speech recognition in the car - Microsoft, Tellme
Microsoft’s Tellme Purchase Will Have Immediate Impact on its Car Plans | Digital Media Wire:
useful article. Here’s a quote:
“Remember that little piece of crap called a Zune everyone’s been so quick to bash, and that idiotic digital store that goes with it, the Zune Marketplace? Well they won’t seem like such terrible ideas once you’re using Sync’s technology in your car and finding the whole system goes much better with a Zune than an iPod. You’ll download or stream music, movies, and games while sitting in traffic, all without your eyes leaving the road or your hands leaving the wheel. If you’re not doing it, your friend will. When you try it, you’ll want one too. Microsoft will do it better than competitors that enter the space because of the lead time tweaking it. Does this all sound familiar? ”
Technorati Tags: car pc, carputer, cars, in-car computing, infotainment, telematics, tellme
I’ve been a big fan of speech-to-text and voice commands since 1998, but I don’t foresee voice commands going mainstream anytime soon, especially not from Microsoft, especially not because of Zune. Speech-to-text can work well, if you have a consistent speaking voice and if you spend 45 minutes to set up a custom voice profile — thats too small an audience to prop up a viable market. Voice commands aren’t magically “better” than finger inputs. With the the iPod controls, the FrontRow remote, and the iPhone’s Multitouch, Apple has a selection of increadibly simple input devices. Voice commands will have to be as simple and reliable as iPod/FrontRow/Multitouch to compete. Even if the interface can be made simple and reliable enough, I don’t think Microsoft can convince car manufacturers to preinstall Zune connecters instead of iPod connectors.
well put.