BANGKOK, Dec. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Chula Engineering professors have designed "Gowajee", a Thai-language speech recognition AI with the accuracy of a native speaker that keeps users' data secure – now rolled out in call centers, and being used for depression patients screening.

We are familiar with using voice commands for AIs like Google or Siri, but Thai speakers may be weary of the AIs not understanding their diction, or pronunciation thus rendering the wrong transcription.

Realizing this problem, a team led by Dr. Ekapol Chuangsuwanich of Chula Computer Engineering has developed "Gowajee" a Thai speech-recognition AI that understands and executes commands in the Thai language more naturally and accurately.  Actual usage has shown only a 9% incidence of linguistic inaccuracy compared to 15% for other language-recognition AIs.

The name Gowajee derives from the word 'Go' and 'Wajee' which means words.  The word is designed as a command similar to 'OK Google' or 'Hey Siri'.  The word Gowajee was designed in such a way as not to replicate any other word being used in the Thai language.  

The compilation of a Thai sound database was started in 2017 and has been able to acquire five thousand hours of data that the team believes is big enough to transcribe Thai accurately.  The AI has 3 main features:

1. Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) which turns speech into text. 
2. Text-to-Speech (TTS) works by transcribing a passage into spoken words.
3. Automatic Speaker Verification (ASV) is an identity verification through sound 

Gowajee has been used by various agencies, like universities, and the public and private sectors, especially at call centers offering users high satisfaction.

Gowajee has also been used in the DMIND system for screening patients with depression. Though the emotional contexts proved challenging, Gowajee performed well in decoding emotional cues.   

Gowajee and AI technology can be used in many other contexts such as dental clinics, detection of stroke risk in patients with slurred speech, life coaching, and aids for the hard of hearing.

"Data safety" is another advantage of Gowajee as all the data is stored on the user's database ensuring its safety, which is useful for organizations like banks which need high data security." 

Continue reading at https://www.chula.ac.th/en/highlight/92645/

For more information and a trial of Gowajee, please visit https://www.gowajee.ai/.

Media Contact:

Chulalongkorn University Communication Center

Email: Pataraporn.r@chula.ac.th