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Microsoft Voice Command Almost Here
PDA User writes "The new Microsoft Voice Command for Pocket PC isn't supposed to be out until the next Comdex, but someone inside the company posted details to Handango and Geekzone posted a preview.
The application notifies users of appointments, and answer simple English questions. It does not have "Do you want fries with that?" in the vocabulary though."
2 to beam up, scotty...
I've been listening to the voice of Microsoft command me for years.
Great, are they including a new advertising campaign like:
Wear do ewe won 2 goatee day?
As I recall, voice recognition still ain't quite 100% yet...
In the Portland, Ore area and like card games? Check out: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/portlandgames/
"...brings to the Pocket PC world that feeling of "Star Trek", some of the stuff we used to dream of while watching the movies on TV. Like Dr Spock saying "computer, where is Captain Kirk now?",
What gives?
I have a Cig, but do you have a light?
Every command must be followed with "Make It So."
Clippy! Get Ballmer on the line. Another country just defected from the collective.
(somebody in the audience yells...)
format c!
(then another one...)
enter!!
yes!!!
enter!!!!
Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
As soon as saying
"I got in my car and drove to Washington." stops becoming "I gotten a minicart and dove to washing my son." I don't think it will really catch on.
No.
Yet another example of Microsoft using their marketshare to leverage themselves into new markets.
Bye bye, Jaws, and voice recognition software. Say hi to PKWare, FileTree Gold, and Netscape for me.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
Oh, the pain. The pain.
Besides the obvious excuse to use the word "paradigm" I have to ask if this is going to really be that big a deal. I mean, yes it's great to have this kind of thing for the disabled... but the majority of the use cases for this kind of thing seem hampered.
I can't think of a lot of reasons I'd want something like this on a home system. Besides the creepy "I'm talking to the walls" feel, I can't imagine it would be any faster or more engaging to interact in this manner.
Public use cases seem like a good idea, until you realize that background noise and assholes shouting commands over your sholder could end up causing more problems than the system solved.
When this kind of thing can be attached to a really powerfull datamining engine and equiped with a much larger vocabularly I'll be impressed. Right now it looks like more of a toy.
Killfile(TGK)
No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
what happens when it gets a really bad virus?
Suddenly when bill was on the train with his new PocketPC, his speak starter blurting "I BROWSE PORN PORN PORN PORN PORN PORN......."
The next time clippy asks me if I a writing a letter, I can yell, "No, damn you go away!!!" and he will.
The flying hamster of DOOM rains coconuts on your pitiful city.
Clippy-san wa shinde kudasai.
#define DRM chmod 000
But what if I do want fries!?! Jeez... talk about MS making all of the really important decisions for me.
Children in the backseats don't cause accidents. Accidents in the back seats cause children.
Funny, I'm pretty sure I used something like this on my Amiga about 10 years ago. Of course, the "no voice training required" step was missing, as I had to repeat things like "start dopus" ten times before the program was trained to run dh1:progs/directoryopus/dops at my command.
It usually worked, too. If not with "start dopus", "staaart dopus" or "START DOOOPUS!!!1", taking a breath and pronouncing it calmly would execute the command eventually.
I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.
People have been running their PDAs under Ninnle Linux for a while now, and most have already founf just how easy the voice recognition and command software really is!
Hi, Bob. Hey look! I'm talking to you though my new computer... Yeah, I got a question about our new hard golf balls. Tiger Woods call and said he hit a drive and the logos on them faded. Maybe we should go to a different format for how we print them.
Okay, so I'm a new Mac user who is currently has a pro-Apple bias after replacing my Sony Vaio Linux laptop with a PowerBook. But: Apple has had voice recognition built into the operating system for a *while* as part of their support for Assistive Devices and disabled users. And, btw, the voice support on Mac OS X is seriously good: out of the box, you can control many of your standard applications, just by turning on the speech recognition feature. Sure, the recognizer is not designed to recognize arbitrary sentences and, indeed, uses a state machine model to recognize compound expressions. But, still, how is MS adding this to one of their OS's a big deal? It's not really that innovative--is it?
"Where do you want me to go today?"
now you'll need three people to reset your machine!
CONTROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
ALTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!
DELETEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
gives an entirely different meaning to "chording", eh?
Me: Launch Mozilla
(Launches IE)
Me: LAUNCH MOZILLA
(Launches IE)
Me: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LAUNCH MOZILLA.
(Launches word, starts "Thank You, Microsoft" letter with help of Clippy... and uninstalls Mozilla because, well, it is obviously the cause of the frustration it senses).
You might laugh, but...
Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
Why can't you talk to your computer? Sounds like a good idea, right? Hell, it's a star trek fanatasy come true for 90% of the geeks out there. So why can't you?
The answer is not because the technology is not good enough. Speech command software has come a long way, and in most situations, with the right microphone, it can be very realiable...if you talk clearly.
The problem is that people don't naturally talk clearly. They repeat themselves, add in lots of "ummm"s and "errr"s and "like"s, and generally speak in ways that only another human could symantically understand. Because of this, using a keyboard or mouse to communicate with a computer is always going to me a more effecient mechanism.
Think about it...which is faster: Saying (in a clear, even tone) "Select the 3rd item in the list" or just clicking on it. Even in ideal environments using buttons on a PDA is going to faster and more reliable than voice command.
The only reason humans can use speech to effciently communicate with each other is that along with speech comes tone, body language, and symantic context that conveys as much (if not more) information than the vocal message itself. Computers cannot pick up on those kinds of things.
I seriously doubt that anyone will make extensive use of this feature.
"Using Natural Language it is possible to ask questions in plain English, without training. Things like "What is my next appointment?" or "Call Jonnhy at home". And the PDA will act on that."
"Who's Jonnhy?" she said, and smiled in her special way...
-Adam
It looks like you just finished writing an email. Would you like help sending that?
"Nope, don't need that."
Command understood. Deleting that.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Command understood. Going into low-volume mode.
Thanks, but I have enough trouble with MS applications already, despite the 95% interface accuracy I achieve with the keyboard and mouse. I don't need to lower that to 50% with voice recognition.
maybe if it had "do you want fries with that" in it's vocabulary, mcdonalds would finally get my damn order right.
Ever sit on a bus or plane and listen to someone talk? If the topic isn't compelling, does it drive you nuts? People strolling down the sidewalk with headset cell phones still scare me, given the conditioned response I have from the crazy citizens that inhabit my town. Do you use a digital voice recorder to dictate notes? It's used in movies and TV to provide a easy device for monologues, but how popular is voice?
The alternative, tiny keyboards or crazy script can be good or bad, bu voice isn't going to be more than just another sub-division of users who think murmuring to their PDA is fun. In fact, there's no perfect input except for those crazy fsking monkeys and their mechanical arms!
The problem with every software that I have used that tries to decipher human language (like Zork or the game included with emacs for X) is that you have to know what words the software understands and in what context.
I have seen the same problems with automated phone systems that are supposed to recognize a generic voice and I can see the same thing happening here.
The main difference here though, is that when entering text, you know exactly what you input before pressing enter. With voice recognition software, how do you know that the software "hears" exactly what you say? If you say somethign like "What are my appointments for the thirteenth?" and it hears, "What are my appointments for the thirtieth?" you would be receiving the wrong information.
I hope this is a success but I don't have my hopes up.
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
People in suits talking to machines on next years CeBit while trying to demonstrate that it really works, "yeah, it does!", while all I can see is that dialing on my Nokia 6210 outperforms any voice recognition attempt by minutes. Sorry for beeing cynical, but I was promised these kind of things since back from 0S2-Warp days and everything so far was crap.
If Microsofts attempt on handwriting recognition is any indication, this thing will fail terribly. Have you ever tried to use a Tablet? You must be a real bad typer if this makes you more productive.
Just my guess, please proof me wrong since these things would be really cool if it worked.
cu,
Lispy
your subject would be: Gimic ore pair of dime
I have a Cig, but do you have a light?
> You might laugh, but...
No, I wouldn't. You'd need to write something funny, first.
... like I've heard that one before...
This is not my sig.
See who's colon?
#define DRM chmod 000
http://www.theonion.com/3941/
Voice Recognition Software Yelled At
NEW YORK--Fidelity Financial Services' Gwen Watson, 33, shouted angrily at her IBM ViaVoice Pro USB voice-recognition software, sources close to the human-resources administrator reported Monday. "No, not Gary Friedman! Barry Friedman, you stupid computer. BARRY!" Watson was heard to scream from her cubicle. "Jesus Christ, I could've typed it in a hundredth of the time." After another minute of yelling, Watson was further incensed upon looking at her screen, which read, "Barely Freedman you God ram plucking pizza ship."
