Researchers find face masks have no 'significant' effect on speech recognition accuracy

Can face masks affect the accuracy of automatic speech recognition systems? That's the question researchers at the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the nonprofit assessment organization headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, sought to answer in a study published this week. Drawing on recordings from ETS' English language proficiency test, for which exam-takers were required to wear face masks, they found that while differences between the recordings and no-mask baselines existed, they didn't lead to "significant" variations in scores. The pandemic has led to a dramatic increase in the use of face masks worldwide, with 65% of U.S. adults saying they wore a mask in stores during the month of May, according to the Pew Research Center. This has potential implications for the speech algorithms underpinning smart speakers, smart displays, mobile apps, and indeed automated language proficiency tests. Face coverings come in all sizes and thicknesses and can impact a wearer's speech patterns, for example by distorting the sound of a person's speech or by greatly attenuating it.