Universal voice-enabled user interfaces using JavaScript

Abstract

Countless voice-enabled user interfaces rely on keyword spotting (KWS) systems for wake word detection and simple command recognition. As a practical matter, these applications run on edge devices, where dozens of different platforms exist; typically, platform-dependent implementation are required whenever keyword spotting capabilities are needed. This impedes the rapid deployment of voice-enabled interfaces. Fortunately, with the development of several recent frameworks, JavaScript enables us to deploy neural networks for keyword spotting to support a wide range of speech-based user interfaces. We present three voice-enabled applications that use a unified, JavaScript-based KWS system: an in-browser game, a desktop virtual assistant, and a smart lightbulb controller. We are, to the best of our knowledge, the first to demonstrate the feasibility of JavaScript-based keyword spotting for universal voice-enabled user interfaces.