Yahoo! has introduced a bunch of features into its mobile oneSearch product. The one they’re talking the most about seems to be the ability to use voice search. This is also about a year after Microsoft acquired voice recognition company, TellMe, to do much the same thing in a wider context.
I’m a little sceptical about voice commands generally, even though I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never learned to touch type on the basis that it would imminently become a dead skill as we’d all be dictating soon. Bearing in mind I’ve been using computers on this basis since 1989, you can see how forward thinking I was, as well as optimistic for the voice recognition industry.
My scepticism for mobiles though, is actually a result of the logic employed in thinking this through. 1. Mobile phones keyboards are hard to use. 2. We need a better way of interacting with mobiles. 3. Voice is much easier than fiddling around with those little key pads.
If you’re over 30, you probably think that this makes perfect sense. If you’re under 30, you’ll be going “WTF, dude?”. Well, actually, you probably wouldn’t put a comma there, if we’re going to be totally realistic.
Look at how these young digital natives use their phones. They don’t think it’s remotely difficult. In fact, using voice probably means that they have to take their iPod out of their ear, which is really a pain in the butt.
So, being controversial, I’d suggest that voice commands is a dying industry before it’s got going. If it doesn’t get used by the under 30s today, it ain’t got much of a future. Dude.
I’d have to agree (being over 30, heh), voice commands jsut arent *currently* that pragmatic.
Once mobile devices are an order of magnitude more intelligent and integrated (read: embedded) on the HCI level then I *do* think voice (sub vocalisation) will be the key input/output medium, but we’re talking at least 10 years away.
Voice to text on the other hand is right now both pragmatic and has all sorts of easy to implement bottom line saving functions, hence for examples Spinvox’s extraordinary success.
Don’t agree.
As animals we’re not programmed to type, we’re programmed to speak. Millions of years of evolution thwarted by this decade’s crappy speech recognition? I don’t think so.
Yeah, yeah, it’s Jetsons stuff, talking into your watch to interact with others and pull up information. But it’s obvious that’s how the mobile experience is going to end up being.
That curious Generation Y of dudes that learnt to type quickly on little keyboards should become a strange anomaly, in the grand scheme of things.
Thanks for the comments.
Good point about Spinvox Alfie. I was thinking about how they fitted in when I was writing and forgot to mention them. If you’re not not from these parts, Spinvox translates voice mail into an sms. However, it’s a little different, as while it is using voice, it’s self-selecting as the person leaving the message has already decided to leave a voice message. But agree it’s a great idea.
James - let’s just think about this, for fun. We’ve been using our hands as tools (opposable thumb and all that) far, far longer than we have been using speech. While the estimates vary, tool-using has been going on for about 6 million years (when we diverged from chimpanzees) and maybe a long time before. Whereas speech started between 10,000 and 100,000 years ago.
So we’re actually “programmed” longer and far more thoroughly to use our hands.
Either way, I actually think that some other inputting technology will come in and change everything and both voice and keyboards will be curiosities. Something like direct brain commands, a way of moving your jaw or waving the handset in a Wii-like way.
Watch this space.
Russell
Heh, I had a draft of “Random Thoughts from CTIA” that included this bit:
“Is voice recognition for mobile devices a US-only phenomenon, driven by our car-centric culture? Seen the usual hype around it this week, but it still doesn’t resonate with me. I can’t imagine walking down the street, barking commands at my phone, or dictating texts in public. Part of the attraction of mobile is the discretion it allows.”
Texting is absolutely faster and more accurate then IVR systems. Once you get used to texting, especially with T9, it is the only way you will want to go…and this comes someone over 30.
A few years back I rarely texted. Now it is a daily practice. Remember, texting is as addictive as cigarette smoking. Once you get the hang of it, it is the preferred method of communication, whether it be SMS, web email, or tapping an address into a browser.
Voice recognition systems are nice, but also extremely frustrating. How many times have you yelled back at an IVR system “NO, I SAID ACCOUNT BALANCE” and finally gave up and hit the “0″ button to be connected to the operator. With text, this is not a problem.
Since almost a decade , techies have ben trying to devise the best speech recongition system. Not yet heard or expreinced which can be cusotmised to local level. At times even the anbience noice is picked up and taken as input by the best of the IVR systems available.
Though voice will open up many aveneus but we are still far from making it a product that can be used practically. But I still feel that voice has immense potentioal in merging markets.
Even telcos who are struggling to retain their voice ARPU and increase their MOUs on the network are eager to support any such solution if devised.
Yahoo need to find out better way of delivering product to the user isntead of blindly copying what the competition is doing