March 25, 2006
Voice recognition in Windows Vista
Check out this great video of the voice recognition system built into Windows Vista... not enough time to get a good idea of its accuracy and its not as fast as I'd hoped, but being able to use any computer running Windows Vista would be a great boon to die-hard voice recognition users.
Posted by Michelle at 10:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Silent Speaker
In space, no one can hear you scream. Use a cell phone on a crowded commuter train and everyone can.
Charles Jorgensen is working to solve both problems, using an uncanny technology called subvocal speech recognition. Jorgensen demonstrates it at his offices at NASA's Ames Research Laboratory in Mountain View, Calif. He attaches a set of electrodes to the skin of his throat and, without his opening his mouth or uttering a sound, his words are recognized and begin appearing on a computer screen. The Ames lab has already used subvocal commands to drive a car around a virtual city in a computer simulation and to Google the Web using nothing but unuttered search terms and commands.
Posted by Michelle at 10:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 16, 2005
Raging against the machines
That is just a taste of the secret shortcuts we could all use - maybe double during the holidays. Don't thank me. Thank Paul English. He's the Bostonian co-founder of Kayak.com, an Internet travel site. But he has recently become a minor celebrity because of his personal Web site, paulenglish.com. and its "IVR Cheat Sheet" - which lists dozens of ways to circumvent those automated voice recognition systems.
Posted by Michelle at 12:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 06, 2005
Sick of automation? Dial 0 for human
The widespread proliferation of automated customer service systems is part of a profound change in the way American businesses deal with customers. A lot of attention has been focused on how consumers end up speaking to call centers in India or other countries when they phone for help. But Gartner Inc., a market research firm in San Francisco, said many companies are bypassing call centers altogether by asking their customers to serve themselves with the help of technology.
Self-service activities range from customers scanning and bagging their own groceries to consumers using automated voice systems or websites to purchase tickets, submit insurance claims, manage bank accounts, or adjust financial portfolios. By 2010, Gartner says, self-service will account for 58 percent of all service interactions, up from 35 percent today.
Posted by Michelle at 03:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 02, 2005
It's VoIP, Jim, but not as we know it: nVidia CEO predicts tech developments
The future of wireless communications could be a world without mobile phones, where Wi-Fi signals pick up your voice commands from a chip-enabled lapel on your breast pocket, then VoIP (voice over IP) converts the voice signals to data and sends them across the internet to powerful servers that can identify the caller's voice and connect them immediately to the person they're trying to find.
Posted by Michelle at 11:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 27, 2005
Microsoft lifts veil on future innovations
Creating these opportunities, new devices and functions can require a tremendous amount of research. Sometimes the results of that research aren't really visible but simply help existing technology run better, smoother or more quickly.
At other times, the hard work produces entirely new capabilities. For instance, we expect the next two decades of Windows to bring fast and easy voice recognition, handwriting recognition as a standard reliable feature on any computer, and unbelievable 3D and multidimensional graphics at a very low cost.
Posted by Michelle at 06:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 25, 2005
Futurists Pick Top Tech Trends
Speech-recognition technology will be instrumental in enabling new mobile services, said Ronald Gruia, author of the blog Technology Futurist and emerging communications program leader at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. In recent years, speech software developers, in particular Nuance Communications, which until recently went by the name ScanSoft (SSFT), have gotten much better at what they do. Gruia believes it's only a matter of time before speech-enabled mobile apps for tasks like composing e-mail while driving can be commonplace.
Posted by Michelle at 07:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack