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Google Is Taking Spoken Questions
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Friday November 14, @04:18PM
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
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Parent
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.
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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?"
Let's just hope (Score:5, Funny)
"Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all"
Huh?!
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However... (Score:4, Funny)
... it seems to translate every question into "My hovercraft is full of eels! [youtube.com]"
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"Computer: Get me a coke." (Score:2)
Android Voice Recognition (Score:2, Interesting)
My very first question... (Score:3, Funny)
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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.
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Re: (Score:2)
Even at home. In earshot of polite company. Saying "Big Boobs" could be kinda awkward.
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.
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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.
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Parent
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.
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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
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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)
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Where you at dog?! Google Phone: Mountain View, California... dog.
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