgian Railways,  Telecom Italia, and Cable & Wireless.

View the SpeechTEK Europe 2011 programme here – register today and take advantage of our 40 percent colleague discount.

via speechtechblog.com