The great leap will be when words like "please" are not ignored but understood.
I couldn't believe it when the article ended with
"We're actually getting people saying thank you -- to this robot," he said.
He didn't say whether his system answers this with "You're welcome!" The more that systems like these resemble normal human speech, the better. If I use pleases and thank yous, the system should be - I don't know - just a little bit nicer.
If the system could detect the tone of the caller, that would be even better. A caller who seems frustrated could be transferred to a human. An angry caller could have a different tree of prompts.
As hard as it must have been to talk to answering machines when they first appeared, it doesn't compare to talking with a computer. Ten years ago we had the technology to interact with our computers with voice, but most of us felt silly doing so in front of others. We still do, in certain cases. This is changing as more of us use these system in public.
The social barriers to voice human-computer interactions seem to be larger than the technological ones.
On TuVox's director of worldwide customer relations calling his system "a robot": about 15 years ago I worked directory assistance for the local phone company. At this time they had the technology to let the computer read out the number once we had found and confirmed it. One woman, after confirming the address, added "And don't give me to the robot!" I think she actually pictured me passing the phone to a tin robot beside me. "[whirr] [click] The new number is 555-3111 [bzzzzzzzzt] [click] [whirr] [bzonk]"
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The great leap will be when words like "please" are not ignored but understood.
I couldn't believe it when the article ended with
"We're actually getting people saying thank you -- to this robot," he said.
He didn't say whether his system answers this with "You're welcome!" The more that systems like these resemble normal human speech, the better. If I use pleases and thank yous, the system should be - I don't know - just a little bit nicer.
If the system could detect the tone of the caller, that would be even better. A caller who seems frustrated could be transferred to a human. An angry caller could have a different tree of prompts.
As hard as it must have been to talk to answering machines when they first appeared, it doesn't compare to talking with a computer. Ten years ago we had the technology to interact with our computers with voice, but most of us felt silly doing so in front of others. We still do, in certain cases. This is changing as more of us use these system in public.
The social barriers to voice human-computer interactions seem to be larger than the technological ones.
On TuVox's director of worldwide customer relations calling his system "a robot": about 15 years ago I worked directory assistance for the local phone company. At this time they had the technology to let the computer read out the number once we had found and confirmed it. One woman, after confirming the address, added "And don't give me to the robot!" I think she actually pictured me passing the phone to a tin robot beside me. "[whirr] [click] The new number is 555-3111 [bzzzzzzzzt] [click] [whirr] [bzonk]"
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