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Google Voice Search May be Coming Soon

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the nothing-like-idle-speculation dept.

vitaly.friedman writes "The master of text-based search could be looking to lend a voice to Internet users everywhere, or so it appears based on Google's latest patent. Patent #7,027,987, issued today by the US Patent and Trademark Office, covers a 'Voice interface for a search engine.'"

7 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    lend a lend a voice?

    Do Slashdot editors submit stories with voice recognition software?

  2. Coming Soon? by afaik_ianal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd say that if Google had any serious plans to do anything with this, then we would have heard something about it already (something more than a paper written 4 years ago). Although the patent was only just issued today, it was filed over 5 years ago.

    It seems like a pretty big logical leap to say that it is "coming soon" based on the fact that the USPTO finally got their butts into gear.

    It's probably just an idea they though was cool at the time, and should be patented in case they want to use it some time.

  3. Not useful for me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I doubt speaking the word "sex" to my pc at work will get me a raise anytime soon... I'll stick with traditional methods of finding my porn... =)

  4. Google Voice Search by tehshen · · Score: 3, Informative

    Haven't they already done a thing like this before? Maybe they've only just patented it. Either way I don't see a story here.

    --
    Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
  5. Voice Matching by UnseenLlama · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Great! Now the government will be able to not only track my search results...but also attach my voice to it! Not that I'm scared or anything...

  6. European Quaero. by magli · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I was almost sure that I had read something about a EC funded "google-killer" search engine being developed in europe, which planned to do this. Sure enough:

    Attack of the Eurogoogle (Need subscription).
    No subscription needed here
    From the article:
    researchers at the University of Karlsruhe are developing Quaero's voice-recognition and translation technology, with funding from the European Commission. [...] In addition, speaker-identification software will allow users (via computer microphones) to search the internet for audio clips recorded in their own voices, or those of other speakers.
  7. I've Seen this Episode by carrier+lost · · Score: 4, Funny

    Kirk: Computer, get me coordinates to Alpha Centari!

    Computer: Did you mean: coordinates to alpha centauri

    Kirk: Yes, yes, okay.

    Computer: Alpha Centauri Alpha Centauri B is much brighter than Alpha Centauri C but still alot weaker than A. ... The coordinates for these stars are: ... www.eso.org/outreach/eduoff/edu-prog/catchastar/CA S2002/cas-projects/nether_alphacen_1/astrofacts.ht ml - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

    Kirk: What? Quick! Oh, OH KAY! for Pete's sake!

    Spock: Captain, you get better results if you say, 'I'm feeling lucky'

    MjM

    --
    XKCD:Xeric Knowledge Comically Dispen