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."

Comments

Tech for Tech's sake

[Dr. Bent]

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.