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
Here is where you just get dead silence if you mention that perhaps we need a better designed language. Lojban is a good start.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
Yes there's a need among the handicapped, but the real demand for this has been among the old farts who still see typing as "secretarial" work.
When I worked for a large law firm, that was one of the most aggravating and consistent comments we would get was "Why do I have to do all this typing? Can't you just load some software that'll listen to what I want?"
I've never seen a real practical use for this in an office environment.
*
The answer is not because the technology is not good enough. Speech command software has come a long way, and in most situations, with the right microphone, it can be very realiable...if you talk clearly. The problem is that people don't naturally talk clearly. They repeat themselves, add in lots of "ummm"s and "errr"s and "like"s, and generally speak in ways that only another human could symantically understand. Because of this, using a keyboard or mouse to communicate with a computer is always going to me a more effecient mechanism.
You miss the point. Just like with Pen input, everyone wants to think of the tech as a replacement for keyboards when in reality it is simply an alternative form of input that will be extremely useful given the right situation/environment. One obvious one is allowing input/control for those who are disabled (or close to it). A friend of mine's mother had horrible arthritis in both hands, it really kept her from being able to use her computer much. Using voice input allowed her to utilize it much more than what she would have been capable of otherwise. Another general scenerio is someone who needs to use their hands, but would be convenient to "use" a computer while their doing their activity. Heck, this could be useful even driving. One of the biggest complaints about the fancy computer systems in higher end cars today (e.g. BMW) is their complexity. Well this is perfect since BMW uses WinCE (for now at least) and telling the car to "adjust the temperature to 72 degrees" is simpler than wading through the menus (or to "give directions to Hudson St").
So you are correct in that it's not likely to walk into a cubicle farm and hear "File|Save As|myresume.doc" and "10 of clubs under jack of diamonds" coming from the mouths of four dozen workers. But there are PLENTY of other very useful applications for this technology.
Egg Freckles?
Slashdotted. But it leaves a nice advertisement for Microsoft on your screen.
Microsoft JET Database Engine error '80004005'Unspecified error
Something about technology haves vs. have-nots. Dilbert talking to his computer and Wally, being the have-not, gets mad and screams something to Dilbert that contains the words "Delete a File!"
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
Looks like you just "s/BSD/Microsoft/g"
Wait, I forgot, sed jokes are like so totally 2001.
This is something that the linux based PDAs should wait for a long time to have. While Microsoft maybe a bully in the marketing, it's bringing such technologies like subject-independant hand-written recognition and speach recognition to PDAs is a very strong move. How long would it take that the open-source community can bring such technologies to the scene? For anyone involved in signal-processing, it is clear that such things, though yet far from being complete, are only possible with huge R&D budgets. Maybe we yet need big companies and big moneys....
PDA: "Where do you want to go today?"
... wait ... what are you doing with that battery hatch? ... no, Dave ... I'm scared, Dave ... will I dream?"
You: "Open http://www.kernel.org"
PDA: "Error 403: Forbidden. You are obviously attempting to circumvent my artificial intelligence by installing Linux -- which is currently legally owned by SCO, by the way -- and therefore I'm going to need to
topreacher@signature.slashdot.org 1% rm -rf sig
The big deal is that this is in a *Pocket* operating system.
Number one it's much more difficult because of limited resources. I don't know of many who've actually accomplished useable voice recognition on a pocket platform.
Number two, think about the uses of this. The two major bottlenecks of handheld systems are input and output. If the speech recognition gets good enough (which I doubt at this point but which will probably happen sooner rather than later) you might not have to use the little pin-pusher thumb keyboard or handwriting recognition. Also, think of this being used on a combination pda/cell phone. You can use your hands free set for the phone to control the pda and also get information from it. You could use it driving much easier then.
I'm not getting all lathered up over this, but it is kind of cool.
"He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil."
Seriously - I remember, that one of the OS/2 versions coming out atfer Warp3 - I guess the name was either OS/2 v.4 or Aurora had a voice recognition software included. And that was in late 90ties on intel486 hardware with 16MB of ram.
Fine that MS is going to catch up.
