Talking To Computers?

merlock18 writes "Is it un-natural to talk to a computer? After discussing the outcome of the Jeopardy game with some colleagues, they seem to think it is mildly 'scary' to talk to a computer and have it competently talk back. Is this what everyone thinks? I was thinking to myself how much I would like to be able to even tell my computer to open programs by telling it vocally. A simple idea that I am fairly surprised is not common. Am I a minority in this one? Do people just not like the idea of talking (without cursing) to a computer, let alone have it act or reply? Would anyone else be interested in building their own mini-Watson, or is this just scary?"

Comments

Privacy

[JPLemme]

I can't speak for anybody else, but a lot of the time I don't *want* people to overhear what I'm asking my computer to do...

Instructions?

[CohibaVancouver]

Open the pod bay doors, Hal.

Re:Instructions?

[Hognoxious]

sudo open the pod bay doors, Hal.

Time heals all trends

[Waccoon]

Just give it 30 years. Once it becomes publicly available, it only takes one generation for society to get used to new tech.

Personally, I find it impressive but annoying. I'm already driven nuts by people talking on cell phones all day, and I don't want to hear and endless stream of command instructions, either.

Re:Time heals all trends

[Skidborg]

Or the results of a recently fired employee raging through the office roaring "SELECT ALL! DELETE!"

Uncanny Valley?

[DeviantxOne]

I wonder if there has been any research on the uncanny valley for speech...

Teamspeak

[Charliemopps]

Speech recognition sucks and always will. I can hotkey my way to any program faster than I can say the name of it. Simply double clicking and icon is super easy. Why do I want to have to say "Computer! Open! Porn!!!" when I have a shortcut to all my porn on my desktop? it doesn't even make sense. And entering urls? It would take 10min just to get the url at the top of this article in.

On a related note: I fucking hate teamspeak. If I wanted to talk to you retarded assholes I'd call one of those party lines. Fuck that, I want to play a video game. I don't want to talk to people. For whatever rudimentary communication I need I can type.

Someday

[jmorris42]

Someday speech will be an important input method. But not any time soon.

If you have to wear a microphone it isn't ready yet.

If you have to use a PTT switch it isn't ready yet.

If you have to repeat or cancel more than 1% of the things you say it isn't ready yet.

If you have to spend as much time proofreading dictation it has taken down and correcting the mistakes, it isn't ready yet.

If you have to speak in an unnatural way it isn't ready yet.

If it won't work in almost any environment it isn't ready yet.

Re:Watson wasn't exactly conversing with humans

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Actually.. you're quite incorrect.

Watson’s avatar, which viewers will see behind a standard Jeopardy! podium, is designer Joshua Davis’ artistic representation of the machine. It does not provide eyes or ears for Watson. Instead, Watson depends on text messaging, sent over TCP/IP, in order to receive the clue. At exactly the moment that the clue is revealed on the game board, a text is sent electronically to Watson’s POWER7 chips. So, Watson receives the clue text at the same time it hits Brad Rutter’s and Ken Jennings’ retinas.

Source: http://ibmresearchnews.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-watson-sees-hears-and-speaks-to.html

Re:Annoying as hell

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Agreed; I can't stand the speech recognition on phone systems. For one thing, it universally sucks unless you're only using single words. (I recall calling .. Verizon was it? it: "So you're having a problem. Please tell me what kind of problem you're having." me: "Internet is not working". it: "Okay. Did you say 'Phone line repairs?' ")

For another, it negates the only advantage (from a consumer perspective) of touchtone menu systems - the ability to quickly navigate when you know your choice ahead of time; or even when you hear it spoken without having to wait for the full menu of options. It seems that most systems allow touchtone interrupt, but don't allow voice interrupt, so if I press "5" for technical support it's fine - but I can't say "technical support" without being forced to listen to all the options.

Unix Commands ...

[Archangel Michael]

gawk; grep; unzip; touch; strip; init,
  uncompress, gasp; finger; find,
  route, whereis, which, mount; fsck; nice,
  more; yes; gasp; umount; head, halt,
  renice, restore, touch, whereis, which,
  route, mount,
  more, yes, gasp, umount, expand, ping,
  make clean; sleep

Issues

[dcollins]

(a) Accuracy, (b) Efficiency, (c) Privacy, (d) Noise pollution.

Computer...computer?

[beadfulthings]

I, of course, am now officially older than dirt. A couple of years ago, when I finally got my iPhone, I got the Google search app of course. I used it, it worked, I liked it. When I put the damned phone down, I thought, "If somebody had handed me this when I was fourteen I would have thought it was a phony Hollywood prop." That was when I decided that computers should only be addressed by means of picking up the mouse, pressing one of its buttons, and speaking clearly and distinctly into it in a fake Scottish accent.

Re:Voice recognition has been around since years!

[PhunkySchtuff]

I was using voice commands in 7.5.5 (maybe 8?). The Conversation went something like this:

"Open Macintosh Aich Dee"
Finder window opens...
"Open Documents Folder" ...
"Open Applications Folder" ...
"Open Photoshop"

and at this point there was a loud voice from the other side of the cube wall "Open the fucking thing yourself!"

It's this exact reason that voice control of office computers isn't quite ready for prime time, even more than 10 years down the track...

passwords

[roman_mir]

Sitting at a Starbucks:

-Computer, open my bank account.
-Which one?
-Bank of America
-That's a stupid bank account to have, they are broke
-Not as long as Bernanke keeps bailing them out.
-Fine. But your dollars are crap.
-Whatever. Open it.
-It wants your password.o!
-12345
-So the combination is... one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!
-Remind me to change the combination on my luggage. And what's the balance on the account?.
-15 bucks
-Yaho! I am gonna buy me a mouse and I'll make you shut up!

---

A day later:

-Computer, open my bank account
-Same stupid account as yesterday?
-Shut up and open it, and what's the balance?
-Negative 1000
-????!!!!

Re:passwords

[icebraining]

Reminds me of Phillip Dick's Ubik:

The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please."
He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I'll pay you tomorrow," he told the door. Again hetried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. "What I pay you," he informed it, "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't have to pay you."
"I think otherwise," the door said. "Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.
"In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.
"You discover I'm right," the door said. It sounded smug.
From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt's money-gulping door.
"I'll sue you," the door said as the first screw fell out.
Joe Chip said, "I've never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it."

Re:TNG Commands ...

[Terrasque]

Ah, so you didn't see that episode..

By mistake he just said "Earl Gray, hot" - and spent the rest of the show running from a rather flustered older gentleman.