<s>
Voice	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
is	O
the	O
discipline	O
that	O
develops	O
hardware	O
or	O
software	O
to	O
process	O
voice	O
inputs	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
spans	O
many	O
other	O
fields	O
including	O
human-computer	O
interaction	O
,	O
conversational	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
,	O
linguistics	O
,	O
natural	B-Language
language	I-Language
processing	I-Language
,	O
automatic	B-Application
speech	I-Application
recognition	I-Application
,	O
speech	B-Application
synthesis	I-Application
,	O
audio	O
engineering	O
,	O
digital	B-General_Concept
signal	I-General_Concept
processing	I-General_Concept
,	O
cloud	B-Architecture
computing	I-Architecture
,	O
data	O
science	O
,	O
ethics	O
,	O
law	O
,	O
and	O
information	O
security	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Voice	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
has	O
become	O
increasingly	O
significant	O
in	O
modern	O
times	O
,	O
especially	O
with	O
the	O
advent	O
of	O
smart	B-Device
speakers	I-Device
like	O
the	O
Amazon	B-Device
Echo	I-Device
and	O
Google	B-Application
Assistant	I-Application
,	O
a	O
shift	O
towards	O
serverless	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
,	O
and	O
improved	O
accuracy	O
of	O
speech	B-Application
recognition	I-Application
and	O
text-to-speech	B-Application
models	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Voice	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
has	O
a	O
rich	O
history	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
the	O
1950s-1960s	O
there	O
were	O
primitive	O
attempts	O
to	O
build	O
automated	B-Application
speech	I-Application
recognition	I-Application
systems	O
by	O
Bell	O
Labs	O
,	O
IBM	O
,	O
and	O
others	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
However	O
,	O
it	O
was	O
not	O
until	O
the	O
1980s	O
that	O
Hidden	O
Markov	O
Models	O
were	O
used	O
to	O
recognize	O
up	O
to	O
1,000	O
words	O
that	O
speech	B-Application
recognition	I-Application
systems	O
became	O
relevant	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
1962	O
IBM	B-General_Concept
Shoebox	I-General_Concept
can	O
recognize	O
up	O
to	O
16	O
words	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
2008	O
Google	B-Application
launches	O
a	O
voice	O
application	O
,	O
bring	O
speech	B-Application
recognition	I-Application
to	O
mobile	O
devices	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
2011	O
Apple	O
releases	O
Siri	B-Application
on	O
iPhone	O
2014	O
Amazon	B-Application
releases	O
Amazon	B-Device
Echo	I-Device
to	O
make	O
voice	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
relevant	O
to	O
the	O
public	O
at	O
large	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Around	O
2011	O
,	O
Siri	B-Application
emerged	O
on	O
Apple	O
iPhones	O
as	O
the	O
first	O
voice	O
assistant	O
accessible	O
to	O
consumers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
PS4	B-Operating_System
was	O
released	O
by	O
Sony	O
in	O
North	O
America	O
in	O
2013	O
(	O
70+	O
million	O
devices	O
)	O
,	O
Amazon	B-Application
released	O
the	O
Amazon	B-Device
Echo	I-Device
in	O
2014	O
(	O
30+	O
million	O
devices	O
)	O
,	O
Microsoft	O
released	O
Cortana	O
(	O
2015	O
-	O
400	O
million	O
Windows	O
10	O
users	O
)	O
,	O
Google	B-Application
released	O
Google	B-Application
Assistant	I-Application
(	O
2016	O
-	O
2	O
billion	O
active	O
monthly	O
users	O
on	O
Android	O
phones	O
)	O
,	O
and	O
Apple	O
released	O
HomePod	B-Device
(	O
2018	O
-	O
500,000	O
devices	O
sold	O
and	O
1	O
billion	O
devices	O
active	O
with	O
iOS/Siri	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Amazon	B-Application
Web	I-Application
Services	I-Application
)	O
and	O
codecs	B-General_Concept
,	O
have	O
solidified	O
the	O
voice	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
field	O
and	O
made	O
it	O
widely	O
relevant	O
to	O
the	O
public	O
at	O
large	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Note	O
that	O
voice	O
computers	O
do	O
not	O
necessarily	O
need	O
a	O
screen	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
in	O
the	O
traditional	O
Amazon	B-Device
Echo	I-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
other	O
embodiments	O
,	O
traditional	O
laptop	B-Device
computers	I-Device
or	O
mobile	O
phones	O
could	O
be	O
used	O
as	O
voice	O
computers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Moreover	O
,	O
there	O
has	O
become	O
increasingly	O
more	O
interfaces	O
for	O
voice	O
computers	O
with	O
the	O
advent	O
of	O
IoT-enabled	O
devices	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
