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NEC is concentrating on research and development in
the field of speech recognition technology. This field
has the potential to play a key role in realizing NEC’s
vision for working “to help advance societies worldwide
toward deepened mutual understanding and the fulfill-
ment of human potential.”
Speech recognition technology is used to convert
speech into text on a computer. NEC has pursued
research in this field since 1960, where it has continu-
ously maintained world-class technological capabilities
over half a century.
Currently, NEC is actively pressing ahead with the
commercialization of speech recognition technology. In
fact, NEC has introduced many different products and
services employing this technology. In 2005, NEC
developed the CSVIEW/VisualVoice speech recognition
software. For customer call centers, CSVIEW/Visual-
Voice helps call operators and supervisors perform
their duties more efficiently, helping to realize an
enhanced quality of customer service. CSVIEW/Visual-
Voice is also currently in service within the NEC Group
and is being used at prefectural police headquarters in
Japan and at other institutions. In 2005, NEC also
launched VoiceDo/HT, a PDA-type handheld speech
recognition device that can be used even in noisy
environments such as subway cars. VoiceDo/HT
reduces workloads in the field and at other worksites by
replacing the manual entry of information with speech
input, and is currently being used at Toyama Prefecture
meat inspection stations and auction sites, among
other locations.
In 2007, NEC unveiled the VoiceGraphy system for
supporting the preparation of minutes of assembly
meetings and lecture presentations. VoiceGraphy has
been adopted by quite a few local governments and
enterprises, including the Aichi Prefectural Assembly
and the Obama City Council.
From the current fiscal year, NEC has begun offering
a support service for preparing minutes of meetings as
Japan’s first SaaS-type speech recognition service. This
service has already been adopted by dozens of compa-
nies in Japan (as of June 30, 2009), including Toray
Industries, Inc., Tokyu Corporation and Ricoh Co., Ltd.
for use at general shareholders’ meetings and lecture
presentations. Going forward, NEC will work to expand
service menus to drive further growth in this market.
NEC’s Central Research Laboratories is developing
the technology needed to enable speech recognition
systems to be used in picking up conversations in varied
situations, with the view to expanding the range of appli-
cation fields. For example, research is focused on devel-
oping technology that can recognize the speech content
of multiple speakers talking at once in situations like
internal corporate meetings. Another goal is to develop
speech recognition technologies that respond more
flexibly to a variety of topics. This will be done by
enabling these systems to switch the dictionaries they
use to recognize speech to those that better match the
topic of conversation, especially when conversations
stray from the main topic or jump to different topics.
NEC believes speech recognition technology will play
a central role in achieving the innovation needed to
“realize an information society friendly to humans and
the earth.” NEC thus remains committed to pursuing
R&D activities in this field.
DRIVING INNOVATION IN COMMUNICATION FOR
ENTERPRISES AND SOCIETY USING SPEECH
RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY
IMAGE OF SaaS-TYPE SPEECH RECOGNITION
SERVICE FOR PREPARING MINUTES OF MEETINGS
23
NEC CORPORATION
Annual Report 2009