Researchers engage with phone misery

IT is a constant source of frustration for anyone trying to do a spot of telephone banking or book a cinema ticket.

But the days of doing battle with a voice-recognition computer may soon be at an end, thanks to Edinburgh University researchers.

They have pinpointed why the high-tech systems are unable to understand certain words.

The study found that computers are regularly flummoxed by human speech when it is peppered with "umms" and "errs", while men are more likely to be the victim of an unsuccessful conversation with technology.

The first word spoken in a phrase is also hard to understand for computers, according to the university, because the machine is unable to put it into the right context. The fact that most people inhale before speaking can also confuse computers.

Dr Sharon Goldwater, of the university's school of informatics, led the research. She said the wide range of accents and pitches made it difficult to create a machine to perfectly understand all voices.