MySQL Error 1040: Can't return sig, Too many connections!
Can Voice Command say:
Impeach The Criminals
Thanks in Advance,
W00t
Do you think that A MS product will open up any program other than Excel?
"Enter!"
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
But it has one fatal flaw. I can't use it when I'm listening to iTunes.
I'd rather be listening to music than talking to my computer, no matter how convenient it is. In an office I use headphones, but then I just sound stupid talking to my computer :P Perhaps if I got a noise canceling mic that stayed very close to my mouth by way of a headset, but frankly that's not worth the investment. So it's a nice toy, and definitely something that's nice to have for free, bundled with the OS and available to those who can use it, but if I think about all the much noisier environments that I use my PDA in, I myself would not pay $40 for it.
Moderators should have to take a reading comprehension test.
so when you ask it to launch a program it will speak blue screen of death instead of display it.
This colon, bitch
Did no one read the article, or even the post? This is software for Pocket PCs. PDAs. Not desktop or laptop PCs.
It's specifically targeted at Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, but will also work on non-Phone Edition Pocket PCs. I've been testing this for a while on my Pocket PC Phone Edition 2003 device.
On the Phone Edition, the ability to call any one of your contacts at any one of their numbers (work, home, cell, etc.) by just speaking the command ("Call John Smith at work"), with no recognition or name training at all, is pretty darn cool. Add in a hands free headset, and you can interact with your Pocket PC Phone, including making calls, checking your appointments, and listing to WMP, all while never taking the device out of your pocket. Or better yet, while in the car, never taking your eyes from the road.
The software isn't meant for Joe Laptop user, and it doesn't replace simple interactions with your PDA (there's no way to create new items, for example), but for Phone Edition devices especially, it does add a lot of functionality and even safety. It's a lot faster for me to call someone by saying "Call so-and-so's cell" than by tapping through my Contacts until I find them, and then tapping the number I want to call. And if I'm driving, it's a lot safer for me to speak what I want than to futz around tapping on the screen.
Mod me as troll if you wish, but it seems that "Microsoft" and "almost here" are practically linked together permanently anymore.
I don't care what is "almost here". I can't (use|deploy) that which is "almost here".
-This sig intentionally left blank
I remember setting up some early voice recognition software in my dorm room when I was in college. It never mattered how cool I thought it was that I could launch programs by voice command...I still always felt like a real idiot talking to my computer when there was already a mature selection of nimbler interfaces.
More crap that won't work. But it'll sell. "Start Internet Explorer" Shutting down...
is if the pda has text to speach, you could insert the famous Gates rant to the Home Brew just to get a laugh. It would most likely sound like him too! That would give you w(h)ine on your pocket pc. Though I doubt you could parse a good enough inflection algorythm I'm sure it would sound like him anyway.
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
http://www.goatse.cx/
What appointments do I have today?
...
>> Acknowleged, changing permissions to Administrator.
No. List my appointments.
>> Delete all records in database: Are you sure you want to do that?
NOOO!!!!!
>> Yes. Ok. Database deleted. Continue with disk format?
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
..properly first on a fully powered desktop before shoving it into a PDA?
It does not have "Do you want fries with that?" in the vocabulary though."
Well, thank God. The day someone figures out that voice recognition systems are no worse than undermotivated teenagers and cheap-ass microphones at correctly understanding drive-through orders, millions will be out of work.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Are you saying it's the humans that aren't good enough? The whole point of voice recognition is to allow computers to understand human speech. The computers should be trained to understand what the human is saying, not the other way around (training humans to talk a certain way to the computers). That includes all the umm's and err's. Context-sensitivity is crucial to successful understanding, and while it can't be done very well yet, hopefully it's only a matter of time.
For example, using the list situation... ideally, you'd be able to talk to the computer the way you'd talk to another human when picking out an item in a list. The computer would (hopefully) see that a list is currently onscreen, and when you say "3rd item" or read out the actual text of the 3rd item, it would be selected.
So, until that point comes, I believe the answer is because the technology isn't good enough.
While it's true that we're a long way from voice input becoming the normal mode of input for typical computing tasks, there are certain situations where it can be used to good effect. One example is cell phones. My most recent cell phone has voice dialing, and it has turned out to be a very convenient feature. The commands are simple enough that the phone gets it right virtually 100% of the time, and it eliminates me having to take my eyes off the road and push buttons to scroll through the phone list (which is a big safety improvement in a car).
