????它是如何做到的呢？它的工作原理和Siri非常相似：通過(guò)從它所識(shí)別的語(yǔ)匯中獲取意義，然后參照一個(gè)醫(yī)療信息數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)，將其與病人的病史做比對(duì)。隨后，它會(huì)運(yùn)用統(tǒng)計(jì)推斷的方法，在其所發(fā)現(xiàn)的信息片段之間建立聯(lián)系，甚至為對(duì)癥治療給出建議。全美大約有45萬(wàn)名內(nèi)科醫(yī)生正在使用Nuance公司的軟件。佩特羅稱，這一技術(shù)的準(zhǔn)確率超過(guò)90%，而且還會(huì)隨著時(shí)間推移而不斷提高。顯然，這款軟件盈利前景良好，因此Nuance公司決定，將其第四財(cái)季的收入預(yù)期調(diào)高約1,000萬(wàn)美元。

????然而，研究人員對(duì)這一技術(shù)的未來(lái)抱有更大的希望。思凱普?里佐是南加州大學(xué)創(chuàng)新技術(shù)學(xué)院（the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies）的助理總監(jiān)。他正在開發(fā)一種互動(dòng)仿真技術(shù)，用以幫助退伍軍人針對(duì)創(chuàng)傷后緊張癥（post-traumatic stress disorder）尋求醫(yī)療咨詢服務(wù)。這款軟件名為SimCoach，它的最終目的是要設(shè)法理解人們口語(yǔ)背后的情緒狀態(tài)。里佐稱：“這是個(gè)十分巨大的挑戰(zhàn)。因?yàn)楸仨毑杉Z(yǔ)音模式，然后得像人類的大腦那樣對(duì)它們進(jìn)行分析?！崩镒舴Q，人類或許能察覺自己的好友或家人情緒異常，因?yàn)檫@時(shí)人們的語(yǔ)速往往會(huì)變慢，重音也更少，但電腦要捕捉這些信號(hào)可就相當(dāng)困難了。

????不過(guò)這個(gè)領(lǐng)域的有些研究卻能更快獲得成果，而不用再苦苦等待。去年春天，里佐的研究伙伴——麻省理工學(xué)院（MIT）教授阿歷克斯?彭特蘭在美國(guó)銀行（Bank of America）的呼叫中心開展了一項(xiàng)類似的語(yǔ)音推斷技術(shù)試驗(yàn)，旨在分析員工的溝通對(duì)業(yè)務(wù)成功的影響。彭特蘭讓員工連續(xù)六周在脖子上戴著小型電子設(shè)備，它們能記錄員工的實(shí)際位置以及身體語(yǔ)言和聲音。所記錄的數(shù)據(jù)能顯示這些員工是在和誰(shuí)溝通，他們站著時(shí)與溝通對(duì)象距離有多遠(yuǎn)，談話的語(yǔ)調(diào)如何。彭特蘭稱：“我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，效率最高的員工不光與大量對(duì)象交談，他們還與同樣表現(xiàn)出這種特點(diǎn)的同事交談?！苯Y(jié)果，他說(shuō)，只需要調(diào)整一下員工的茶歇時(shí)間，使這類員工之間的步調(diào)更為同步，這個(gè)呼叫中心每年就能節(jié)省1,500萬(wàn)美元。

????用戶現(xiàn)在對(duì)Siri的廣泛關(guān)注很可能將大大促進(jìn)這類研究,并進(jìn)一步推進(jìn)其應(yīng)用。里佐說(shuō)：“語(yǔ)音識(shí)別技術(shù)確實(shí)是技術(shù)領(lǐng)域至高無(wú)上的圣杯（holy grail）。我們已經(jīng)掌握了這項(xiàng)技術(shù)的90%，但剩下的10%要求攻克更多難關(guān)。一旦到了引爆點(diǎn)，我們將迎來(lái)一片十分廣闊的市場(chǎng)?！笨雌饋?lái)，這個(gè)引爆點(diǎn)很可能非Siri莫屬。

????譯者：清遠(yuǎn)

????How? Much like Siri, Nuance's application — which is being used by some 450,000 physicians across the country – extracts meaning from the words it recognizes, referencing a database of medical information and comparing that with the patient's history. It then uses statistical inference to establish a connection between the pieces of information it discovers, even making suggestions about treatment. Petro says the technology is more than 90% accurate and improves over time. It's certainly worked for the bottom line, so much so that Nuance decided to raise its fourth-quarter revenue projections by about $10 million.

????Researchers have even bigger hopes for the future. Skip Rizzo, associate director of the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, is working on an interactive simulation technology designed to help military veterans seek counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder. Dubbed SimCoach, the program will eventually attempt to read the emotion behind spoken words. "It's a big, big challenge. Because what you're doing is having to capture vocal patterns, then you're having to analyze them like a brain does," says Rizzo. While humans may be able to tell when something is wrong with a close friend or family member because their speech pattern is slower or has less emphasis, a computer can have a hard time picking up these signals, Rizzo says.

????Some research could bring results sooner, rather then later. Last spring, Rizzo's research partner, MIT Professor Alex Pentland, experimented with a similar voice inference technology at a Bank of America (BAC) call center, analyzing how employee communication affected the success of the business. Pentland had employees wear small electronic badges around their necks for six weeks that tracked their physical location and well as body language and voice. The data showed who a person interacted with, how close they were standing to them and the tone of their conversation. "We found that the most productive people were the people that not only talked to lots of people but they talked to co-workers that similarly talked to a lot of people," Pentland says. Simply by changing the employee's coffee break schedule to better coincide with one another, he says the call center would be able to save $15 million a year.

????The attention consumers are paying to Siri is likely to benefit such research — and push adoption further. "Voice recognition is really the holy grail to technology," Rizzo says. "We're 90% there, but that last 10% is a lot further to handle. And when the tipping point is reached, it's going to be a giant market." It looks like Siri, may very well be that tipping point.