Voice Recognition

[Jakethasnake919]

Just curious...how soon will we be able to see an operating system that we can talk to? How far along is voice recognition technology and is Apple planning on implementing this technology in its designs? I don't expect anything like Tony Stark's computer on Iron Man as cool as that would be, but maybe something starting to lean in that direction. I would like to see (or maybe hear would be a better word) a computer that has a very clean voice that can speak full sentences without being choppy and that could understand what the user says and possible even reason. I don't think that AI has come along that far but maybe someone else knows more facts.

 

[chilipie]

OS X already has some options for controlling the computer with your voice... I've had a play with it (may have been with Tiger rather than Leopard, admittedly), and although when it works it's quite entertaining it's far from useful. Until speech can be consistently and accurately transcribed faster than I can type, I can't imagine myself wanting to use it - and I can never really see voice controls being easier to use than a mouse.

 

[Jakethasnake919]

Yes, I have played around with that too. It is very interesting how you can customize it for various applications that you use. But, it isn't very accurate and sometimes I find myself repeating a command 2-3 times. I was just curious if real voice recognition would be seen anytime soon.

 

[DoFoT9]

Yes, I have played around with that too. It is very interesting how you can customize it for various applications that you use. But, it isn't very accurate and sometimes I find myself repeating a command 2-3 times. I was just curious if real voice recognition would be seen anytime soon.

maybe you should give this product a look

Macspeech Dictate--Apple Store

it is getting better all the time. it can hear words very well, and it can be taught to understand commands. very customisable.

 

[richard.mac]

i think people just dont want to talk to their computers yet. i feel its a bit too odd and geeky and id rather use my keyboard and mouse.if you saw a person in public speaking to their computer and not video chatting it would seem weird.

like "switch to Finder", "open Documents folder, switch to Cover Flow view, scroll right, Quick Look" in a monotone voice like you not talking to a machine which is exactly what you doing, which is why its too geeky or not 'mainstream'.

i mean who uses voice typing in XP or Vista in Word? im sure the blind do but not its not a market. is there voice typing in Pages?

Apple have set the bar for speech and voice recognition with Fred since the start of OS X and now Alex in Leopard. users just need to start using it and more importantly developers need to integrate it into their apps.

i think the iPhone will have a good market for it and Apple will find a way to make voice calling cool and not a nuisance like other phones.

the Professor talking to his Mac in that Mac ad will become a reality soon enough.

 

[nsbio]

i think people just dont want to talk to their computers yet.

The key word is "YET", because current computers, despite their gigaflops, hertz, blue teeth etc are still dumb. Once a computer can actually understand human speech, that is, follow spoken instructions, not verbatim but the way a trained human secretary would do, then it would make more sense to speak to a computer. On the flip side, then we will start complaining of previously unheard of problems, that computers talk too much and take too much arguing to persuade them to do anything.

 

[richard.mac]

haha "blueteeth"

yes that will be the day when we start arguing with computers. machine vs human warfare will begin… Connors vs Skynet?

 

[eleven2brett]

I've seen more and more voice-activated technology around these days. I think it makes more sense for those with disabilities. But after the kinks get worked out, and things start to function, I think we we'll see it move from being a gimick to being a tool.