Key takeaways
- Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology is increasingly utilised by organisations to streamline tasks such as document creation and device control.
- Amazon Transcribe offers features like timestamp generation and multiple speaker recognition for efficient transcription and archiving.
- Apple Dictation allows users to convert spoken words into text and includes formatting commands for ease of editing.
- Google Cloud Speech-to-Text leverages advanced neural network models to facilitate real-time audio transcription and voice command functionalities.
Speech recognition is the process of decoding human voices and is a part of machine learning. Organisations are implementing Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology to create documents without touching the keyboard, controlling devices, and other similar tasks. In this article, we list down 10 speech-to-text services which can be used for various applications.
(The list is in alphabetical order)
1| Amazon Transcribe
Amazon Transcribe is an Automatic Speech recognition (ASR) service which converts speech to text quickly. The features of this service include easy-to-read transcriptions, streaming transcription, timestamp generation, custom vocabulary, multiple speaker recognition, and channel identification. This service can be used to transcribe various speech-related tasks such as customer service calls, automate closed captioning and subtitling as well as generate metadata for media assets to create a fully searchable archive.
2| Apple Dictation
Apple has an in-built Dictation feature which converts any spoken words into text. One can also format or edit as needed in the text by using simple commands like "new paragraph" or "select previous word." One can dictate continuously when the cursor is in a document, email message, text message, or other text fields.
3| Google Cloud Speech-to-Text
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text enables developers to convert audio to text by applying powerful neural network models in an easy-to-use API. The service can process real-time streaming or prerecorded audio by using the tech giant’s machine learning technology. With the help of this service, one can enable voice command-and-control, transcribe audio from call centres, and much more.
4| Google Docs Voice Typing
Google Docs Voice Typing is a speech-to-text feature which is only available in Chrome browsers. Using a microphone, one can easily speak for speech to text dictation as well as pause and resume when needed. It is an easy to use voice recognition service and very convenient to the users.
5| IBM Watson Speech to Text API
IBM Watson Speech to Text service provides an API to add speech transcription capabilities to applications. It combines information about language structure with the composition of the audio signal. This service automatically transcribes audio from 7 languages in real-time and has the ability to rapidly identify and transcribe what is being discussed, regardless of lower quality audio. The IBM Watson Speech to Text service uses speech recognition capabilities to convert Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, German, and Mandarin speech into text.
6| Microsoft Azure Speech to Text
The Speech-to-text from Azure Speech Services enables real-time transcription of audio streams into text that the applications, tools, or devices can consume, display, and take action on as command input. By default, the speech-to-text service uses the Universal language model and is powered by the same recognition technology that Microsoft uses for Cortana and Office products.
7| Speechmatics
Tech company, Speechmatics used its decades of machine learning and research expertise to develop Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). This service can be used for real-time or pre-recorded audio and video files and helps the customers across a variety of industries to accurately understand and transcribe spoken words. This service is available in private or public clouds and securely on-premises.
8| Speechnotes
Speechnotes is a free and online speech-to-text notepad which is built by using cutting-edge speech-recognition technology for the most accurate results. It is a powerful speech-enabled online notepad which lets a user move from voice-typing (dictation) to key-typing seamlessly.
9| Twilio Speech Recognition
Twilio adds Google’s speech recognition to its voice platform in order to build Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) which easily converts speech to text as well as analyse the intent of the speech during a voice call. Currently, this service has the ability to recognise 119 languages and dialects in order to support global user base.
10| VoxSigma AP
VoxSigma is a suite of language-specific speech recognition software offered by Vocapia Research. It offers large vocabulary speech-to-text capabilities in many languages and has been designed for professional users in both batch mode and real-time.