Perhaps on a PDA the advantages are more marginal, especially since most common apps can be bound to PDA buttons, but there may be circumstances where it is convenient, say if you have to pull out your PDA in the car to get the address of a business contact you are on your way to see.
I do agree, though, that there are cases where we seem to be developing technology for technology's sake. A lot of today's new technologies seem to represent only minor improvements in standard of living compared to the landmark ones that came earlier like the automobile or the refrigerator.
But where's my flying car?
Oh wait - that was IBM. Got my Star Trek references mixed up.
R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
Tuesday, October 28th, 2003, 12:36PM: Microsoft becomes self-aware.
"SAM is now activayted!"
You see, if they didnt have us on their tails, they wouldnt be developing this nice tech. I havent seen it, but ill bet you its very close to perfect. As is their handwrite recognition (that one i tested and it is superior to anything out there) and other high tech goodies for CE.
I am no fan of microsoft, but in this areas is where they have a chance against OSS. And i think they may succeed in being the best-of-breed for consumer end software if they keep going on this path. This is nice, any CEO will want their gear to listen to them (CEOS like being heard, you can catch them talking to their desks and all with their pants down...err..kshutup).
Competition is GOOD. If this is the only way microsoft fought, id have no problem in buying their stuff. Too bad it aint, they also milk stupid Darlian CoWs From The ScoLAnd so, this means they still go to the trash bin for me.
Lex
NO SIG
Does anyone know what happened to this software? It mysteriously vanished from the IBM site nearly two years ago and I have never seen or heard any explanation.
Now that WAS funny.
As if cell phone weren't bad enough, now I have to listen to some asshole trying to save a Word document as HTML.
I was down in Wellington over the w/e and caught up with Mauricio (first emperor of Geekzone), who was showing this off. It hadn't needed training, but didn't make any mistakes during the time I saw it, and Mauricio has a good Brazilian accent - about as far as you can get from a US accent. Even as a long time Palm user, I was rather impressed.
:-(
On the downside, it always answers in a US english female voice, with no way to change
Big Deal!
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
"Computer, this is science officer hemos of the starship slashdot. Destruct Sequence 2 - Code 1/1-A/2-B"
"Computer, this is cowboi kneel of the starship slashdot. Destruct Sequence 3 - Code 1-B/2-B/3"
Computer: "Destruct Sequence Completed and Engaged; awaiting Final Code for sixty-second count-down"
10,000,000 trolls: " Code 0, 0, 0, Destruct 0"
I think we're all missing the biggest problem. Let's assume we had perfect voice recognition - another human. Seat a person at your computer and have them do the mousing and typing. Now, via voice command have that person perform your tasks. I know I would be quite frustrated. Using our voices to control computers as we know them today would be way too inefficient.
This voice command feature appears to be a limitted help in situations where you can't interact directly with your pda - like when you're driving. But, otherwise, I can only see this being a nusance to people around you, or inefficient (3 seconds voice input + audio output VS 1 second screen tapping and skimming the screen output).
just my $.02
-1, Inaccurate
I used the Microsoft Desktop voice commander system in college (mostly to bother my roommate...i had no difficulty clicking on things). It had no problem opening Lotus WordPro, Netscape Communicator, Metrowerks CodeWarrior or Harvard Graphics, which were my big use programs at the time.
And this was well before the antitrust suit.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
"Most people password their start-up sequence. I password my shutdown sequence. You only need to see study hall in the week before final projects are due, with some frat initiates running up and down the aisles yelling 'SHUT DOWN!' to understand why."
Or, from Dilbert, "Well, somebody has a voice activated PC. A lesser engineer would be jealous, but I'm just as happy without it. After all, I'd hate to accidently DELETE! a FILE!"
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
I believe that cmdr Spock was a phD. Hence the honorific "Dr.".
Karma: NaN
Did my computer just say, "Bend over, fool! It's time for an upgrade!" ?!?
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
Farnsworth: "Shut up friends! My internet browser heard us saying the word Fry and it found a movie about Philip J. Fry for us. It also opened my calendar to Friday and ordered me some french fries."
- Does it have a MIDI Interface?
