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Google Is Taking Spoken Questions
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Fri Nov 14, 2008 04:18 PM
from the a-sentence-is-worth-a-thousand-search-results dept.
from the a-sentence-is-worth-a-thousand-search-results dept.
The New York Times is reporting that Google has added a voice interface to their iPhone search software. Expected to make its debut as early as Friday, users will be able to speak into their phone and ask any question they could type into Google's search engine. The audio will be digitized and results will be returned via the normal search interface. "Google is by no means the only company working toward more advanced speech recognition capabilities. So-called voice response technology is now routinely used in telephone answering systems and in other consumer services and products. These systems, however, often have trouble with the complexities of free-form language and usually offer only a limited range of responses to queries."
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The response... (Score:5, Funny)
The response to popular Slashdotter question, "where can I get laid?":
404 - Page Not Found
Re:The response... (Score:4, Funny)
Tell it you are feeling lucky and it just might send you here [goatse.cx] .
You must be new around here.
Cheers!
Parent
Good voice transcription? (Score:5, Insightful)
If I could get good voice transcription on my computer by installing Google Desktop, THAT would make it worthwhile.
Something for iPhone users? I could care less.
Re:Good voice transcription? (Score:5, Informative)
Something for iPhone users? I could care less.
Really? I honestly couldn't care less, but it's nice to know someone out there is taking an interest.
Parent
Re:Good voice transcription? (Score:5, Insightful)
So they got rid of dealing with different platforms and stuck to a single one to focus on the algorithms behind voice recognition. Sounds like a good plan to me.
Hopefully they'll extend it to other platforms if it works well with the iPhone.
The iPhone seems like a more practical platform as well. It's designed for on the go and use of voice. Your desktop? Not so much.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
yea, i think phone-based applications are much more suited to voice recognition than most desktop apps. unless you're physically disabled and thus cannot use a keyboard/mouse, it would be much easier to use conventional input devices on a desktop computer. whereas on a phone it's more convenient to speak your commands rather than having to remove the phone from you ear, type on it, and then replace the phone every time input is required.
another interesting application for a robust voice recognition system w
Commands vs transcription (Score:2)
whereas on a phone it's more convenient to speak your commands
You're missing the point of my message. This is not about voice commands, which I agree are daft: I've got a phone with voice command support and it's a LOT more convenient to hit "5" than to say "delete" and have it respond with "saved". This is about voice transcription. Completely different problem space.
Re: (Score:2)
Yea, I'm really looking forward to this, especially if they use the same algorithms GOOG-411 uses, that would be sweet!
User: Hey, where's a burger kind around here?
*Light bulb over head*
User (excited): I know! let's call GOOG-411 and get the address and punch it in the GPS navigator!!
[User calls]
Google: Calls may be recorded.
Google: GOOG-411. What city and State?
User: San Francisco, California
Google: San Francisco, California
Google: What business name or category?
*Hungry toddler starts crying in the car*
Google: Starting over
Google: What city and state?
User: $@$!@!
User: San Francisco, California! Shut up son!
Google: What business name or category?
User: Burger king
Google: Burner king, top listing..
*Kid crys a bit more*
Google: Starting over
User: $@!$!@$@!!@
Google: What city and state?
User: SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA!
Google: San Francisco, California
Google: What business na..
User: BURGER F#@king KING *kid hungry and still crying*
Google: Kabob King, top listing..
User: $@$$@%!
[Hang up]
*User calms kid down, and calls back*
Google: Calls may be recorded
Google: GOOG-411. What city and state?
*User a little calmer*
User: San Fran.. (Kid starts crying again).. cisco, California
Google: San Mateo, California
User: %#@%@#^@%$##!
[Hang up]
Google: Calls may be recorded ..
Google: GOOG-411. What city and state?
User: San Francisco, California
Google: San Francisco, California
Google: What business name or category?
User: Burger king
Google: Burger king, top listing: Burger king
[Bunch of listings far far away from users' location]
User: #%@%@#^!#
*Another light bulb over user's head*
[Hang up]
Google: Calls may be recorded.
Google: GOOG-411. What city and state?
User: Nine-four-seven-one-two-three
Google: Please only say the name of the city and state
User: @#$**%%#@$^#&%$^*&^@#!!!!
[Hang up]
User: Fsck it, we're having Chinese from the first fscking restaurant around the corner!
*Note: City and business name where obfuscated to protect the innocent.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Please excuse the typos, I was *very* frustrated when I was typing this!
Re:Good voice transcription? (Score:4, Insightful)
Something for iPhone users? I could care less.
