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."

Comments

a few things to say...

[frazzydee]

This sounds like a fun thing to play around with, but I certainly don't see myself using it as a normal web browser. I'll most likely stick with my keyboard.
as for their statement about it being a replacement for powerpoint, I don't think that this will fly either unless they either: a) find a company to make a powerpoint alternative which saves to html files b) make the aforementioned software themselves. Even if they accomplished that, people's stupidity and ignorance has proven time and time again that whether microsoft's software is better, worse, or just as good as its competitors- people will buy microsoft's software instead of others. Look at openoffice.org, mozilla (most people use ie)/opera/konquer/galeon/netscape/etc, linux, amd a bunch of other superior software. Maybe a couple could be explained (linux often involves use of the command line interface, netscape is slower to load (even though ie cheats by loading some of the program at startup time)), but most of it is due to a problem which exists somewhere between the keyboard and the chair. Besides, I would find a remote control a better option than speech, since a remote control wouldn't force me to scream "NEXT SLIDE" across the room like an idiot before it recognizes what I'm saying. It would also be much smoother to just press a button on a remote control.

Re:a few things to say...

[GreenCrackBaby]

Think of how this will change the life of a disabled person, who may be unable to type?

And as for presentations, who says you have to stop your speech to scream "NEXT SLIDE". Imagine a presentation package capable of picking up from your presentation exactly when you'd like the next "slide" (useless word since you could now do much more than you are constrained with using Powerpoint).

Imagine, during a presentation, being able to say "If you look at the sales figures for the year..." and have your presentation automatically display those figures.

Re:a few things to say...

[Krondor]

a) find a company to make a powerpoint alternative which saves to html files

OpenOffice can save to HTML and Flash files from Presentations.

Even if they accomplished that, people's stupidity and ignorance has proven time and time again that whether microsoft's software is better, worse, or just as good as its competitors- people will buy microsoft's software instead of others. Look at openoffice.org, mozilla (most people use ie)/opera/konquer/galeon/netscape/etc, linux, amd a bunch of other superior software.

People buy Microsoft software because they are
a.) not familiar with the competitors
b.) worried about compatibility with the rest of their microsoft software
c.) do not want to retrain staff
d.) need feature X which competition lacks
e.) work for Microsoft or are otherwise affiliated with them.
f.) do not trust an unproven product (in their eyes) and don't want to be the guinea pigs

Point being, as other software matures it will be harder and harder for Microsoft to release sub par software and expect a solid buy in. If you look at Mozilla it's growing speed very fast now, I know a number of Windows users that aren't even very technical that use FireFox and/or Mozilla. Look at OpenOffice, Microsoft is killing themselves with their own Doc standard. They can't move future iteratios of Office to abandon or morph the compatiblity of .doc too much or they break compatiblity with themselves, and this allows the competition to reverse engineer and support those standards.

As far as Opera's voice operated browser goes I think this is great, especially for disabled and handicapped people. I also think there's a certain appeal to be in front of a board and say Next slide to your openoffice html/flash presentation and have it progress. I mean what a way to impress.

Browsing with people is a pain

[sklib]

I'm sure you've all done this at one point or another -- you stand over the shoulder of a friend or co-worker, and tell him or her to go to a website that you are familiar with, and they are not. Then you say "Ok, click on 'specs' up in the corner.... no, the other corner... yes, that button... no, don't click below it - that's somethign else..." Same deal with e.g. getting someone to change an option in a program somewhere -- you gotta walk them through a series of mouse clicks or things to look for, and it's frustrating when they don't do it right away. (maybe i'm just an impatient jerk?)

The point here is when it's hard to instruct intelligent people how to browse the web, how well can a computer do it? I have my doubts.

It may have a niche.

[mystery_bowler]

For a while my wife was a physical therapist at a nursing facility that specialized in head tramau and paralysis. I installed Dragon NaturallySpeaking for several patients there and several of them became extremely proficient in using it. I'm not sure how having built-in support would be more advantageous, though.

I can't see this having wide acceptance in the corporate world. Cube farms are noisy enough. I can't imagine what it must sound like for everyone to be browsing by voice.

I also can't imagine some of my co-workers saying the addresses of what they browse out loud. *shudder*

I've tried this with Dragon

[DrSkwid]

I got a free copy of dragon dictate once so I trained it as much as possible.

I got mozilla working quite happily, 'down' 'up' 'slow' (that was a good one, it slowly scrolled down), 'back' etc.etc.

the thing I found after weeks of training that it was just so tiring talking all the time

Here's Hoping...

[spoonboy42]

God, I hope something like this replaces PowerPoint. As we all know, PowerPoint makes you stupid. It forces you either to dumb down your presentation to the intellectual complexity (and entertainment value) of an infomercial, or cram so much text onto your slides, most of which you will recite anyway, that you might as well just pass out reports in 3-ring binders.

That said, I think the most crippling thing about PowerPoint is its linearity. Not all presentations "want" to be laid out into a preset order of points. If a college professor or a businessperson gets asked a question during a presentation, all too often it is diverted by saying "well, that's coming up in a few slides", or the presentation is interrupted as tangential data is introduced.

Using voice recognition instead of click-through navigation opens up some great possibilities for non-linear presentations, though. Imagine that, instead of organizing your presentation into a linear timeline, you group slides and other media into "points", each of which represents a different idea relevant to your talk. You can arrange these points into a web, indicating what information depends on prior knowledge from other slides, etc. You then assosciate each point with an audio "cue", say a phrase like "projected profit margins" or "the three kingdoms period". You'll note that these phrases are things you're likely to naturally utter in your presentation anyway. This has the advantage of enabling you to speak totally naturally without interrupting your presentation. To avoid accidental jumping, we would have, say, a little translucent blue arrow fade into being every time a cue is recognized, disappearing a few seconds later. If you actually want to jump to a new point, it's just a quick click of a button when you see the blue arrow.

So, imagine you're giving a sales presentation to a group of executives. You notice this particular group is getting bored with your standard sales pitch. No problem, as you just drop a key phrase into your speech, and instantly change your presentation to include information you think will appeal to the business interests of your audience, or simply to their personality. Or, imagine a professor is giving a lecture on a peice of literature. A student asks a question about the author's background, and the professor can easily insert some information on their country, their historical circumstances, and their life.

Of course, organizing this type of presentation requires a greater investment in planning, and certainly requires a little more cognitive ability than your standard PowerPoint fare. However, those who work with these new presentation systems will be giving themselves an undeniable competitive advantage over presenters using linear methods. And those in the audience will be grateful, I'm sure.