The University of Edinburgh has conducted a new study into speech recognition systems and how speech and computers interact. The study found that speech recognition systems have more difficulty understanding men than women, they have trouble understanding the first word of sentences and that certain things can cause speech recognition systems to error.

According to the University researchers, men use what is known as fillers such as ‘umm’ and ‘errr’ much more than women which is why men find it harder to be understood by computers. The researchers also found that not pronouncing words properly hindered understanding as did using similar sounding words in similar contexts such ‘I told him’ and ‘I told them.’ Let’s hope the researchers also found a way around these problems!