Slashdot Mirror
Platform-Independent Real-Time Speech Technology
Odin's Raven writes "Opera Software's R-and-D department today announced the discovery of a new technology dubbed 'Opera SoundWave' - a platform-independent speech solution for short- and medium-range interpersonal communication. Based on open standards, Opera's patent-pending P2P speech technology uses analogue signals carried through open air, enabling users to communicate in real- time without the use of computers or mobile phones. Details (including link to tech preview) are available in their press release. I wonder how long it will be before a FOSS implementation of this technology emerges?"
It's a joke
Jesus used to be my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him.
Sounds like talking (short range) or yelling (mid-range) to me...
*sigh* When will this all end?
VOIP-over-sneakernet?
You are not the customer.
I'm working on a platform-independent speech-to-text system, complete with OCR technology. It's all based on a massively parallel implementation of biotech.
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
Oh how I with there was a GPL for standards.
I hope this isn't another, 'people use translators to talk to each other' so lets patent people use 'electronic' translators to talk to each other.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
it too far with this 1. April... :(
...I mean how many more april fools jokes do we have to put up with? Who the hell are Opera?
How can someone "discover" a new technology that they actual developed? It's not like discovering a new element or planet.
Based on open standards, Opera's patent-pending P2P speech technology uses analogue signals carried through open air, enabling users to communicate in real- time without the use of computers or mobile phones.
I claim prior art! I've been using analogue signals carried through open air to communicate with users for the past 30 years!
Let's call it a day.
Come on guys, now you are just wasting bandwidth.
War isn't about who's right. It's about who's left.
On Human to Human speech?
I would laugh if I didn't think a corporation has probably already tried to patent this.
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
I seem to remember The Balmer talking about MS Speech '90 a few years back. Sounds like a lawsuit to me.
'Loose' is when your pants are three sizes too big. 'Lose' is when you misuse 'loose'.
I'd better patent "writing documents without the assistance of electronic devices" and "interpersonal communication without the use of vibrations in a gaseous medium." Proving prior art on these would be more trouble than it'd be worth . . . .
I was reading up on a company called sutech who had developed a short range communications transfer technology powerd by Dead plant matter .
It involves superheating the matter and using a blanketing system to shape the output
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Well opera should enjoy this discovery while they can. I predict in a matter of moments they will be getting the cease and desist letter from Microsoft who patented this technology in the 70s.
I claim prior art more prior than yours. My Grandma's been using this method since the early 1920s.
I'll release it under the GPL. And I'll call it something catchy and commercially respectable, like Gnuvoc. Nah, that'll never work. Maybe Goice or Galk. Businesses everywhere will be Galking it up by year's end.
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
I mind that none of it is clever or funny. Much like this post.
"I have never won a debate with an ignorant person." -Ali ibn Abi Talib
I love April Fools Day!
You know it's only a matter of time before some idiot comes along and figures out a way to amplify the signal and then start spamming us from a "soapbox" (TM - patent pending) with this crap.
"It's difficult to meditate on amphetamines." - Joe Walsh
Hahaha, nice one :)
well i have the binary prior art locked up too. just the other day my wife an i reverted to this special technoligy to discus how much it was going to takle to fix the car. she replied 1100.
I tried using this once with the opposite sex. Who would have known she incorporated the Slap interface. Ouch.
So. Just like typical slashot, there are a bunch of drones prawling the internet looking for stories. Grabbing anything that will get their names on the front page.
Before long, the analog air waves will be clogged with sex-related content. And advertising.
...one of todays jokes I liked, thanks.
/.-ers, I think.
Sounds like a real good invention for most
I lag
I swear, the people who consistently fail to get the jokes are even more annoying than the constant jokes.
Another one bites the dust
sweet, succulent jesus!
-------
Incite and flee.
I turned on my computer, looked at /., saw this article, was intrigued, read the article.....and got totally played......you guys need to jump start your sense of humor! I didn't remember it was april freakin fools.....i kept waiting like an idiot for them to explain how the hell it worked.
I wonder how long it will be before a FOSS implementation of this technology emerges?
Since most FOSS developers lack "wetware" (stole that word I did) peers it will continue in its current proprietary state.
It's a joke
No it isn't. Jokes are funny.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
...stupid April Fool's e-jokes. Slashdot now owes me royalty payments :-)
Table-ized A.I.
You can overcome the 100 foot limitation by tunneling it over traditional phone lines, or even VOIP lines, although you may require a speakerphone at the other end. Another tunneling option might be this http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1149.txt, but I suspect there may be some latency issues.
You can shout at the waves but they're not turning back. Give up for another twelve hours and come back tomorrow.
At least this year they're linking to other people's jokes. A few years ago they did the deliberate dup gag and tell me THAT didn't get old fast.
I hope they release the patent so everyone can use it! Oh this is so exciting.
And here I've been throwing pieces of paper at my co-workers for years with little messages put on them. I wonder if I can patent that too.
cause Opera supposedly made it. Only thing I've seen from them recently are ads embedded in their browser and a bad April fools joke.
I'm speechless...