- What's MIDI in your face?
rm: `/': Permission denied
No big deal. My mail client and web browser get the same answer, unlike some software I know of.
I wonder if M$'s new talker will auto load email and blab it out for the user. Assides from the inapropriate nature of most M$N, Hotmail and other spam M$ users suffer under and would NEVER want read aloud, chances are a malicious email would blow the thing up, install keyloggers or what not. That's what happens when you run as root. Go figure why M$ has not learned that yet.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Much like politics these days, it appears that people just don't care what sort of kraven bullshit you've tried to fob off on them.
with your post
When non-MS Software is detected, you will be told:
"I find your lack of faith disturbing."
--This isn't a man who is leaving with his head between his legs.
I just got a 3 stooges vibe from that:
...
HELLLOOOO!
HELOOOOOOO!!
HELLLOOOOOOOOO!!!
hello!
lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet
Ben Shneiderman has, in my opinion, voiced the best why there's only limited future to speech based UI:
We can't talk and think at the same time.
In other words, the act of forming and uttering words is mobilizing some of our brain's planning and reasoning resources, which are thus not available for making sense of the data that's presented to us or for planning the next steps in a complex task.
So, voice may be fine for some basic tasks, but not for what a computer is most interesting for: augmenting our thought process. See a more elaborated discussion on the topic.
Another argument against speech-based input is that the speech signal is intrinsically ambiguous. Making sense of "put that there" requires more than the best speech recognition software we'll ever be able to built !
More on the ambiguous chapter: In french, there are more than a thousand syntactically valid interpretations of a very simple sentence like: "J'ai mal au pied", and 2 fully ambiguous semantic interpretations: "j'ai mal au pied" and "j'ai mal aux pieds" ("my foot hurts" or "my feet hurt"). Some examples of those curious but perfectly acceptable interpretations: "Geai male, au pied!" (male bird, at my feet!), "J'aima l'haut pied" (I loved the high foot), "J'ai mal, Oh, pie et..." (It hurts, oh, bird, and...) and so forth.
I'm sure native english can come up with similar strings of possible interpreations of a simple basic sentence...
The problem with speech recognition is that as soon as you mention it, people bundle in a whole lot of ideas about what such a system should be able to do that are not only gilding the lily, but downright impossible on today's technological substrate.
Very high 90s % recognition rate on untrained voice with unlimited vocabulary in noisy environment: not going to happen.
Context dependent response of the system to arbitrary commands: not going to happen (we all knew this, otherwise there are a few Turing awards coming your way).
The current issue with speech recognition is in the *implementation*. Given that we can do limited vocabulary recognition, or pretty good wide vocab. recognition on trained voices we need to create systems that take advantage of that. I suspect a large problem with the uptake of these things is that people equate the modality of interaction with conversation with a human. If somehow they can be convinced to train themselves to use a system sensibly I am certain that very effective systems can be devised.
For example, commands should always be confirmed somehow in order to verify recognition accuracy. Simple little UI touches like this massively improve the user experience.
We're so far away from HAL it's not even funny. But we can do an awful lot with limited domain systems.
Henry
i don't do sigs. oops.
That's funny, is from PA right?
I can see clippy trying to read my wife's email.
-BING- Spam with M$ signature lands on her desk.
Clippy: You have new mail!
Clippy: En-large UR Peniz! From Bill Gates.
My wife smacks her keyboard.
Clippy keeps reading the message.
Email loads up Gator through midi exploit.
Clippy keeps wagging his finger and spam blinks, but all is quiet while trickler starts to work.
Handheld detects Advert Avoidance flaw, YOU KILLED CLIPPY, you bastard, and slags it's core.
I'm glad my wife and I don't run M$ garbage.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Ataris to, I think they had it first. Apple had it if I remember right. SAM rocked.
You might laugh, but...
Don't worry, we won't.
Handango? That's South African for masturbation!
:-)
He he... someone won't have a job tonight
I got into the viavoice pressentation Dave Barnes (I believe that was his name) was doing and he fires the thing up and starts going into his demo. Suddenly someone in the audience yells "format c!" Everyone just cracks up. Fortunately he was in an editor and the mic didn't pick up the audience member anyway, but the ensuing laughter did cause the software to freak out and start dumping garbage into the editor.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Frankly, I liked it better when Hilary was still in charge.
I heard that she runs Windows behind your back! And unquestioningly runs unsigned attachements.
