Is the Game Over for Speech Recognition?

Speech is being used more and more in computer games to make the experience more intense and realistic and speech recognition is increasingly publicized as a play option for new games by many developers. Speech recognition, however, is not been used to allow individuals with a disability to join in the games. A product cannot be made accessible even if speech-enabled video games utilize speech for 10 to 15 percent of game play.

Video game sales exceeded $18 billion USD worldwide in 2004. However, the disability community remains untapped, even though about 20 percent of the population belongs to this group. For some reason, manufacturers stay away from this potentially lucrative market.

Speech is progressively avoided in the top games as infusing speech recognition is increasingly difficult. It is necessary for speech to make sense in context of the game and the manufacturers of the top games have revealed a propensity to maintain speech away from the games. Expenses in the implementation of speech recognition are not significant. Additional fees and other expenses are not necessary. Hence, the inclination of the manufactures to avoid speech is largely due to the complexity in implementing the speech and not due to the budget.

Video games can be an important source of entertainment in our society and can also provide for crucial socialization experiences for children - both with other kids and with their parents. In future, however, if the video industry’s accessibility is to improve, it has to recognize this potential new customer base.

Source: SpeechMag