Here's a link to a device that can extend the range of communication. http://www.califone.com/product_info.php?cPath=40& products_id=99
Geez, the next thing you know those wizards will invent some way to send speech over some kind of electromagnetic gizmo for long distances. Then comes the music and other stuff. Then comes the rightwing nutcase talk shows. Where will it all end?
The technical aspects seem to be sound and well spoken. But, I have my doubts. Anyway, What is today's date? ;)
we're geeks, can't we make a sophisticated April's Fools trickery?
We? What you mean by we, kemo sabe?
Or maybe you're just saving your special talents for another year.
Infuriate left and right
When the US Pattent office grants the pattent on it to Opera :/
It's a nice idea, but I can't see any practical implementations. Like many computer users, I avoid conversation by sending an e-mail or IM to people sitting across the room.
They say that it uses the least bandwidth. However it only works over short distances and requires a good signal to noise ratio.
OTOH, in addition to needing little bandwidth, it is also secure against all forms of "Man in the Middle" attacks without needing to resort to private key technologies.
Another exciting form that is currently under test for the conventional vocalization mode is a range extending technology that consists of a resonating cavity at each node with the cavities attached together by a high efficiency molecular displacement transmission medium. This system is unique in that it can support both point to point as well as multi-point star configuration networks. The combination of the resonating cavities and the proprietary transmission medium improves the signal to noise ratio and thus the potential distance over which reliable data transfers can made. Several of these point to point or multipoint networks can coexist in the same physical environment(the engineers call it "being in earshot of each other") and still carry on simultaneous, independent "conversations" which would be impossible due to mutual interference if the standard "air" transmission medium was used. John E. Stroaker, CTO of QuikWrist Technologies, says this technology is expected to be especially useful for handheld applications since it uses no additional power to achieve the extended range.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
Slashdot has been taken over by a band of rabid monkeys in a successful coup d'etat attempt! Slashdot will now be a place where monkey pr0n will run rampant!
And on other news, Microsoft has turned its back on commercial software, and is making Windows open-source!
Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Bugs are good for building character in the user.
At first it looks like just another tired
April Fool's press release, but if you click
through to the demo...
SoundWave Demo
For a demo of SoundWave, Opera's P2P real-time voice technology, simply ask someone in your vicinity the following question:
"What is today's date?"
I found that refreshing, and worthy of a smile and
a small snerk. That's more humor than anything else
posted today has had!
--Parity None
--Parity
'Card carrying' member of the EFF.
The new SoundWave technology was accidentally discovered during an R&D study to speech-enable Opera's e-mail client. One of Opera's desktop developers needed to find an alternative way to relay a message to his colleague at a time when the e-mail server was down, and was startled to notice that his verbal outcry was intercepted and understood immediately.
Opera Watch - An Opera browser blog.
The new SoundWave technology was accidentally discovered during an R&D study to speech-enable Opera's e-mail client. One of Opera's desktop developers needed to find an alternative way to relay a message to his colleague at a time when the e-mail server was down, and was startled to notice that his verbal outcry was intercepted and understood immediately. (From the press release).
Opera Watch - An Opera browser blog.
"Opera Computer Techs Discover Outside"
Opera's computer technicians made an amazing discovery today -- they learned that there actually exists an outside world beyond the one they know and inhabit. This outside world has blue skies with white fluffy clouds and green grass (ignoring the pavement, cars, etc.)
Slashdot just makes them annoying by posting about a dozen such stories on one page every year
...welcome our new analog signals carried through open air Platform-Independent Real-Time Speech Technology overlords...
You were offended by...
×]u
DJMD - The fourth man - Planetary
opera would take it from somewhere else, make it more famous, wait until it is implemented in every possible browser, and then claim they invented it.
My new blog
Now I can see being mad about
"zero, one, one, zero, zero, one, one, zero, zero, one, one, one, zero, one, zero, one"
Thems fighting words ^H^H^H^H^H err letters...
DJMD - The fourth man - Planetary
but all day nothing but jokes strikes me as overkill
http://www.geocities.com/sethseekstruth/great_out
This actually reminds me of first time I saw e-mail in use. We was doing a small programming part in a project (high school level, back in 89 or so:-) and need verification of some details concerning the protocol on a signal stream from a radar installation. Our teacher wrote and sent a mail asking, and about 2 minutes later we heard the one he mailed to yelling "Yes" from down the other end of the corridor. I recall I was rather impressed by this new technology at the time:-)
they develop an interface for "non-standard" communication protocols so I can understand what the hell george bush is trying to say....
I hate to split hairs, but a technology cannot be discovered. A phenomenon can be discovered, and technology can implement that phenomenon, but unless you're discovering a technological implementation made by someone else, it's not discovery.
I was very disappointed when I tested this new technology under the "Quebec" platform...
Although it appeared to be working properly on my end, the "Quebec" technologies where somehow incompatible.
Oh, like that would affect the Slashdot crowd.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I am sure I have seen something similar, and it had a much better title than Opera Soundwave.. It was the Global Open Source Shared Independent Platform Evocation and Responder