Need another reason for getting VR? Mondly seems to think so. How about learning new languages with them?
ATi Studios, creators of Mondly, releases the first VR app for learning language by marrying AI based chatbots with speech recognition in VR platforms.
Learning Languages VR by Mondly does exactly what it says on the tin. You learn languages through lifelike conversations with virtual characters, in 28 languages, without needing to travel to any of those countries. The app offers instant feedback on pronunciation, suggestions to build your vocabulary and fun surprises – making learning less dreary.
Mondly’s conversational voice chatbot for language learning was first released in August 2016. It uses advanced speech recognition that understands millions of phrases and words in 28 different languages. Since its release, Mondly claims there is over 15 million downloads and the AI has learned millions of new phrases and responses, as the chatbot has self-learning technology.
To bridge together chatbot, speech recognition, and VR; the company had to develop a new automatic voice detection system. Alexandru Iliescu, the CEO and co-founder of ATi Studios, spoke about the challenges involved with creating Mondly VR:
“The toughest challenge was to make the speech interaction feel natural in VR….traditional speech interaction models that require a tap or a voice command to enable speech recognition would kill the flow of the experience. So we developed our own automatic voice detection system. It calibrates to the room’s background noise, and it ignores unintentional sounds.”
The first version of the VR app will be available on Oculus and offers three scenes and 28 languages to explore:
- The Restaurant – Practice ordering food and drinks in a small bistro.
- The Eurotrain – Have a conversation and make new friends on a train in Europe.
- The Hotel – Check into a boutique hotel and score a room with a view.
Mondly learnt the usage patterns of the 15 million users they’ve had, and incorporated elements within the VR based on what users actually need to effectively learn a new language, which is instant feedback and an immersive, real-world experience to build their confidence.
“Fluency in a language is not how many words you know, but how well you communicate with the words you do,” said Iliescu.
Full list of languages: British English, American English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Romanian, Greek, Portuguese, Arabic, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finish, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and Thai.
