Talking to your computer!

When will we be able to verbally communicate with our computers?

It's been years since the talk/type programs hit the shops. I know they were not very good but that was years ago, how are they today?

Also when will we see them in an operating system?

 

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Do you want to hold conversations with the computer or verbally give commands?

 

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Both would be nice. But I would have thought the give commands would have been with us by now.

 

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i don't think something like that will be popular.

 

You can do that already. Windows XP has speech recognition functionality.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/moskowitz_02september23.mspx

This feature is unlocked when you install certain programs---- the game "Unreal Tournament 2004" is one example. Another example is microsoft office.


It's not as cool as it sounds though. For one thing, speech to text can't handle certain words that sound the same (I went swimming in the see one day, and caught for tea fish in won hour). ALso, browsing the internet, or clicking on different desktop icons----------takes---------for---------ever when you do it using voice commands.

Just getting to Internet explorer sounds something like:
up, up, up, up, enter, tab, tab, tab, tab, tab, tab, tab, tab, tab, definition, space quotation mark, agnostic, quotation mark, enter.


Of course it's been a long time since I've played with it, and maybe they've added a few features.

 

I'm sure people speak to their computers all the time. especially when they aren't doing what they are suppose to be doing, Like crashing or not booting.

From what I remember although Microsoft developed their own speech recognition software, IBM did a greater study in it I believe.

 

I prefer to think that I speak through my computer but i'm just a sad sack.

 

A little off topic but I once found a free-ware program that used my webcam to watch my eyes and use eye movement to move the mouse around. I admit it didn't work too well but I can just imagine how good I would be in Counter-Strike with that if I could get it to work.. instant headshots.. hehe

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a little more off topic
the military designed a system that allowed a pilot to aim his guns by looking in the direction he wanted to shoot. they did it by using a specially designed helmet.

 

I think that involved bouncing infrared off the retina, although personally bombarding your eye at close proximity with radiation of any form isn't necessarily a good idea which is probably why you rarely see it's use.

 

I remember using Speakable Items and voice passwords with Mac OS 9. They both sucked.

 

If I had a microfone regularly plugged in to my PC I might assign the loud yelling of "FUCK" to be the same as pressing ctrl-alt-del. It'd be good for agression.

 

what i was talking about wasn't quite that high tech
the helmet was designed sort of like a mohawk hair cut.
there was a ridge running from the brow to the back of the neck.
the ridge was approx. 3 to 4 inches wide, it extended that far from the helmet.
i am not quite sure how they coupled it to the gun.

 

windows xp (might be pro only) has a built in speech to text program, check under control panel and sounds to configure

 

even if i had one of those fancy programs that let you speak commands, my pc wouldn't listen. it's a fickle bitch, and it hates me. i hate it back though. reciprocity. but "we're" not as high tech as xp just yet. hoping xp will be the glue that holds this relationship together.

 

Similiar technology is used in Eye Controlled Focus cameras, such as the digital range of EOS cameras by Canon.They focus where you look.

 

My father is a physician and has just incorporated a completly digital office(quite a feat to undertake, if you know how the medical industry works). Anyways, He has been working with certain programs for some time now so that dictation can all be done on the computer, initially he used Dragon Natural Speech, but I think it was kind of a bust. He went on to try several different things, but now uses Electronic Medical Managment. The best programs are going to be spawned out of corporate necessity(necessity is the mother of all inventions). Once people start using speech oriented computing in the office, the technology will trickle down to public use.