My husband has always had cars that have voice recognition (he trades a car every three years for work) and it's been a constant source of entertainment for the family. He's somewhat of a techie so he'd get everyone all ready to see how accomplished his voice recognition system would be--how the car would automatically dial grandma or find a cool restaurant along the route. The things that came back during the interaction were literally hilarious and never even close to the command he was issuing. I have to say, over the last few years, even though the voice systems have gotten better, those experiences have made him lay off using the capabilities pretty much altogether. Perhaps something like Apple's Siri can change the technology's bad rap.
I think there's a lot of potential in terms of using scripts. Much like the old short hand, you could have a long list of options and cut to the chase with commands pretty quickly. I'm definitely very interested to see where this technology can take us.
I think the script idea is a good one, and it's been around for a long time. Back in 1983 I used a CAD system from Applicon that employed user-created symbols that you could define to do whatever commands you chose.
If you could choose what symbol you wanted to create (a Z for the radio, a C for the cruise, N for navigation, etc.), then you could customize your experience, and have hands-free customized access to everything.
That's what we did with the Applicon CAD system, and it was the most productive system in the department.
Beth, I fully agree with you. I think this is why voice recognition software for PCs has not really taken off. I am sitting in a Starbucks (the office of choice for many, I notice) and I would not want to have to speak to enter this post. I notice, by the way, that there are very few people with iPads (or other tablets) here. Just about everyone has a laptop open.
Formula 1 drivers intereact with their cars via the steering wheel. These have become fantastically expensive (primarily becuase of the low volumes). In fact, they stay with the driver. A system like this one from TRW in a steering wheel could be an interesting twist on that idea.
I'd trade voice commands for script commands any day. This technology seems pretty promising in that it seems, on the surface, pretty simplistic in terms of usability. The problem with voice is there is so many openings for the system to misinterpret what you're asking of it that it's almost a joke. This seems much more straight forward, especially if the commands are simple.
As energy efficiency becomes more and more a concern for makers of electronics devices, researchers are coming up with new ways to harvest energy from sound vibration, footsteps, and even electromagnetic fields in the air.
The government wants to study your brain, and DARPA wants to use similar information to give robots true autonomy beyond any artificial intelligence developed to date. Sound like science fiction? It's not.
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