Intel announced that it has released software under an open-source license that allows developers to build computers that see and “read lips” the way humans do, to better understand spoken commands. The lip-reading approach is immune to the inevitable inaccuracies that occur when speech recognition algorithms are employed in noisy environments such as public places. The software is released under the BSD open source license and currently supports systems running Linux, Windows 95/98/2000, and Windows NT/2000.

Combined with face detection algorithms from Intel's OpenCV computer vision library, the new Audio Visual Speech Recognition (AVSR) software reportedly lets computers detect a speaker's face and track their mouth movements. Adding video input data to conventional speech recognition technology results in much more accurate speech recognition, enhancing a wide variety of computer applications in noisy environments, Intel said.

“Intel wants to develop technology that allows computers to naturally interact with the world the way humans do. Human recognition is seldom based on a single type of information. We make decisions by combining information from a variety of sources,” commented Justin Rattner, a senior fellow with Intel's Enterprise Platform Group and director of Intel's Microprocessor Research Labs.

Intel noted that faster microprocessors, falling camera prices, and ten times more video capture bandwidth from technologies like USB2 are all enabling real-time computer vision algorithms to run on mainstream PC architectures. OpenCV is designed to increase innovation in this field by providing source code for a wide range of computer vision and imaging functions.

The AVSR software is part of Intel's OpenCV computer vision library, a toolbox of more than 500 imaging functions that helps researchers develop computer vision applications. The software includes C source code for all of the library's functionality and a royalty-free redistribution license. Since its release in 2000, OpenCV has seen over 500,000 downloads of code and has attracted more than 5,000 registered members to its user group, with applications reportedly ranging from toys to industrial manufacturing. Intel said.

Further information about AVSR can be found here, and details on OpenCV are here. Interested developers can join the OpenCV user group at groups.yahoo.com and can then subscribe by sending email to OpenCV.

 
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