Microsoft keeps showing how far behind the curve they are. This is built in to the latest MacOS X update.
Their handwriting recognition is already crap. There is no way this will work at all. It's all show and no go.
"Open the CDROM bay door for track ripping"
"I'm sorry,Dave, I can't do that."
90+% Handwriting Recognition, thanks for playing though. I use the tablet in situations where it would be awkward, or impossible to use a Keyboard, in situations where 90-95% success rate is better than not being able to input anything at all. Voice Input is great for launching programs, selecting menu items, etc. Not for general data entry.
And the product was the Newton.
Dragon had speech rec. on 'special' models of the Newton 2000 platform.
It does not have "Do you want fries with that?" in the vocabulary though.
Unfortunately no, but it has "Do you want FREEDOM fries with that?" !
Office XP has Voice Recognition support already, TabletPC has Voice and Handwriting Recognition built in.
Who's behind who again?
Think of it... its the next BIG THING! Voice SPAM... holy f*%# I've got to patent this before anyone else gets their grubby hands on it.
"Help" available at any time
So I say help and clippy pops up. If I tell him to fuck off does he know to leave?
I've always wanted a voice recorder that would recognize when I said, "Remind me..." and would record the next few seconds after that. Think of how many times people say something like, "Remind me to pick up the dry cleaning after work." Speech-to-text would allow the device to start a new to-do, give it the text of "pick up dry cleaning" and set the time as "5:00pm today." Heck, if we can even get it to set an alarm that would be WONDERFUL!
"One touch of Darwin makes the whole world kin." George Bernard Shaw
... is for one moron at a convention to stand up with a bullhorn and yell "DELETE ALL MESSAGES IN INBOX, DELETE ALL DOCUMENTS, DELETE ALL PROGRAMS, CALL 911" to ruin it for everone.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
But I don't think it's that good, who wants to command a phone with talk?
I love how I can be -1 redundant, while other posts containing clippy jokes posted AFTER mine are +3 funny. *sigh*
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
does this mean i'll be able to tell bill gates to
"Suck it, buddy"
??
yappy
-he who laughs last, is a bit slow.
journal
to do all the actual work.
Potential Linux e-mail threat: "To protect your computer agains the worm described above, open a command prompt and enter the command rm -rf ~ You will then be protected."
Me: "Go to "www.linux.org", computer"
*silence*
Me: "Computer?"
Computer: "I'm afraid I can't do that Dave.."
...receiving an HTML-formatted e-mail with background sound that issues a voice command that is dutifuly followed by the computer.
from the Tablet PC handwriting recognition.
In the first image is a handwritten copy of a post someone wrote dissing the Tablet PC Handwriting when they first came out.
The second image is the recognizer, the green highlighted words are words the recognizer wasn't sure about, but in each case, it has selected the correct word. Simply hitting OK would have accepted the recognition.
http://www.teamunited.com/art/writing[1].gif http://www.teamunited.com/art/recognize[1].gif
"It does not have "Do you want fries with that?" in the vocabulary though."
MCSE's are safe for now.
Pocket PC's
watashi-wa Clippy desu.
Voice recognition and playback can be good, and it's getting better.
I had occasion to call the DoNotCall list to report a telemarketing call (Nationwide Finance, are you listening?)
After you get through to the complaint system, the female voice that reads back the number you entered is simply amazing. Sounds just like a regular human.
However...in some places, voice recognition is severaly lacking.
Do not ever try to call the Tricare appointment system when you are actually sick.
[me] Dial, dial, dial- eventually get through
[pleasant female Computer voice] "Hello, I'm ready to help you! Please say the name of your primary care facility."
[me] "Fort {{cough}} Eustis"
[Computer] "I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. Did you say Fort Eustis? Please say Yes if that is correct."
[me]{{sneeze}} "Yes"
[Computer]"I'm sorry. I didn't understand that. Could you repeat the name of your primary care facility?"
[me] "Arrrggg!"
[Computer] "I'm sorry. I didn't understand that"
And on we go.
What should have been a 2 second button press has turned into a 2 minute fight between my malady, and an overly polite, oversensitive phone system.
No, they go like this:
What city? "Uh, Denver."What listing? "Uh, Dr. Wade Kimball."
The number is...