Ok, maybe that's because I am an iPhone user, but I do care. See, on my desk I have this nifty input device called a keyboard. Works pretty well for me, I can type at slow speaking speed.
But the iPhone keyboard isn't suited for that very much. It's a lot better than any other phone keypad I've used so far, but still, typing is slow and more error-prone. So yes, a fairly reliable speech recognition would be much welcome. Also because I sometimes use it away from the desk, you know, and I might not have both hands free.
So let's see if they can do it for Google search. If that works, I'm sure more apps will follow. And I don't need 100% reliability when most of what I'd use it for is notes.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Works pretty well for me, I can type at slow speaking speed.
Yep, I can talk a lot faster than I can type too. That's why I'd be excited if Google would release this goldarn software for the rest of us.
My point isn't "oh noes, this is for the iPhone", it's "why don't they let more than just iPhone users take advantage of this, dagnabbit?"
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously, calm down. Did they say that this was an iPhone exclusive anywhere? Why are you assuming that this will be only for the iPhone, instead of merely first for the iPhone? Unless they very carefully synchronize development on all target platforms, something which simply isn't worth the effort, then some platform must be first. Why not the one which is getting all the press and hype at the moment?
Re: (Score:2)
For the same reasons all the nerds despise the iPhone: because of it's uniformity right across the board, powerful graphics and CPU and consistent user experience.
Oh you mean like the Macintosh?
Re: (Score:2)
YHBT, HAND. :)
Re: (Score:2)
(peeks)
They have a desktop version?
Let's just hope (Score:5, Funny)
"Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all"
Huh?!
Beta Period (Score:2)
They introduce web-based voice search years ago. I remember trying it on their Labs site as far back as 2002.
You'd call an 800#, speak your query, and a results page on your browser woudl refresh automatically w/ the results.
Google's MO is all due dilligence. Seems like they waited for this tech to mature before they rolled it out.
Re: (Score:2)
Nothing can beat perl script voice recognition [youtube.com].
However... (Score:4, Funny)
... it seems to translate every question into "My hovercraft is full of eels! [youtube.com]"
"Computer: Get me a coke." (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder how the computer can differentiate between coke and other similarly sounding words...
Android Voice Recognition (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Android does have voice recognition, and it's marginally useful. I was able to call my wife and a few of my favorite contacts on day 1 without training it. However, it cheats a little by strongly favoring your most-used contacts, which it knows because I've been a gmail user for a long time.
It doesn't seem to apply to any other part of the OS, not that I'd particularly want it to.
Re: (Score:2)
well, i guess that isn't pure "voice recognition," but it seems like a smart cheat. this isn't a sports competition where abiding by the rules is paramount or even means anything. technologies should be judged by their usefulness, which means measuring them by the results they give, not by how those results were achieved.
and if you think about it, people often use the same trick when interpreting speech. gestalt theory states that human perception is a cognitive process as much as it is a sensory process. i
My very first question... (Score:3, Funny)
be careful telling your work phone off (Score:5, Funny)
Be kind of awkward sitting in your manager's office explaining that you weren't surfing pr0n, just telling your phone to fuck off.
Re: (Score:2)
Even at home. In earshot of polite company. Saying "Big Boobs" could be kinda awkward.
Look Yell ??? Profit!!! (Score:2)
2 - Yell "Big Boobs" into their phone while passing
3 - ???
4 - Profit!!!
Good, they need this to make it smaller (Score:3, Insightful)
But eyeglasses can have a heads up display. And in the magical world of tomorrow, maybe contact lenses can have a wireless interface and a high-resolution superimposed display. And of course there's wireless headphones. So those are potential conduits of information from machines to us, but how do we talk to the machines? If we're walking around, how do we dial the phone or ask for directions or tell the computer what YouTube clip we want to watch, if the heart of the thing can be the size of a penny?
I think it's going to be verbal. Short of the development of neural interface implants or that sort of thing, I think verbal's going to become a primary interface for mobile electronics. I think the chip that stores everything and wirelessly talks to the outside world and "makes it go" can be anywhere- wristwatch, glasses, tie clip, belt buckle. Whatever. But the thing's going to have to listen to you, so it can understand when you say "Show me the closest three book stores. Do any of them have a physical copy of Into The Nano Era, Moore's Law Beyond Planar Silicon?" Or "play my running playlist on random," or that sort of thing. Not strong AI, but good voice recognition coupled with really dramatically improved ability to parse and interpret commands from speech. I'm sure we'd need a couple of buttons or a knob or slider or such somewhere for things like volume that you just don't want to do with voice. But it strikes me that most of what people do on their iPhones, except for playing games, could be done quite well via voice, and then you don't need to lug around and pull out some physical gadget and stare at its screen and peck at it with your fingers.
