Tuesday, March 19, 2024
NewsScots man has Bluetooth battle with voice recognition device-Viral Video News Scotland

Scots man has Bluetooth battle with voice recognition device-Viral Video News Scotland

A HILARIOUS video shows a Scot battling to get the Bluetooth system in his car to recognise the word “pair”.

Martin Kane only succeeds in turning the air blue as he tries to get his mobile to link up with the system in his Vauxhall car.

The 29-year-old from Glasgow tries pronouncing the word “pair” in different ways before finally succeeding.

The clip is the latest in a series of videos showing how many Scots struggle to get voice recognition systems to recognise their accents.

Martin is told by the disembodied female voice that “you can say, pair, select device, feedback, help or cancel”.

When the system fails to recognise his pronunciation of “pair” he keeps yelling: “I f****** said, ‘Pair’!”

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS EXPLETIVES

After 45 seconds, when the system finally understands, and asks him if wants to add or delete a device, he celebrates, shouting “Yes!”

However, the system again has trouble, and does not understand his pronunciation of the phrase “add a device”.

When he eventually gets it right, at the end of the 70-second clip, he makes a long drawn out “Yaaaaaaasss” sound in celebration.

Speaking about the video, Martin said: “I was trying to pair my mobile phone but I don’t think it can understand the Glaswegian accent.

“I think manufacturers needs to get Google chat because that works a lot better.”

Many Facebook users reacted with delight to Martin’s video.

Lorraine Kane said: “Viral for sure”.

Martin Kane- Viral Video News Scotland
Martin Kane

Ibrahim Shakor mocked Martin, writing: “You should go to college learning more English.”

Davie Hart imitated Martin’s voice in the video, writing: “Ppppaaaaiiirrr”.

Nils Lenke, Senior Director Corporate Research with US-based computer software company Nuance Communications, explained the reason for the trend.

Mr Lenke said: “Speech recognition software is often based on machine learning. The manufacturer show the machine examples, and it learns how they speak.

“Now as part of the larger pool of UK speakers, there will be Scottish speakers, and speakers from other dialects.

“But many people use dialect differently in different settings, which can create a mismatch between the collection [used to train the system] and the experience. Speech recognition is only as good as the training system is.

“Also, as we see in the video, often when you are not understood, then you start shouting and speaking more slowly. This actually makes it harder, as the system’s training is based on normal volume and normal speed.

“This was perhaps an older system, as more modern systems should adapt to the speaker.”

The incident is the most recent in a spate of videos showing Scots having problems with voice recognition software.

Last month, a video of Glasgow man Paul Lees went viral when the voice command system in his Ford S-Max failed to understand his brogue.

Lees, 43, became an internet sensation when his wife Frances-anne captured the hysterical difficulties her husband experienced whilst trying to call a local garage about his Mini Cooper.

The car’s system flatly refused to “understand” Paul’s pronounciation of “Re-nu-it”.

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