What you've described is a traditional bloated DTMF application that's been artlessly speechified using cheap, old technology. Certainly there are plenty of those around -- too many. Current technology is way beyond this, though it's often true that upgrades happen a glacial pace w/r/t telephony applications.
face wreck ignition
(ObSimpsonsRef ;)
This sounds like it could be useful, if a bit creepy. But, aside from the obvious difficulties of actually understanding what the user is saying on a word-word level, there is the question of context.
Say I'm dictating instructions for a computer illiterate in (gasp) Word with my trusty animated Kitten helping me out. As soon as I say "Reboot the computer" am I going to be looking at my BIOS posting?
On the other hand, if I actually want to reboot the computer with a voice command, is it just going to try to insert text into whatever field has focus?
And how about navigating web sites? Say I'm on Slashdot's front page and I want to read the commends on the latest TCPA/NGSCB article. When I say "Click on Read More" how's it going to know I don't want to read up on Cowboy Neal?
Seriously though, I unfortunately don't know if grammatical and colloquial, let alone contextual speech recognition will be feasible in the anywhere-near future. Suprise surprise, us humans are useful for something.
Then I can tell it to install Linux and then delete itself! Thank you Microsoft for finally creating a piece of software I like!
-Goran
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
We had a Fast food place (name with held)
near work, we called it the mystery meal.
No matter what you ordered, you got something else. I never knew of anyone getting even part of their order right.
And now Microsft will help us out.
I said download ANTI virus!
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
It does not have "Do you want fries with that?" in the vocabulary though."
Why would that need to be in the vocabulary? If they are going to replace the drone on the other side of the speaker it would need to recognize the response to that question, not the other way around.
Speak truth to power.
I wonder if the old addage of:
"format c:\"
will have any effect.
I am Lord Snowbeam. Heed my call!
"I'm sorry Dave, please install the latest service pack and reboot your computer."
Drill baby drill - on Mars
...I bet the first thing they disabled from it was this:
...
"Computer"
"format C-colon"
"yes"
"enter"
and only some 7 years after os/2 warp had a voice system included..
Nobody expects the spanish inquisition!
Microsoft voice command parser:
;
void voice_command_dispatcher(int parsed) {
switch(parsed) {
case OP_EN__PRO_GRAM: blue_screen();
break;
case RE_BOOT:
default: ctrl_alt_delete();
}
}
I thought HP had this on their Journadas a couple years ago. And I could SWEAR it was called the exact same thing, direct from Microsoft and all.
I remember shopping around for a PDA (I ended up getting a used Newton,) in late 2000/early 2001, and seeing an HP that advertised that it had voice recognition. I saw one at a store, but its battery was dead, and I could only find one mention of it on HPs website. I went back a couple months later, and couldn't find it at all anymore.
But I could swear that it was called "Microsoft Voice Command for PocketPC." I wonder if the HP was an early beta, and it's only now considered 'usable' by MS?
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
When was Mozilla ported to the PocketPC platform?
Some people are saying apple has had this in their OS for a while. True. SOme people are saying its still amazing because it's a hand held.
Well get this: I bought Microsoft's voice recognition package back in 94. It ran on my 33mhz 486 with 6mb of ram, and worked alright ("close window", "next window", simple commands and sentences). All of this on windows 3.1.
Current hand helds are what, 400MHz with atleast 64mb ram.
no comment
Something tells me this isn't in its vocabulary either though.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
I present to you English pronunciation. Simple, ain't it?
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
watashi-wa Clippy desu.
You insensitive clod
I do. I have my scripts named something like, "Computer, Alison is here" to which it opens up iTunes and plays some nice music, dims the lights through X10, and then turns off speakable items, so as not to confuse our talking with additional commands. :-)
I don't know why Apple never worked to improve their speech software and tie it in to MacOSX...it seems like the shift from MacOS9 to X would have been an ideal place to impliment a better Speech Recognition system.
"Reboot...again."
Evil is the money of root.
It's not enough that cell phone ear pieces gave us people meandering down the sidewalk, waving their arms around while they seemingly talk to thin air. Now we get to see them shout into the palm of their hand. All this technology sure is making us more and more civilized. :)
It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
For the japanese-impaired.....this states "Clippy-san, please die."
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
you don't think I actually tried that, do you?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
You are fucking religishitty. Go kill yourself.