09-25-2003, 05:00 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Microsoft Beta-Testing Voice Command?
Apparently, Microsoft has invited beta testers to try out a new voice control tool for Pocket PCs and Smartphones... and Brighthand speculates that this may appear in future Toshiba Pocket PCs.
"The e-mail invitation, sent to Redmond testers on Wednesday, introduces a new product for PDAs and phones dubbed Voice Command. According to Microsoft's invite, 'Voice Command works with your PDA or phone so you can use your voice to control your device and receive information in a way that is easier, more convenient, and safer while you are on the go such as in the car or walking down the street carrying packages or even while sitting on a park bench.'"
I'm not sure I'd use this on my Pocket PC, but done properly it could be an invaluable handsfree aid on a Smartphone. These are the kinds of solutions a Smartphone could trounce a "regular phone" for. I would truly love a solution where I could say "Add last call to phonebook as J-O-H-N-space-D-O-E" or something like that. I don't know if this is going to address such functionality, but I'm sure someone will be working on it. 8)
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09-25-2003, 07:57 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 7
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For work, I got to spend a few days at the Microsoft Technology Center in Austin, Texas, and this was shown to us during a session. It was running on the Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition OS. The guy from Microsoft was able to just speak into the mic and say "Call Home" or "Call John" and so forth.
It seemed to work fairly well. It also let him speak the numbers in and then dialed the phone number. So, they are getting there and I bet this technology will be updated a lot with more features in the next year and a half. I wouldn't be surprised if Magneto has this fully integrated into the OS.
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09-26-2003, 01:22 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 155
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I'm working with their new speech application sdk (beta 3) and it's very good. Much of what you want to say to your pocketpc is basic commands, you place much of the grammer in xml. This greatly increases the recognition accuracy.
if you're ever in a voice dictation situation, something like via voice can do the work for you upon syncronizing your pre-recorded material. Ideally asp.net will offer an online counterpart to voice recognition. I have yet to try this so I can't say much about it at this time.
I see this most useful in smarphones since your only way of user input is keypad/dpad.
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09-26-2003, 01:43 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 718
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Galego2
For work, I got to spend a few days at the Microsoft Technology Center in Austin, Texas, and this was shown to us during a session. It was running on the Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition OS. The guy from Microsoft was able to just speak into the mic and say "Call Home" or "Call John" and so forth.
It seemed to work fairly well. It also let him speak the numbers in and then dialed the phone number. So, they are getting there and I bet this technology will be updated a lot with more features in the next year and a half. I wouldn't be surprised if Magneto has this fully integrated into the OS.
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Actually, there are a few apps that already do this for Phone Edition, like Voice Signal and Voice Fonix. I don't know if they will work for Phone Edition 2003 though.
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09-26-2003, 06:17 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 108
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by DaleReeck
Actually, there are a few apps that already do this for Phone Edition, like Voice Signal and Voice Fonix. I don't know if they will work for Phone Edition 2003 though.
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Yeah, but if they integrate this into the OS then it will come with a standard API for programmers to use, unlike 3rd party tools...
IMO MS needs to integrate both voice and image (camera) API's into their handheld OS.
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09-26-2003, 09:28 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 155
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by AhuhX
Quote:
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Originally Posted by DaleReeck
Actually, there are a few apps that already do this for Phone Edition, like Voice Signal and Voice Fonix. I don't know if they will work for Phone Edition 2003 though.
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Yeah, but if they integrate this into the OS then it will come with a standard API for programmers to use, unlike 3rd party tools...
IMO MS needs to integrate both voice and image (camera) API's into their handheld OS. |
I'm still eagerly waiting for the new msn with video chat capabilities.
I have no doubts that apis for voice and image will be available for the .net cf platform but it will likely be offered as downloadable components than a part of the os.
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