Future of Engineering

In the future your face, and not hands, will do the work. Breakthroughs in computerized facial expression and voice recognition technology are heralding a new era in communications that requires virtually no physical exertion whatsoever – not the click of a mouse or the tap-tap-tap of a keyboard. It'll save space on your desk and could put an end the ache of carpal tunnel syndrome. It will be a godsend for people with severe arthritis in their hands and arms. Like the voice command technology used in cars to keep drivers' hands on the steering wheel, much of this computerized communication is coming down the pipe in bits and pieces.

Technology for computerized facial recognition is ten times more accurate now than it was four years ago, and the best of the systems outperform humans, the National Institute of Standards said almost a year back.

Its facial-recognition test has compared vendor systems on in their ability to recognize high-resolution still images and three-dimensional facial images, under both controlled and uncontrolled illumination. According to the NIST report issued in late March 2007, the facial recognition systems it tested in the trials showed an “order of magnitude,” or tenfold, improvement over comparable tests conducted four years ago.

A new facial-recognition algorithm created by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is able to recognize faces with 90-95 percent accuracy, even if the eyes, nose and mouth are obscured

Reaffirming these trends, a number of consumer products today are coming out with visual recognition capabilities. Some of the new Toshiba laptops such as Portege M800, Satellite M300 and A300 recognize your face. A bunch of researchers from Tel Aviv University have even managed to successfully 'teach' a computer how to spot an attractive woman. Wow!

Voice recognition is making rapid strides too

Yahoo has released a new application that allows users to search the web with voice commands. The feature is part of oneSearch version 2, due to be released during the summer. However, the company is offering BlackBerry users an early peek of the voice recognition technology at m.yahoo.com/voice.

Mac users now have the option to use voice recognition tech too, thanks to MacSpeech Dictate.

Products such as Nuance voicemail to text make the transformation of voice and text messages easy and at the same time lets one access, sort, forward and archive their messages. The voicemail transformed texts are compatible with all standard message media. So that's voice recognition transforming the way you read email!

It's early days yet for facial and voice recognition systems. Sure, there are still lots of promises that face recognition and voice recognition systems are yet to deliver on, but the current status is, some elements of these technologies are poised for greatness even when still in the prototype stage, and some are already available to consumers and work just fine.

You can look forward to a future that involves a lot less using your fingers to type and a lot more using your face to talk and communicate.

Here are some more interesting resources for computerized facial & voice recognition, for those whose curiosity is never satisfied easily!
The Mathematics of Face Recognition
The Year Consumer Voice Recognition Gains Momentum

Labels: Computer-Science, Design-Engineering, Industrial-Engineering