Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (1888PressRelease)
May 16, 2008 - The Dansk Handicap Forbund, today joins forces with SDI Media Group, the world’s leading multimedia localization company, to bring speech recognition technology in Danish to a whole new level. This collaboration will present Danes with an innovative way to participate in this socially relevant technological advancement.
Rewarded cooperation
Over 2000 male and female voice samples are necessary to adapt this technology to the Danish language and all of its dialects. The collection of voice data recordings is done over the phone and people interested in participating can sign up at www.tagordet.com. If eligible, each participant will be asked to place two calls to one of the provided toll free numbers. Participants who successfully complete the two calls will be awarded 200KR which they can choose to donate to the Dansk Handicap Forbund, one of the most proactive and respected non-profit organizations in the country.
“We are hoping for as many people as possible to participate as we really need their support. People with disabilities play an important role in the global and local development of our societies, but without this technology our options are very limited,” said Stig Langvad, Formand at Dansk Handicap Forbund. “Speech recognition technology will be my hands, my legs, my autonomy in this world.”
Speech recognition technology converts spoken words into computer commands. “This exciting technology with applications in a wide range of fields, from job training to health care, will be pivotal in the lives of people with certain disabilities as it empowers users to interact with computer systems by voice alone,” said Brad Crystal, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Corporate Multimedia for SDI Media Group.
“We are facing a big challenge as we only have one month to produce the 2000 voice samples, but Danes are very engaged with their community and I am confident that by the end of May we will have met our goal,” said Crystal. “By becoming an active participant in the development of this technology, you will be doing something that not only benefits you as an individual, but also has a positive impact on society.”
Susanne Olsen, Chairwoman, Dansk Handicap Forbund, said: “For many years, considerable effort has been made to develop this technology for English-language use. However, development for the Danish language has not been as extensive. This project will play a significant part in addressing that imbalance, with the goal of enabling Danish users to experience new ways of interacting with technology.”
For more information about this project, visit the website at www.tagordet.com
