Speech Genie
Speech Genie
With the Speech Genie project we are beginning by integrating important parts of the Kungfu English system with the work of John Ball, so that learners will be able to speak to their device and get a meaningful (and accurate) response. Initially learners will be manipulating materials and symbols in a two-dimensional screen space. They will respond with actions to commands and statements from their speech avatar, and they will use their speech to command their avatar to complete tasks that require the language elements which they are learning.
This, of course, is just a start. As the language range of the digital avatar grows over time more and more complex actions and interactions will be possible. Within a few years we will be able to immerse learners into 3D virtual environments using VR technologies that are becoming more powerful by the day.
As technology progresses, we may even find ourselves in a position where we can build Star-Trek-like “holodecks” where learners have full physical immersion while interacting with their Speech Genie avatar and literally manipulating all aspects of their environment as if they were physically there!
With each week that goes by with learners interacting with Speech Genie, as we deepen the language system to support more and richer communication by the learner, the digital avatar will also be acquiring more and more language to handle an increasing number of real-world contexts.
Not too far in the future, learners will be able to go into their VR world and have real spoken interactions to eat at a restaurant, handle banking transactions, instruct their home robot to prepare a meal, and many other real-life and fun scenarios.
At that point, the language that has been “hardened” through the language learning process will also be available for distribution to real world robotic and digital interaction environments, from online banking to robots in restaurants, to even more complex situations requiring accurate language interactions between people and machines.
Speech Genie