Opening doors, operating the soap dispenser, flushing the toilet - what is a simple everyday task for most people is a real challenge for the visually impaired. Especially when traveling, orientation aids are more important than ever for them in unfamiliar surroundings.
The Hochschule Niederrhein has developed a voice control system for a wet room in a train - commissioned by Siemens Mobility GmbH. At the university's own Institute of Pattern Recognition (iPattern), a hardware and a speech dialog system were developed, which were intensively tested and further developed in an exemplary cell in the Siemens laboratory in Krefeld-Linn. In the end, the voice control system in the cell was subjected to a real endurance test at the InnoTrans trade fair in Berlin.
For this purpose, the wet cell was equipped with devices such as a nano-computer, buzzers and microphones. Various terms - in English because of the international trade show audience - were collected and stored in advance for the voice control of devices. For example, if a train passenger wants to wash his hands, he simply says "I need soap" - and the soap dispenser is activated. With "water," water runs out of the faucet into the sink. Buzzers or buzzers emit sounds so that the visually impaired know where they need to go. Microphones, also on the outside, enable people with disabilities to open the door themselves. In addition, passengers can use the command "I need help" to make an emergency call from inside the cell.
Because of the noise level, the trade fair was a good test run to check the robustness of the system. "A loud trade fair scenario with a babble of voices as a disturbance in the background is one of the worst things you can imagine for the use of a speech recognition system," says institute director Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günter Hirsch.
According to Siemens, the voice control system was very well received at the trade show. So well, in fact, that in addition to Deutsche Bahn, other rail companies from Switzerland, France and South Korea have also shown strong interest in the system. Siemens now wants to tackle product development - and continue working with the university to integrate voice control and speech recognition.
Note: This text is taken from the press release of the Niederrein University of Applied Sciences from 02.12.2022.
