How Can Speech Recognisers Help Applied Research in the Civil Engineering, Transport and Related Industries

BACKGROUND

Speech recognition technology is rapidly advancing to the point here it can be usefully applied in a wide range of mtexts. For applications within the SERC Environment Committee's area of interest -civil engineering; construction; building; transport; water resources there are a number of kinds of recording situation in which one needs to keep one's eyes on the situation being studied; or in which the recording conditions (eg moving around with instruments) are unfavourable. The limitations of conventional pen and paper recording for these situations are obvious; and the limitations of hand-held data capture devices are also becoming apparent. Speech is therefore an easier medium to use; and a tape recorder a convenient means of recording the observations. For well defined recording tasks; speech recognisers might be a helpful way of transcribing the record. This seminar was convened to enable those who are potentially interested in such an application of information technology to hear of the latest developnents and assessments of the suitability of the technology.