The innovation proposed by Advanced Creations, inc.(ACi) is to provide a generic hands-free interface for general aviation avionics systems. ACi will analyze the impact of aircraft vibration, ambient noise levels, stress, G forces and atmospheric pressure changes on the accuracy of speech recognition algorithms, developing the basis for an innovative speech interface that will be low cost, highly noise immune, and capable of high level word command recognition. The ACi development will leverage the extensive speech recognition research funded by the banking community, Wright Patterson AFB, and others, coupled with advanced headphone/microphone technology research being performed by the cellular phone industry, and the cockpit research performed by the military. While tremendous speech recognition progress has been made, the existing research has focused on rather benign environments when compared to the cockpit. Incorporation of solutions for reducing the effects of ambient noise through integrated microphone/ headphones will be vital to program success. We will utilize the research results from various Air Force and military research programs via a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement already in place. The interface redundancy offered by the proposed system will ensure that performance and safety levels in general aviation cockpits increase significantly.
