Rise of the machines

[Alan]

Yesterday my son and I were watching a soccer match that I recorded earlier in the day. The game was Burnley v Manchester City and at one point we were wondering where a particular player had played prior to joining Manchester City so I did a quick Google on his name using my iPad and then set it aside once I'd seen where he'd played.

We continued watching and talking and a couple of minutes later the iPad spoke up, saying, "Today Burnley beat Manchester City by one goal to nil". I must have accidentally activated Siri when setting the iPad back down and she/it had been listening to our conversation and decided that it wanted to join in. Of course that ruined the game for us as we didn't know the result and were hoping that City would equalize and go on to win.

Normally my experience with voice recognition systems is that of the 2 Scotsmen in the video below as I have a strong Durham accent. Perhaps things are improving.

Do any of you speak to your computers these days instead of typing questions into Google?


http://youtu.be/sAz_UvnUeuU

 

[audreyh1]

Oops!

How about song recognition? We tried it out after finally figuring out how to ask the question, and after listening for 3 or 4 seconds, the iPhone (Siri) told us the song, showed the album cover, and asked if we would like to purchase the song for $0.99?

DH talks to his Mac and iPhone all the time. He does searches that way often.

We talk to our GPS too.

 

[Alan]

Oops!

How about song recognition? We tried it out after finally figuring out how to ask the question, and after listening for 3 or 4 seconds, the iPhone (Siri) told us the song, showed the album cover, and asked if we would like to purchase the song for $0.99?

Shazam is even better than Siri, our niece used it to find the song title for a commercial that came on TV a lot while we were in Australia. We'll sometimes play games comparing Siri to Shazam. (childish I know, but hey, we're retired)

 

[ERD50]

...
Do any of you speak to your computers these days instead of typing questions into Google?

...

I had used it on an android phone and on tablets. It's often easier, even if a few corrections are needed, than typing on a small screen.

I was going to say I don't use it on my computer, because I remembered having trouble to get it to recognize my microphone, plus typing isn't so bad.

But I tried, and they must have fixed it in an update! So now, thanks to your post, I can talk to my computer (and it listens).

Thanks!

-ERD50

 

[Sunset]

I used to talk to my computer 18 years ago, but it was kinda dumb so I gave up.
Now I just talk to my car and myself

 

[aja8888]

I sometimes use a voice text message as long as it is short. DW speaks to her IPhone but usually it's being cursed at for some reason or other.

 

[audreyh1]

Hey I'm talking to my iPad right now

It even did the right!

 

[NW-Bound]

I had not played with Google Voice Search, but just tried it now.

First question: What are the coordinates of Paris? Google gave me the perfect answer.

Second question: Where is George Bush? It gave me a brief biography of Bush the son, instead of saying it did not know or asking me to specify Bush the father or the son.

Not perfect, but fairly good for a computer. And the voice recognition technology works a lot better than when I first saw it more than 20 years ago.

 

[audreyh1]

I had not played with Google Voice Search, but just tried it now.

First question: What are the coordinates of Paris? Google gave me the perfect answer.

Second question: Where is George Bush? It gave me a brief biography of Bush the son, instead of saying it did not know or asking me to specify Bush the father or the son.

Not perfect, but fairly good for a computer. And the voice recognition technology works a lot better than when I first saw it more than 20 years ago.

Hey, that sounded like a conversation!

No more loneliness! Just have a chat with Siri or GV!

 

[clifp]

I just got an iPad a week ago, so I haven't tried out Siri yet. I do use voice recognition on my phone about 1/2 the time.

In some ways it isn't good to be an really early adopter, I tried out voice recognition in the late 80s early 90s and it wasn't close to being usable. So now I don't really think of using it, where as if Siri had been my introduction

Same thing with the Roomba, a roommate had really early version, and I got the mopping version probably 6 years ago. It was more trouble than it was worth it at the time. I finally picked up this generation this year, well after my sister finally got it.
A world of difference in the usability between this generation and the first generations.

 

[marko]

My car has a full set of voice commands for telephone, radio, navigation and other actions.

Also, Google Translate has a feature where you can speak into it in one language and it will translate back to you in another language. Then, (it assumes you're talking to a foreign speaker) the other person can speak their language and it will translate it back to your language. Tres cool.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I use Siri to send quick text messages. Right now I can't use it to dial my phone in the car; there's a glitch between the iOS and the Bluetooth software in my 6 year old Prius and it doesn't work.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[braumeister]

Shazam is even better than Siri, our niece used it to find the song title for a commercial that came on TV a lot while we were in Australia. We'll sometimes play games comparing Siri to Shazam. (childish I know, but hey, we're retired)

AFAIK, Apple bought Shazam last year in order to integrate it into Siri.
Since your results differ, I guess the integration isn't fully baked yet.

 

[audreyh1]

Maybe Alan hasn't played the game in a while.

 

[Car-Guy]

Just my cell phone in the car which works pretty well. Sometimes I'll talk to my nav system in the car when it will try to take me in the wrong direction but it's like the DW, it doesn't listen.

 

[Hermit]

I just called my cell phone which is forwarded to Google Voice. I get an e-mail with the message transcribed. My message was "Testing, 1 2 3." Here is the transcription: "That's 812 for pretty." That is fairly typical. I usually have to listen to the message to figure out what was said.

 

[Alan]

AFAIK, Apple bought Shazam last year in order to integrate it into Siri.
Since your results differ, I guess the integration isn't fully baked yet.

Maybe Alan hasn't played the game in a while.

We played that game at Christmas while DD was visiting, she had an iPhone with Siri and DW had an iPod Touch with Shazam. DD got a little annoyed that Shazam was getting tunes that Siri couldn't get.

Since then DW and I both have bought iPhones so it is interesting that Apple now have Siri.

 

[Midpack]

I formerly used the Android Siri clone, and I use Siri on my iPhone & iPad. I probably use voice recognition in my car more often, Toyota Entune. I think they're all handy for some uses.

Like your experience - last week I picked up DW to take her somewhere we hadn't been. While I was waiting I looked up the address on Apple maps, then put the phone in my jacket pocket and threw it in the backseat. When she came out, and I started driving, all of a sudden we heard a voice coming from the back seat. I had turned on directions without realizing it...and once the car started moving, it had begun to provide voice directions.

 

[Walt34]

I used to talk to my computer 18 years ago, but it was kinda dumb so I gave up.

I used to talk to mine then too but if I repeated the conversation here I'd have to moderate the post to the extent there would be only a blank space left.

 

[Gumby]

I once really wanted to tell a computer to "Open the pod bay doors, Hal." Not so much anymore.