DocAndersen
Ok, so in my office, I have three smart speakers. One is on loan and is going back; the other two are ones I got when I was testing smart speakers. What I realized yesterday is that sometimes when I am thinking I talk to myself out loud. Yesterday I got a response from a disembodied voice “I’m sorry I can’t answer that.” It was in response to my soliloquy that honestly didn’t require a response. Rather, I was speaking to myself and didn’t need a response. Both Alexa and Cortana answered me. It did give me a great idea for a virtual therapy application. Then the social worker stepped in and said, you need a human being, a virtual therapist wouldn’t work. (she’s right, but it is still an interesting idea).
It is a one-sided argument often, and frankly, Alexa wins. When I ask a tough question of the smart speaker that well it doesn’t like I get the “I can’t answer that.” As a parent I know that is one of the best ways to make me stop being angry. It is also the one way that guarantees the child is professing that will get a lot of follow on questions.
The integration of voice control is interesting. It isn’t that hard to do, except for two parts. The first thing is the reality of natural language recognition. The Virily Quizster Norman recently had a great post on the differences between “English” and America. It seems strange, but it is a critical thing. If you consider how a smart speaker listens and speaks, then as an American I want to know that I am about to be hit by a truck. An Englishperson would prefer that the smart speaker notify them of an approaching Lorry on a collision course. In setting up a smart speaker, you have to tell the system what language you re using. Yes, they all have options for American English and High Faluting proper, as they say, UK English.
That way when you ask to rent a flat your smart speaker will help you find an apartment!
They continue to improve, and frankly, smart speakers are petty good. The four big tech companies all have one, and I will end with that!
- Amazon Alexa
- Microsoft Cortana
- Google Home
- Apple Homepod
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Question of
Do you speak American?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you speak the variation of English know of UK English?
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Yes
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No
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I am not quite a tech person but I love watching my niece when she talks to Siri. The advance in technology is sure fascinating and sometimes it confused me that some human (customer service, not everyone surely but the not is the exception) behave like a machine does ???
That is an interesting question, I don’t really have a good answer. That is one to research I suspect!
Incident with my credit card company (kept requesting them to change some info in my billing address but to no avail) and an airline company (cancelled my nephew’s roundtrip ticket which has been paid for coz he was not able to board the flight from Manila and apparently that is enough reason he cannot use the return ticket as well – that term was not anywhere indicated in the ticket). Made me think that prolly Siri can give better service ???
Unfortunately, I do not know this technology because I do not even use it
It is coming 🙂 smartphones, smart speakers soon most things will be voice empowered!
You are right … all the technology is smart today … I have a smartphone, but sometimes I have some problems ?
I think the value for many people will be the improved voice control. You’ll simply tell your device what to do!
I’ll have to try it, maybe I’ll like it
Here in Thailand, there is a Thai version of Siri but some words can’t be translated yet.
I suspect, based on the fact that UK English speaking Siri, and American English Speaking Siri struggles to communicate, other languages are going to be much harder!
yes, but specially Thais have different ways of speaking. they don’t sometimes pronounce R and other letters. that’s why they say, Hey Sili … not hey Siri.
I meant no offense to Thai by the way.
I remember trying to learn Thai many years ago. My skill was limited after the honorary hello 🙂
lol. yes Thai is a complicated language.
That is one of the reasons I have chased after translation technology, I literally went from Malaysia to Vietnam, Thailand and then South Korea ending up in China and then Singapore on one trip. I was lost most of that time.
Singapore? they speak English very well so what’s the problem.
I had Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Malaysian and Korean, I was fried.
oh yeah those are crazy combinations. not even a match or similarities.