Google is Taking Sign-ups for Relate, a Voice Assistant that Recognizes Impaired Speech

Google launched a beta app today that people with speech impairments can use as a voice assistant while contributing to a multiyear research effort to improve Google's speech recognition. From a report: The goal is to make Google Assistant, as well as other features that use speech to text and speech to speech, more inclusive of users with neurological conditions that affect their speech. The new app is called Project Relate, and volunteers can sign up at g.co/ProjectRelate. To be eligible to participate, volunteers need to be 18 or older and "have difficulty being understood by others." They'll also need a Google account and an Android phone using OS 8 or later. For now, it's only available to English speakers in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. They'll be tasked with recording 500 phrases, which should take between 30 to 90 minutes to record.

Misunderstood.

[Ostracus]

To be eligible to participate, volunteers need to be 18 or older and "have difficulty being understood by others."

Hallelujah! That's practically everyone here.

Re: Misunderstood.

[RightwingNutjob]

Huh?

Re:

[nospam007]

"To be eligible to participate, volunteers need to be 18 or older and "have difficulty being understood by others."

Hallelujah! That's practically everyone here."

Your AI doorman also doesn't recognize your voice when you're dead drunk?

Does it speak...

[cayenne8]

...Drunken-ese?

It would be nice to have a universal translator for after you've had a few to many adult beverages.

in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

[rossdee]

-I notice a couple of native English speaking countries are not on that list

Re: in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand

[RightwingNutjob]

There are enough regional variants and L2 speakers with accents from all over the world in the US and Canada alone to cover just about any place with any English in general use, I would surnise.

Re:

[dargaud]

That's because Oz or Nz accents are considered speech impediments. Well Cockney and Scotish will be next on the list I'm sure.

Re:

[smooth wombat]

Thank you. My first thought was Scottish. Then I thought about Welsh.

It would be interesting to see how it would handle Boomhauer [youtube.com] speech.

start with

[groobly]

start with every offshore csr.

Thank Zeus

[Snarky McButtface]

Will it help me get an Uber at closing time?

Anyone wearing a mask

[MDMurphy]

The qualification for "have difficulty being understood by others." would apply to any person talking with a mask these days.

This is Important

[loflo]

This app could drastically improve the lives of people with neurological conditions such as aphasia, Parkinsonâ(TM)s disease, ALS, etc. Making jokes about mask wearing and drunkenness as if theyâ(TM)re even in the same realm as these conditions that make it so difficult to communicate is asinine and demeaning to the actual point of this research.

Re:

[RhettLivingston]

Add to that some even more common situations like understanding people who have lost their teeth. I know several people who can't communicate by phone because the combination of accent, no teeth, and, in one case, throat cancer, make it impossible to understand them.

Another one that this beta doesn't cover is children. Talking with others, it seems common that kindergarten age kids are having trouble turning lights on and off in their homes or require their parents to trigger it ("ok google" seems to be tou

True Test

[Virtucon]

When it can recognize WTF my ex-wife is saying during a 2am drunk call, then I'll know it works.