True voice recognition in most of our electronic tools would be a significant step forward. Google seem to be making the largest strides here which is a pity in a way as we don’t really want to simply replace Microsoft with a similar behemoth but have many, competing, largish companies.
I do see voice being key myself. It’s the way of the future. Let’s face it Star Trek wouldn’t be the same without it and we have all grown up with the thought that it would be here soon.
So what has been keeping it? Well simply put us. We all talk differently and not just accents and the systems need to be trained to our voice. We have to say lists of words until the system understands us. This puts most of us off and I can still remember the frustration with the 1st gen word recognition programs. Much quicker to type even with one finger. It has improved a lot but still has hiccups over a few words. So who would put critical equipment under control that may be misinterpreted when typing can ensure it is correct.
That is why it is mainly used for word processing and input by the physically disabled. People with the inclination to teach it their voice.
Still a bit to go then but it’s getting there. I see Google actually doing a lot of the work here and then licensing the tools out to other companies such as phone manufacturers.
My concern about this is that Google will probably want everything to be linked to the Internet and if so then it will not be long before our KGB style government wants it’s sticky fingers all over the data.
Voice recognition
True voice recognition in most of our electronic tools would be a significant step forward. Google seem to be making the largest strides here which is a pity in a way as we don’t really want to simply replace Microsoft with a similar behemoth but have many, competing, largish companies.
I do see voice being key myself. It’s the way of the future. Let’s face it Star Trek wouldn’t be the same without it and we have all grown up with the thought that it would be here soon.
So what has been keeping it? Well simply put us. We all talk differently and not just accents and the systems need to be trained to our voice. We have to say lists of words until the system understands us. This puts most of us off and I can still remember the frustration with the 1st gen word recognition programs. Much quicker to type even with one finger. It has improved a lot but still has hiccups over a few words. So who would put critical equipment under control that may be misinterpreted when typing can ensure it is correct.
That is why it is mainly used for word processing and input by the physically disabled. People with the inclination to teach it their voice.
Still a bit to go then but it’s getting there. I see Google actually doing a lot of the work here and then licensing the tools out to other companies such as phone manufacturers.
My concern about this is that Google will probably want everything to be linked to the Internet and if so then it will not be long before our KGB style government wants it’s sticky fingers all over the data.