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Super-small Voice-controlled Wireless Phone
The phone comes in two pieces, (much like other cordless phones). The earset weighs only 1.1oz (including the lithium polymer battery, smaller than a pack of gum), and only has a single button on it. The base station plugs into your analog phone line, and connects to your computer via USB. The included software runs a custom copy of IBM's ViaVoice speech engine to interpret your voice commands; right now the software only runs on Windows.
The software integrates into Outlook, ACT! and Windows Address Book. At boot-up, the software looks at the list of contacts, and loads their names into a custom speech dictionary. If you want to call John Public, you press the button on the earset and say "Call John Public at work." The software matches your speech to John's name, looks up John's information, finds his Work number, and dials it for you. (Very cool). Dialing by numbers is done by pressing the button, and saying "Dial" and announcing the digits you want to dial, (i.e. "Dial one eight-hundred five five five one two one two").
All the other telephone functions are also handled via voice command, (answer, hang up, flash, mute, hold, volume, etc).
Right now the software only works with telephony functions, but they have just released an add-on package that lets you use the phone as a wireless headset for your computer, (for voice-dictation, IP Telephony, other voice-recognition software, etc). They say they want to extend the software to handle home-automation and entertainment, (can anyone say voice-controlled X10?!?)
The phones are priced at $300, which is targeted at the business crowd. It's a little steep for home use.
I happened to find a deal on mine, and have been using it for about a month now. I work out of my home for a software company on the other side of the country. It is very handy to be able to talk to my co-workers simply by saying their name. The size and form factor are also very nice. I can wear it around all day, and am able to take a call from anywhere near the house, (office, back deck, breakfast table, neighbor's house, changing a diaper, etc).
I know this doesn't have much to do w/ Linux, but the geek in me couldn't keep my mouth shut! I thought this might be an interesting story, simply for the application of voice technology and miniaturization.
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I'm so glad Taco god rid of the trolls, cause now guys like me can do this.
toast?
I don't know what your cellphone technology is like in the USA (and I probably don't want to, since I can't think of a single US cellphone manufacturer or innovator), but this sort of thing is not really new in Europe, and is probably even passé in Japan.
This ArialPhone uses a base station as the actual phone bit, as having the phone actually right next to your ear like that all the time would probably give you cancer. So... this is absolutely no different to a standard Bluetooth phone with a Bluetooth headset.
Infact, it's worse, this uses 900Mhz spread spectrum, whereas Bluetooth is better because it has a cool name and better branding.
mogorific carpentry experiments
Little yelling monkey men
Little yelling monkey men
Little yelling monkey men
Little yelling monkey men
Am I the only one who has noticed taht the slashdot logo is and ASCII erect penis?
We have the troll posts
You can not stop us.
You cry now.
Are you scared?
Death to Commander Taco.
Death to Cowboy Neal.
Goatse is great.
My life and I are a waste of space.
"Cowboy Neal, you Roxorz my sockorz." Said Commander Taco lovingly as they embraced. People on the street yelled at them to leave, but they wouldn't listen. They loved each other too much. As they hugged, and kissed, and laid to the ground, never letting go. "Commander Taco, you wowzers my trousers." Cowboy Neal said. "I'm not wearing any." Commander Taco reminded him.
Then they were both taken to jail for sodomy and raped in jail, much to their delight.
You can not stop us
We have the AC
You die now
Are you afraid?
Death to Commander Taco
Death to Cowboy Neal
EvilBob is Great
Cowboy Neal and Cmdr Taco had moved beyond kissing. They found a better way to express their love with greater impact. Cmdr Taco balled up his fist and arched back, then pushed forward, smashing his fist into Neal's nose. WHAM! Neal dropped down to one knee, shaken by the punch. "Wow, you really DO love me!" Taco then went down and started licking the blood from Neal's nose, then shared his blood in a kiss.
Credits: dmg
Yet again the Linux so-called elite, backed up by their pseudo intellectual cohorts of the w3c conspire to ruin Linux's chances in the marketplace by sowing confusion and complexity. As someone with years of experience in the marketing world, I am constantly amazed at the willingness of the W3C and other bodies to pollute the acronym space with their content free "TLAs".
Basic marketing 101 (and an undergrad course in psychology) would tell them that the normal person is only capable of remembering approximately 7 items of data in their short-term memory, but now we have to remember HTTP, HTML, XML, XSL, DTD, PHP, SSL, DSL, ADSL, ISDN, Perl, etc etc etc
This is a text book example of the tail wagging the dog from a marketing perspective.
I have been following the standardisation of the web for many many months now, but one thing has become clear, E-commerce will NEVER become popular so long as there are so many confusing acronyms involved. The guys in charge of marketing Linux absolutely MUST work to reduce the number of acronyms. One possible solution would be to merge those protocols which are not all that different. For example, why not merge XML with SGML ? (they could call it XSGML or SXGML or perhaps XMSGML), they seem to address the same problems. Or would that be too simplistic a solution for their pampered elitist ivy-league minds to comprehend ?
If something is not done URGENTLY, and I mean URGENTLY, Linux (and other more experimental derivatives such as FreeBSD) can never hope to be taken seriously as an e-commerce platform by the people who count - the accountants.
The miracle of Linux is that anyone actually runs it at all, considering one seems to require a masters in computer science to install it! (contrast this with NT4 which was so easy to install, we let our receptionist upgrade her own machine).
As usual my "open source" advice is free. Hopefully this time my valuable advice will be taken into account the next time the w3c smell an acronym brewing.
Finally, in conclusion, as an American, I am saddened that the Internet seems to have been commandeered by a European based protocol. Was America so short of talent we had to buy the HTML protocol from Tom Berners-Lee at CERN ?
Think of the security implications of the worlds strongest economy, running an e-commerce protocol developed by a foreigner from Socialist Europe. Remember the wall has not been down for that long. Who knows what kind of trojans might be lurking within the depths of these complicated protocols.
I am afraid I am behind Al Gore on this point, how can this be necessary in the home of smart corporations such as Microsoft and Intel ? The answer is the vast subsidies given by European socialist governments to fund development of the HTML specification.
The solution is clear. The federal government should mandate and strongly subsidise the use of Microsoft software for all US corporations involved in e-commerce. Only with a US-developed set of protocols can we be assured of the security of our transactions.
- posted by poopbot: providing truth in a deceitful world
IAbEurFpSL Post #339
Seeing as you mentioned PI in your post I'll just add that today is PI approximation day 22/7.
Rejoice and memorise another 8 digits.
Ian.