SBB app understands Swiss German
The timetable information in the SBB app now also understands Swiss German. "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-based applications have not been able to understand, let alone process, voice input in Swiss German. The speech analysis solution developed in-house by Spitch AG 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, analyses and understands verbal input in real time, and 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 makes typing or swiping superfluous. The speech analysis solution from Spitch AG 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 appIn order to test its use extensively, SBB has decided to launch the voice features first in the preview app, which 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 continuously improve the recognition rate. If the function is actively used during these six months, 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 stage, it is also conceivable that a ticket can be purchased directly via voice recognition.Stephan Fehlmann, Business Development Manager Spitch AG, explains: "This project illustrates very well how much our Swiss dialects differ from standard German. Depending on the region and even the residential area, place names are pronounced very differently and therefore cannot be understood by a general, standard German language solution."