within	O
cars	O
or	O
televisions	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
of	O
September	O
2018	O
,	O
there	O
are	O
currently	O
over	O
20,000	O
types	O
of	O
devices	O
compatible	O
with	O
Amazon	B-Application
Alexa	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Voice	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
software	O
can	O
read/write	O
,	O
record	O
,	O
clean	O
,	O
encrypt/decrypt	O
,	O
playback	O
,	O
transcode	B-Algorithm
,	O
transcribe	O
,	O
compress	O
,	O
publish	O
,	O
featurize	O
,	O
model	O
,	O
and	O
visualize	O
voice	O
files	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Here	O
are	O
some	O
popular	O
software	O
packages	O
related	O
to	O
voice	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
:	O
</s>
<s>
Package	O
Name	O
Description	O
FFmpeg	B-Library
for	O
transcoding	B-Algorithm
audio	O
files	O
from	O
one	O
format	O
to	O
another	O
(	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
.WAV	O
-->	O
.MP3	O
)	O
.FFmpeg	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
https://www.ffmpeg.org/	O
Audacity	B-Language
for	O
recording	O
and	O
filtering	O
audio.Audacity	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
https://www.audacityteam.org/	O
SoX	B-Operating_System
for	O
manipulating	O
audio	O
files	O
and	O
removing	O
environmental	O
noise.SoX	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
http://sox.sourceforge.net/	O
Natural	B-General_Concept
Language	I-General_Concept
Toolkit	I-General_Concept
for	O
featurizing	O
transcripts	O
with	O
things	O
like	O
parts	O
of	O
speech.NLTK	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
https://www.nltk.org/	O
LibROSA	O
for	O
visualizing	O
audio	O
file	O
spectrograms	O
and	O
featurizing	O
audio	O
files.LibROSA	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
https://librosa.github.io/librosa/	O
OpenSMILE	B-Application
for	O
featurizing	O
audio	O
files	O
with	O
things	O
like	O
mel-frequency	O
cepstrum	O
coefficients.OpenSMILE	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
https://www.audeering.com/technology/opensmile/	O
CMU	B-General_Concept
Sphinx	I-General_Concept
for	O
transcribing	O
speech	O
files	O
into	O
text	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Pyttsx3	O
for	O
playing	O
back	O
audio	O
files	O
(	O
text-to-speech	B-Application
)	O
.Pyttsx3	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
https://github.com/nateshmbhat/pyttsx3	O
Pycryptodome	O
for	O
encrypting	O
and	O
decrypting	O
audio	O
files.Pycryptodome	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Voice	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
applications	O
span	O
many	O
industries	O
including	O
voice	O
assistants	O
,	O
healthcare	O
,	O
e-Commerce	O
,	O
finance	O
,	O
supply	O
chain	O
,	O
agriculture	O
,	O
text-to-speech	B-Application
,	O
security	O
,	O
marketing	O
,	O
customer	O
support	O
,	O
recruiting	O
,	O
cloud	B-Architecture
computing	I-Architecture
,	O
microphones	O
,	O
speakers	O
,	O
and	O
podcasting	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
an	O
increasing	O
number	O
of	O
minors	O
interacting	O
with	O
voice	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
devices	O
(	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
the	O
Amazon	B-Application
Alexa	O
)	O
,	O
on	O
October	O
23	O
,	O
2017	O
the	O
Federal	O
Trade	O
Commission	O
relaxed	O
the	O
COPAA	O
rule	O
so	O
that	O
children	O
can	O
issue	O
voice	O
searches	O
and	O
commands	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Lastly	O
,	O
GDPR	O
is	O
a	O
new	O
European	O
law	O
that	O
governs	O
the	B-Application
right	I-Application
to	I-Application
be	I-Application
forgotten	I-Application
and	O
many	O
other	O
clauses	O
for	O
EU	O
citizens	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
are	O
many	O
research	O
conferences	O
that	O
relate	O
to	O
voice	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Google	B-Application
Assistant	I-Application
has	O
roughly	O
2,000	O
actions	O
as	O
of	O
January	O
2018	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
June	O
2017	O
,	O
Google	B-Application
released	O
AudioSet	O
,	O
a	O
large-scale	O
collection	O
of	O
human-labeled	O
10-second	O
sound	O
clips	O
drawn	O
from	O
YouTube	O
videos	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
November	O
2017	O
,	O
Mozilla	B-Operating_System
Foundation	I-Operating_System
released	O
the	O
Common	O
Voice	O
Project	O
,	O
a	O
collection	O
of	O
speech	O
files	O
to	O
help	O
contribute	O
to	O
the	O
larger	O
open	O
source	O
machine	O
learning	O
community	O
.	O
</s>