Re:Good, they need this to make it smaller (Score:4, Insightful)
The interface of the home computer in the recent movie "Ironman" is a great example of this.
A computer with an intelligent personality and some basic visual displays as well.... That's a neat hybrid with infinite potential uses.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Hold your finger close to your eye. Try to focus on it. It is very hard.
The focus problem can probably be overcome, but it will likely be at the cost of resolution.
So what would the response be to: (Score:2)
I like the idea... (Score:3, Informative)
I actually like this.
As long as the speech-to-text is reasonably accurate, it will do what I want.
I hate driving and having to type something into google to figure out and address or phone number.
If i could say it, even if it was only close to accurate, it would be safer and save me some headache.
Now I just need an iPhone. LOL.
Voice systems are lousy ... Help, Operator... (Score:5, Insightful)
Representative, Representative, Representative ... Operator, Operator, Operator ... Help, Help, Help ... (hangup in disgust)
Hope google has better luck with this than others have.
Ron
Why only iPhone? (Score:2, Insightful)
Just curious, but why only support iPhone? Why not Nokia/WinMo/Blackberry - ie, the other 99% of cell phones out there with voice recognition capabilities? Why single out one phone?
Hive Mind (Score:2)
Skip the speech part and interface to the frontal lobes. Google can then spider the mind of the human race, and with the query interface we will have achieved the final fate of mankind - a hive mind.
Cool, now I can speak my porn requests (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Dear Google, (Score:2)
Has it been long enough to forget Ask Jeeves yet?
Yahoo!'s been doing this for months... (Score:2)
http://mobile.yahoo.com/onesearch/voice [yahoo.com]
Anyone care?
Yeah, didn't think so.
Wrong goal (Score:2)
This whole thing falls in the "it's challenging, but we think we can get to it, with difficulty, even if once we get there no-one will actually want to use that when the novelty effect will have (quickly) worn off" category.
Who wants to use voice recognition, and for what? Who wants to see the person they're talking to on the phone on a screen? Who wants to turn the lights on by clapping their hands? And so on..
Re: (Score:2)
>>> Who wants to use voice recognition, and for what?
Those that can't type, or can't type quickly.
>>> Who wants to see the person they're talking to on the phone on a screen?
Makes sign language a heap easier.
>>> Who wants to turn the lights on by clapping their hands?
Anyone who can't, or can't be bothered to, get out of bed.
Just because you don't need or want something doesn't mean someone else doesn't.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There are a lot of people who can't type quickly.
Globally there are a lot of sign language users.
The number of lazy-ass people seems to be quite high too ...
However, I'm in general agreement that we don't tend to need many new advances but they nonetheless prove useful.
Re: (Score:2)
Google wins voice recognition war (Score:2, Insightful)
I've been waiting for Google to come out with this.
This is the first step to true and accurate voice recognition and translation:
1) Google user speaks search string into phone.
2) Google gets it wrong, user corrects Google
3) Multiply by millions of searches daily with constant correction and feedback from users
4) Perfect voice rec, major profit
There will be a few issues with voice recognition to begin with but as it gets better and more people use the service and add to the database with their corrections
Interestingly enough... (Score:2)
Interestingly enough, I've been able to do this in Live Search on my Windows Mobile 6.1 phone for months, now, and it works surprisingly well for Microsoft software. Glad Google and iPhone are finally joining the party.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Where you at dog?! Google Phone: Mountain View, California... dog.
Re: (Score:2)
I feel like google is going to take at least some flak on that issue no matter which direction they go. If they don't, someone on slashdot points it out. If they do, I think other people might be offended, likely on slashdot.
Come to think of it, if every google employee simultaneously decided not to even get out of bed today, someone on slashdot would accuse them of a nefarious bed-related attempt to strip us of our privacy. Maybe they should just accept their bad karma here, and merge with microsoft, al
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
i've used a few voice input systems for paying cellphone bills over the phone, and they've always worked decently in my experience. however, my dad, who has a pretty heavy accent, doesn't get the same results as i do, which is why i have to pay his phone bills for him.
i guess it just depends on the implementation. i find voice inputs to be far more convenient than touch tone systems for over the phone payment systems. they're easier to navigate, feel more natural, and definitely work much better than T-Mobi