Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

TuVox Voice Interface

Posted by timothy on from the voice-menus-are-inherently-evil dept.

pablos writes: "NYTimes has an article about Tuvox who set up Handspring and Activision with voice interfaces for tech support. Apparently they can do away with the annoying 'press # now' menus. I've used things like TellMe, which played an ad everytime it didn't understand you, but I'm wondering if this sort of thing is starting to work anywhere. Anybody called Handspring for tech support lately?"

3 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Sure it's working... by coupland · · Score: 2, Insightful

    >I'm wondering if this sort of thing is starting to work anywhere

    Voice recognition works great in real world applications. Directory assistance in the city I live uses voice recognition to find out what language you speak, the city for which you want a listing, and it can even do voice recognition on common businesses. (No doubt for a fee) All without any operator intervention. It's pretty cool.

  2. More technology - Less jobs by duvel2 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    In a way, this is sad. Helpdesk functions have been a way for new people to pick up experience for technology-oriented jobs. As these functions become more and more automated (and less helpdesk-people are required), it will become harder for people to use a helpdesk function as a stepping stone in a career.

    I'm enough of a realist to understand that the evolution of swapping jobs with technology is unstoppable but still: With the current recession, that's not really a thing to be looking forward to.

    --

    <Sig>The good thing about having a good memory is ... euh

  3. Dutch railways has the same (beta) by guusbosman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    For more than a year now there has been a (beta-phase) phone-number where a voice recognition program tells you the best available train-connection between two cities, at a given time.

    It's nice to realize that they've made an attempt to recognize polite customers: words like "please" are ignored.