Speech enabled Pocket Internet Explorer next year?

[Andy Sjostrom]

<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_sandlund073102.asp">http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_sandlund073102.asp</a><br /><br />Some people believe that speech-enabling mobile devices is the next critical step to dramatically increase their popularity and usage. This Technology Review article <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_sandlund073102.asp">"Talk to the Hand(held)"</a> provides an informative view on where Microsoft, Philips, Intel etc are in designing and implementing the Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) which is a nescessary piece of the speech-enabling puzzle. The SALT 1.0 specification was completed on July the 15th and submitted to a standards body. If you are interested, you can <a href="http://www.saltforum.org/">download the specification</a>. Ongoing projects aimed at implementing SALT includes Microsoft's .NET Speech software development kit, Philips JAVA-2 browser, an open source SALT browser as part of the Carnegie Mellon University's OpenSALT project and so on. In fact, the SALT Forum aims at delivering a roýalty-free and platform independant specification.<br /><br />"Recent steps by software vendors indicate that progress is imminent. Microsoft has already released a beta version of its speech software developer kit that should speed the process. “It integrates with Business Studio,” says James Mastan, director of marketing for .NET speech technologies at Microsoft. “Speech development becomes drag and drop.”<br />The platforms to use these applications are also coming into place. Philips has a SALT-enabled browser ready. Carnegie Mellon University is preparing an open source version. Microsoft expects to release a SALT-enabled version of Pocket IE sometime in the first half of 2003."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/speech_01.jpg" />

[fulltilt]

Way cool.
Positive for anyone who might be visually impaired or short of time....

[palmsolo]

I am an engineer and work in an office that is very quiet since everyone is pretty intently working on calculations, reports, etc. I don't even have my alarms on my Pocket PC set to audible, but use visual alarms. I tried a couple of voice activated programs (Mobile Conversay and Fonix Timetalk Alert) but found I was uncomfortable talking to my Pocket PC in this environment. I also ride the bus 2 hours a day to commute to and from work and can't see myself talking to my Pocket PC.

I think this technology is great for those who are traveling around a lot, i.e. real estate people, or have visual impairments but do not really see this as any benefit to me.

[Jeff Rutledge]

I am an engineer and work in an office that is very quiet since everyone is pretty intently working on calculations, reports, etc. I don't even have my alarms on my Pocket PC set to audible, but use visual alarms. I tried a couple of voice activated programs (Mobile Conversay and Fonix Timetalk Alert) but found I was uncomfortable talking to my Pocket PC in this environment. I also ride the bus 2 hours a day to commute to and from work and can't see myself talking to my Pocket PC.

I think this technology is great for those who are traveling around a lot, i.e. real estate people, or have visual impairments but do not really see this as any benefit to me.

I agree. I have voice tags on my cell phone and find myself very particular about when I use them. Usually when I'm in the car by myself or working from home (by myself).

Who knows, maybe we're a little shy because it's new. As more people use speech recognition, maybe talking to some device or another will become commonplace. Until then, I'll still whisper. :wink:

[sundown]

So how do I get a the iPaq with the ears? :D

That could be some kind of cool new "ear" phones!