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On Firefox 4 Day, Chrome 11 Hits Beta With The Ability To Talk To Your Computer

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Re: On Firefox 4 Day, Chrome 11 Hits Beta With The Ability To Talk To Your Computer

#31

Post by jokermatt999 »

Lewisham wrote: post #22
bkudria wrote: post #2

Actually kinda cool. Does anyone actually use Voice Control on an iPhone, or any other speech recognition tech? I've never seen it used in real life except in IVR systems.

I've tried to use it on my Android phone, but it hates my English accent. If I talk to it in a borderline-racist American accent, it does better, but not enough for me to actually get anything done.

As an American, I don't think I've ever seen anyone offended by an attempt at an American accent. I actually find it hilarious to hear British people attempting an American accent, because it's one of the rare times you can actually get a sense of what your own accent sounds like. The minor differences are accentuated when someone tries hard, and it's much easier to notice them.

Back on topic, didn't Google roll something about Voice Command customization out a while ago? I'd been using it when I can so it would "learn", but I guess that's pointless if it doesn't. It does seem to have gotten better for me since the start, but I don't know if that's personalization or just Google improving it. I mostly use it for searching or dialing, so I can't speak for its accuracy at longer commands like texting, however.

Re: On Firefox 4 Day, Chrome 11 Hits Beta With The Ability To Talk To Your Computer

#32

Post by MatthewPhillips »

Does the speech recognition computation happen in the browser code, or do they send the voice bits to their Google servers which translates it into text and then send it back to the browser?

The latter is how voice recognition works on Android, and why it only works when you have an active internet connection. It seems a little weird to me to build an html5 standard that requires server side computation. How is a non-profit open source browser going to fund the massive server load needed, not to mention the R&D needed to develop a voice-to-text translator? Google’s stuff is proprietary.

Re: On Firefox 4 Day, Chrome 11 Hits Beta With The Ability To Talk To Your Computer

#33

Post by Sephr »

TryThinking wrote: post #18
Sephr wrote: post #8

I created a Voice Search Chrome extension back when Chrome first received speech input functionality that may interest some of you. It's on the Chrome Web Store at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hhfkcobomkalfdlmko...

hey i tried this out quickly. pretty good. two thoughts: 1) is it me, or does it take two clicks to go from the plugin icon to actually accepting voice input? 2) android's voice search has both visual and audible cues to indicate to the user that it's actually picking up your speech, finished, and is now thinking about it. that'd be excellent.

1. To initiate speech input, there needs to be direct user interaction on that microphone icon. I wish there was a way for extensions to initiate it manually.

2. This is a bug in Chrome due to the extension rendering in a popup bubble and the usual speech indicator also being in a popup bubble, but it won't render as only one popup bubble at a time can be displayed.

Re: On Firefox 4 Day, Chrome 11 Hits Beta With The Ability To Talk To Your Computer

#34

Post by younata »

ubermoe wrote: post #30
fourspace wrote: post #7

Sadly, my computer still doesn't respond when I say "Computer, make me a sandwich." (Yes, I tried sudo.)

Making a sandwitch is hard for a computer, I think you should ask for a glass of water.

Upvoted because you gave me my next project. A robot that makes sandwiches, and serves me glasses of water.

Re: On Firefox 4 Day, Chrome 11 Hits Beta With The Ability To Talk To Your Computer

#35

Post by fourspace »

younata wrote: post #34
ubermoe wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making a sandwitch is hard for a computer, I think you should ask for a glass of water.

Upvoted because you gave me my next project. A robot that makes sandwiches, and serves me glasses of water.

Please, please, please name it Alfred.
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