Top Page | English | 简体中文 | 繁體中文 | 한국어 | 日本語
Wednesday, 1 April 2015, 12:29 HKT/SGT
Share:
    

Source: Fujitsu Ltd
Fujitsu Develops Technology that Identifies Applicable Areas from Within Materials Being Discussed
Speaker's voice is linked to a material's content in real time with high accuracy

KAWASAKI, Japan, Apr 1, 2015 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced that it has developed technology that, based on a speaker's voice, detects in real time and with high accuracy the applicable area in presentation or remote-conference materials.

Fujitsu Communications-support System

For meeting materials, product pamphlets, and other presentation materials, providing supplementary information and displaying a section as it is being discussed by the presenter is effective in promoting understanding of the speaker's explanation. To realize this, it is necessary to identify at a glance the place being explained within the materials. However, raising the precision of detecting the correct place after just a few words has proved problematic.

Fujitsu has developed technology that compares spoken words against the content of the presentation materials, and uses characteristics of the presentation's sequence based on statistical calculations to filter candidate sections of the presentation materials, in order to accurately identify the correct section in real time, based on only a few spoken words. When tested in a prototype system designed to automatically highlight the correct place in presentation materials, this technology was found to detect the correct section with 97% accuracy.

It is expected that this technology can be used to create a communication-support system that uses ICT to recognize the content of speech and provide appropriate information in a broad range of settings where information is explained, such as teleconferences, electronic educational materials, and consultations with customers in stores.

Background

Business communications are often based on materials, such as pamphlets used for product explanations, meetings that follow an agenda or talks that use slides that are shared with participants. Given this, there is a need to communicate so that listeners understand quickly, clearly, and easily.

To improve the efficiency of such work-related communications, Fujitsu has developed a communication-support system for communication involving text materials that uses speech-recognition technology to recognize what is being said in real time in order to provide the appropriate information (Figure 1).

Technological Issues

Commonly, the frequency with which spoken words appear in presentation materials is used to identify the place within the presentation that is being discussed. This method employs techniques such as detecting words from recorded speech and is effective when they can be sufficiently extracted. However it is not suited for real-time identification of the correct section when the presenter has only spoken a few words, as there is no way to distinguish word frequency. Also, with current speech-recognition technologies, a misrecognition rate of up to 10% is unavoidable. As a result, with inferences based on just a few words, errors in recognition have a significant impact on accuracy.

About the Technology

Fujitsu has developed technology that compares what a speaker is saying with text materials and accurately detects the place being explained within the materials in real time, as they are being spoken.

Features of the technology are as follows

1. Automatically generates speech-recognition dictionary to avoid recognition errors

A challenge in speech recognition is that many short words have similar pronunciation, which increases the likelihood of errors in recognition. Fujitsu solved this problem by combining these short words with the words located in their immediate proximity and storing them in a speech-recognition dictionary as single words. This reduced recognition errors by roughly 60% compared to previous technologies.

2. Increases detection accuracy with characteristics of statistically generated explanatory sequences

By statistically calculating the relationship between the sequence of a spoken presentation and the materials' structural information, including layout, paragraphing, and location of explanations, it became clear that when the content being discussed exceeds a certain distance from a point in the materials, the frequency that the spoken presentation transitions to that place drops precipitously. Using this sequential characteristic and the frequency of words contained in a given part of the spoken presentation, this technology is able to filter the candidates for the next part of the presentation, and can accurately infer a correspondence with the spoken presentation, even with only a few spoken words being recognized.

Results

Applying the developed technology, Fujitsu prototyped and evaluated an "automatic pointing system" that highlights the section of the materials corresponding to the spoken explanation, for use with shared slide materials in a teleconference (Figure 4). Use of this technology boosted detection accuracy to 97%, up from the previous 70%, when, for example, settings were made to display the information to be emphasized within roughly two seconds from the start of an explanation.

When evaluated in comparison to existing pointing methods, such as using a mouse cursor, this technology was found to increase ease of understanding by 30% and cut bothersome display issues in half, demonstrating its usefulness as a communication-support system for remote conferences.

Future Plans

Fujitsu aims to have a practical implementation of this technology in a remote communications-support system within 2015. In addition, when combined with the company's sightline-detection technology and translation technology, this technology has a broad range of potential applications to help businesses run more efficiently, such as giving support to operators in call centers by providing information related to frequently asked questions, or providing information-desk support or educational support.


Contact:
Fujitsu Limited
Public and Investor Relations
Tel: +81-3-3215-5259
URL: www.fujitsu.com/global/news/contacts/

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd.
ICT Systems Laboratories 
Server Technologies Lab
E-mail: Retimer_ISSCC2015@ml.labs.fujitsu.com



Topic: Press release summary
Source: Fujitsu Ltd

Sectors: Electronics, Cloud & Enterprise, IT Individual, Consumer Electronics
http://www.acnnewswire.com
From the Asia Corporate News Network


Copyright © 2024 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. A division of Asia Corporate News Network.


Fujitsu Ltd Links

http://www.fujitsu.com

https://plus.google.com/+Fujitsu

https://www.facebook.com/FujitsuJapan

https://twitter.com/Fujitsu_Global

https://www.youtube.com/user/FujitsuOfficial

https://www.linkedin.com/company/fujitsu/

Fujitsu Ltd
Dec 23, 2024 12:30 HKT/SGT
Fujitsu drives chemical industry logistics DX with participation in joint logistics demonstration
Dec 16, 2024 09:20 HKT/SGT
Fujitsu recognized as Leader in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Digital Workplace Services 2024 Vendor Assessment
Dec 12, 2024 10:06 HKT/SGT
Fujitsu develops video analytics AI agent to support safe, secure, and efficient frontline workplaces
Dec 12, 2024 09:28 HKT/SGT
Fujitsu develops world's first multi-AI agent security technology to protect against vulnerabilities and new threats
Dec 11, 2024 15:36 HKT/SGT
Fujitsu concludes share transfer agreement concerning Fujitsu Communication Services Limited
Dec 11, 2024 09:11 HKT/SGT
Combating customer harassment: Fujitsu, Toyo University and Kokoro Balance Research Institute launch field trial on AI-powered training program
Dec 10, 2024 10:38 HKT/SGT
Fujitsu drives business process improvement at Mitsubishi Electric Engineering using SAP Signavio(R)
Dec 3, 2024 09:48 HKT/SGT
Fujitsu entrepreneurship program spins out first start-up company
Dec 2, 2024 21:07 HKT/SGT
Fujitsu expands global strategic collaboration agreement with AWS to promote customer digital transformation across industries
Nov 26, 2024 09:51 HKT/SGT
Fujitsu develops Policy Twin, a new digital twin technology to maximize effectiveness of local government policies for solving societal issues
More news >>
 News Alerts
Copyright © 2024 ACN Newswire - Asia Corporate News Network
Home | About us | Services | Partners | Events | Login | Contact us | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | RSS
US: +1 214 890 4418 | China: +86 181 2376 3721 | Hong Kong: +852 8192 4922 | Singapore: +65 6549 7068 | Tokyo: +81 3 6859 8575

Connect With us: