What are your thoughts on voice control for smartphones?

[mikedt]

Nothing in the tech world is ever absolutely perfect. This is like saying that you'd never use any app that ever had a possibility of crashing ... and there aren't any of those out there.

Of course voice control will never be absolutely perfect, but it can be vastly improved though. I can talk much faster than I can type, but AFAIK there is currently no voice recognition software out there that will transcribe me reading a passage aloud at my normal speaking speed without getting a load of errors.

FYI I do use voice control for my telephone banking, works quite reliably in Mandarin Chinese and I'm not even a native speaker. But it's only got to recognise numbers though, a very limited vocabulary.

It's rather like handwriting recognition, they've been at it for decades, but it is still in its relative infancy. Printing might be OK, but it can have serious problems recognising normal cursive/joined-up writing.

The other problem with things like Siri and similar, is that they have to be connected to the internet for them to work. My old Nokia E71 smart phone had voice dialling and control which didn't need the internet, but I never used it, as it was so unreliable.

 

[julianne791]

Now THAT, julianne791, is an excellent thought and good example of putting voice command devices to great practical use! Here Here!

Here's my wheelchair, gotta have voice software because see the back little wheels, I was talking on the phone at the mall, swung around and ran over my mum's toes! Two black toes days later..after that I realised I needed to pay more attention to the environment around me *giggle*

 

[Rico ANDROID]

Here's my wheelchair, gotta have voice software because see the back little wheels, I was talking on the phone at the mall, swung around and ran over my mum's toes! Two black toes days later..after that I realised I needed to pay more attention to the environment around me *giggle*

Julianne! yes, id say "texting and driving" applies to you too.. (smile). oops rolled over the mum's toes? ouch.

This new technology will be a great benefit for you , imagine if we had all this techie stuff just 10 years back even? PS: mum's not scared or your driving anymore is she? (smile)

 

[julianne791]

She isn't scared of my driving but doesn't stand near the wheelchair like she used it thou lol, they don't go that fast a max of 10 kms an hour

 

[Rico ANDROID]

She isn't scared of my driving but doesn't stand near the wheelchair like she used it thou lol, they don't go that fast a max of 10 kms an hour

Lol, the good thing is you and your mum made a moment in family history that you will laugh over , years to come... Do you currently have some sort of voice activated device. Hows your navigating current? Im sure you are doing great and new technology willbe such new advances to make things even better!

 

[BabyBlues]

Never gonna use any kind of voice thingy. I have a speech impediment, so it's harder to get the whole thing working.

My mom also has a speech impediment (stuttering) so for her anything that requires speech to work doesn't work properly. I don't see how they could ever get this to work properly for stutters and lisps. (And let me tell you - the last person who snickered within my earshot of someone with a speech impediment will never do it again, they did not like being called out on in it, in public and then being ostracized by everyone the rest of the weekend)

For those of us with physical disabilities, using voice is better if you can't type or if your like me you use it when your driving your wheelchair around the shopping mall so you don't ram someone from behind on the ankles.

This is a fully understandable, practical use for it. (Although some people definitely deserve to be rammed in the ankles)



As for my take on this - I don't use the speech feature on anything. If I can't text it, call or type a question into a search engine then it's not that important and can wait.

 

[NYCHitman1]

Just my opinion, but our society has more or less become a bunch of lazy SOBs. That's where Siri comes handy.

 

[Pitamakan]

Just my opinion, but our society has more or less become a bunch of lazy SOBs. That's where Siri comes handy.

I imagine there are still a couple of people in America who still use manual typewriters, because they think that computers are for lazy SOBs.

Bottom line: laziness and efficiency are not the same thing. The real question here is whether voice input technology has yet matured enough to be truly efficient, of whether it still has a ways to go.

 

[Saltine713]

Don't forget that it does not like background noise, so if you are in a train station or other crowded area, good luck.

 

[Rico ANDROID]

From what I am reading it definitely does have some practical use.

 

[julianne791]

This is a fully understandable, practical use for it. (Although some people definitely deserve to be rammed in the ankles)

haha that they do LOL

Lol, the good thing is you and your mum made a moment in family history that you will laugh over , years to come... Do you currently have some sort of voice activated device. Hows your navigating current? Im sure you are doing great and new technology willbe such new advances to make things even better!

No don't have voice activated devices unless you count Dragon naturally speaking to help me write my university assignments. Navigating current?

 

[Rico ANDROID]

haha that they do LOL




No don't have voice activated devices unless you count Dragon naturally speaking to help me write my university assignments. Navigating current?

The good thing is new technology is constantly releasing better apps and devices. Cool you are in school what year are you in your studies and would this type of app improve your campus experience?

 

[jester68]

I occasionally use the voice commands on my galaxy s 2 for texting etc but, living in Wales I cant use the voice commands on Google Maps navigation because it just cant handle the pronounciations!!

 

[mikedt]

"Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch"

TBH I can't see why Google Maps would have a problem here. It can have difficulty with things like "Xilinhaote, Neimenggu Zizhiqu" though.