The voice technology industry has grown at a fast clip in the past few years. More and more consumers and brands are becoming attuned to the benefits of having conversational transactions of information easily accessible and connected to their devices.
According to Adobe, sales of voice assistant platforms, such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, doubled in 2017, compared to the same period in 2016. Sales from these technologies also grew 103% in that period.
The role of voice technology in construction is also gaining traction. MST Global is a global organisation with headquarters in Sydney. The company provides fit for purpose hardware and software solutions to support productivity and safety processes in underground mines and tunnels, including the support of mine and tunnel communication.
We spoke with MST Global’s CEO, Haydn Roberts, on the burgeoning role of voice technology on construction sites.
A Unified Approach
According to Roberts, voice communications have long been a staple for construction sites due to their crucial contribution to safety and productivity.
“Today, the infrastructure required to deliver voice communications can also deliver digital benefits.”
“Most sites will have some form of voice communications to ensure a safe and productive environment. Today, the infrastructure required to deliver voice communications can also deliver digital benefits, such as machine monitoring and telemetry, which means unified communications. This allows more benefits to be realised,” Roberts says.
Digital voice communications can have a huge impact on the level of efficiency on jobsites. Roberts notes that it should be standard practice to install some form of voice communications.
“Best practice is a unified digital communications infrastructure with a digital voice,” he says. “This type of solution opens up the benefits of digitisation including the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data.”
The ultimate benefit of these technologies is that they can improve safety and productivity. They ensure people, sensors, and machinery are connected and communicating in real time.
From Analogue to Digital
A large part of the voice technology industry involves the use of voice-controlled virtual assistants, using AI to power products, such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. MST Global believes these key advancements to digital voice are one of the core functions of voice.
“We’re also using voice recognition algorithms for real-time decision making.”
“Moving from analogue to digital in voice technology allows voice communication to be captured as a digital signal in real time,” Roberts says. “In this form, it can be used by voice recognition algorithms for real-time decision making.”
Voice technology has a chance to become especially predominant on remote construction sites, as contractors are often required to set up isolated, temporary worksites. This tech may lend itself to the productivity, safety, and morale of such remote jobsites.
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