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Opera Promises Voice-Operated Web Browser
unassimilatible writes "Opera's latest browser talks and listens, according to AP.
The new browser incorporates IBM's ViaVoice technology, enabling the computer to ask what the user wants and "listen" to the request. "Hi. I am your browser. What can I do for you?" asked a laptop with the demonstration versions of the browser. The message can be personalized, such as greeting users by name. The computer learns to recognize users' voices, accents and inflections by having them read a list of words into a microphone. Opera plans to first launch an English version of the voice browser for computers running the Windows operating system. Versions for other systems, including handhelds, will follow. Opera's press release has more details, including Opera's hopes that people will adopt this technology for presentations - and to replace PowerPoint."
Though I can certainly understand the need to market something unique, and the logic behind "Voice is the most natural and effective way we communicate.....", I cannot ever see myself talking to my web browser like another human being.
I've worked with and supported both ViaVoice and DragonNaturallySpeaking solutions for voice-based typing in word processors, and neither of them felt natural. Perhaps because I'm a geek, or just because I've been doing it so long, I'd rather manually key in exactly what I want and let myself make the mistakes, not the interpretation.
With corrections, it always took longer to do the alleged "easier way" than manually keying in. Even with 99% accuracy, Word Processing was always clunky at best.
That, and every time I scream out "litigious bastards", I don't need it pulling up litigious bastards.
I have tried a lot of voice operated software, but have never had any luck getting it to work. Has anybody else had better luck with voice activated software? What do you think the chances of this actually working for most people are? Until Ive seen a product that works well I unfortunately have to remain skeptical.
The key thing about PowerPoint presentations is that it's supposed to be a visual backdrop that you can control without disrupting your presentation. What a powerpoint presenter really wants is a simple wireless device to advance to the next slide, and maybe a back button in case of a mis-click. Any additional buttons beyond two are annoying.
Come on, this technology has existed for the TV weatherman for years. Why hasn't anybody gotten it right for PowerPoint users yet?
Don't think of it as a replacement for your current browser on your current desktop. This seems as if it would be a nice start to bettering the functionality of a web browser on a computer too small for a standard keyboard... i.e. pda and smart phones.
There are many words in the English language that have homophones. Google being a text-based search interface is smart enough to not mix up "four" and "for", "too" and "two", or "plane" and "plain". There's no way for voice recognition technology to tell the difference between those words in a search query, there simply isn't enough context...
That being said, this will likely make life better for people with severe spinal injuries or others with limited use of their hands. Kudos to Opera.
I personally think having alternative means of interacting with our software is important.
For a user such as myself a keyboard and mouse is presently more intuitive, but eventually this sort of software should prove very useful, especially as computers become more fully integrated into our lives.
This technology might also be useful with a couple of modifications, for the blind if it was coupled with one of those applications that reads the text from the screen for you.
I hope the next step would be interfacing more easily with computers through gestures or non-standard spoken communication for those who are speech impaired and for some reason can't use a keyboard or mouse.
I suppose this is just my personal agenda shining through, but I think diverse means of interfacing with our information is essential to enriching the lives of those who are different as well as making the majorities life easier.
Well, while you probably have the option to pick your keyboard, there are many handcapped people in the world that would find amazing just surf the Web all by themselves. This will be much more than a toy for them.
I installed some of the first off the shelf Voice recognition software a number of years ago for my sisters cousin who has cerebral palsy, and it made a huge difference in her being able to use the computer for her education, I sent the Opera Link to her Mom to look at in that this might be something that would suit her also.
" My next house will have no kitchen - just vending machines and a large trash can. "
To you, it might be a gimmick. To someone with a disability, this could make life a lot easier.
Clever signature text goes here.
And his favorite browser is Opera. I bet this will just make him love opera even more! It's tedious for him to type, as he has limited control of his hands, so this will really help him out. I'm really glad Opera is doing this.
What could I possibly have to say to my browser?
Agreed. While there are some cases where voice-activated technology has its uses (I very much doubt people would be thrilled with typing into their onboard navigation systems while driving) a web browser or other common features on your computer simply don't need speech recognition.
For Joe User, I doubt we'll ever see widespread use of speech recognition technology. Who wants to go hoarse telling a computer what to do when it only takes a flick of the wrist as it is? And man, an office could get noisy if everyone was dictating documents and telling their machines to "download Natalie Portman pictures."
You are correct, it is a hard arena to innovate in, and Opera is the only company I know that is actively innovating-- and at the same time making their product faster and less resource intensive. Voice recognition will be an optional feature, and will be quite useful especially for those who rely on non-standard accessibility features.
Many of the features opera has increase productivity and are downright addictive on the desktop, but guestures on mobile devices where you have no keyboard (such as a cellphone (with 'intelligent type' etc) or pda) are almost mandatory. Not to mention Opera's Small Screen Rendering (press Shift-F11 in opera to test it out) which makes browsing the web (ie, not WAP) actually possible.
You have to realize that Opera as a product is used on at least 7 different desktop OSs, several brands of Smartphones, PDAs, internet terminals/STBs, etc. Much of the so-called 'gimmicks' are a necessity for one of these other markets. The benefit to the Opera user is getting all of these features regardless of platform, and homogeneity of the product line (meaning Opera on Mac should have all of the features and a similar interface (barring OS/GUI differences) as Opera for Linux).
Imagine a PDA that you can actually talk to instead of having to struggle with "Graffiti" or the little thumb keyboards. Hell, if it's good enough, you could even get rid of the need for a screen and just interact entirely through voice - here's how we could finally get a useable web browser/email client/schedule program in a watch!
One step closer to some of the concepts explored in Snowcrash, maybe?
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A solution to a problem I don't have.