Thanks to Spitch, the SBB timetable now understands "Schwiizerdütsch".
SBB is adding a timetable to its mobile app on Tuesday that allows users to communicate in dialect. In a six-month pilot project, preview app users can make connection queries via voice input in their dialect.
"Vo Züri HB uf Bärn Bümpliz" - SBB customers can now request timetable information verbally in the preview version of the mobile app. Until now, voice service-bound applications could not understand, let alone process, voice input in Swiss German. The in-house developed speech analysis solution from the company Spitch understands dialect and is now implemented in the preview version of the SBB Mobile App. Spitch speech analysis is based on a self-learning technology that recognizes, analyzes and understands verbal input in real time.
The connection query via voice input in Swiss German makes it possible for app users to get their timetable information with a simple "from A to B". This is convenient and very fast - voice input eliminates the need for typing or swiping. Spitch's speech analysis solution currently understands around 18,000 stations in the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. Further expansion to the other language cantons is in progress.
Six-month test phase with preview app
In order to test its use extensively, SBB has decided to launch the voice features first in the Preview appwhich is available free of charge from today in the App Store and Google Play. For six months, users can give their feedback on the functionality in order to constantly improve the recognition rate. If the function is used actively during these six months, the voice input will also be launched in French, Italian and English. Other input patterns will also be added, such as "Zurich-Bern", "Zurich-Bern via Lenzburg", "last train from Zurich to Bern", etc. At a later date, it is also conceivable that a ticket can be purchased directly via voice recognition.
Stephan Fehlmann, Business Development Manager Spitch, explains: "This project illustrates very well how strongly our Swiss dialects differ from High German. Depending on the region and even area of residence, place names are pronounced quite differently and therefore cannot be understood by a general, High German language solution."
