As usual Apple has created major waves as it introduces new technology. We are talking about the iPhone 4S with the Siri voice technology application. Forbes with a two-step back-and-forth series has helped the hype. Perhaps Siri is a Google killer. Perhaps Siri is not a Google killer. Given the growing importance of the mobile Internet, there are huge implications in how this conflict plays out.
Search by voice and transit directions comes to Google Maps with a whole host of new features.
You can now search Google Maps for Android using your voice, making it easier than ever to look up places while on the go. Just speak your query and Google Maps will find it. The voice recognition engine currently understands English in American, Australian, and British accents. After you search, you will see a map of places. To help you decide where to go, business listings includes content such as store hours, prices, ratings, and reviews.
See Official Google Mobile Blog: Search by voice whatever your accent for more details.
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Voice technology is undoubtedly the preferred input method as the mobile web evolves. The gaming industry will certainly be the leading edge in this evolution. Now Tom Clancy’s Endwar from Ubisoft Shanghai demonstrates a robust example of what is possible.
The developer, Ubisoft Shanghai, has cheated a little though. Rather than use the software to recognize actual words, it is used to recognize the sounds that make up those words – the system used looks out for particular sounds that go to make up a word. This cunningly gets around the need for a large amount of training generally required with standard speech recognition software, and also gets around the problem of accents: the main sounds of a word are essentially the same, regardless of your accent. The problem has been simplified even further by only recognizing a handful of words – about eighty or ninety, according to Ubisoft.
Overall the review is basically positive, although there are some reservations:
Tom Clancy’s Endwar has an innovative control method which works surprisingly well; and it has a storyline that is both interesting and pertinent to today’s events. The voice control works excellently, but it works so well because it has a limited range of understanding, and this in turn limits other parts of the game.
For more information about the game there is a paperback, Tom Clancy’s EndWar
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Voice Technology is the killer app particularly as the mobile Web becomes more ubiquitous. However there is a downside. Your voice carries. With voice technology, you may even avoid moving. That is certainly possible if you buy an alarm clock that features voice recognition. Here is what such an alarm clock allows you to do:
When the alarm goes off in the morning and you don’t feel like getting up, all you need to do is yell ‘Stop’ which starts a 5-minute snooze timer. The alarm clock recognizes 10 different spoken commands including Set alarm, Set time, Check alarm, What’s the date, Alarm sound, Stop and Temperature.
In this world where ParticipAction is the watchword, such a device seems to be going in the wrong direction. Perhaps you should use an alarm clock that forces you to get up after a short delay. Here is a description of a runaway alarm clock.
After you hit the snooze button, the contraption rolls off the bedside table and zooms away on a set of wheels to some other part of the room, finding a new hiding place every day.
Using a Snooze Button goes entirely against the principles set out by Dave Allen of the Get Things Done company. He would say you should decide when you’re going to do something and then do it. With that philosophy your alarm clock does not need a snooze button of any kind.
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