Google Patents Tech For Helping You Pronounce Places Right

Google has just recently been awarded a patent for new tech that will dish up the correct pronunciation for "place" names, something that could make the frequent traveler's life a bit easier. The patent just recently surfaced on the USPTO's website and was granted on February 3, and in it Google details a new twist of technology that will take audio clips of a specific place being pronounced by those from the region, then use that to form audio suggestions aiding searchers in saying it correctly.

The technology would prove invaluable to travelers who mightn't otherwise be sure of how something is pronounced. The patent points to "Worcester" as an (excellent) example, as the place name is found in the UK, in several places in the United States, and in South Africa — and no two regions pronounce it the same as the others, meaning you might get it wrong abroad even if you get it right at home.

This is why using audio clips from real live people is necessary — it'll allow Google to pinpoint the specific pronunciation of a specific region regardless of whether that name is present elsewhere. Of course, the functionality would also be useful elsewhere — when you're researching a place and want to know how it is pronounced, for example, or when you move to a new city with odd names.

In a perfect world we'd be seeing this tech show up in Google Maps, but alas that is not a guarantee. Technologies are patented all the time that never make their way into any sort of final product, and there's nothing official from Google saying that it actually plans to do anything with this.

SOURCE: Quartz