Understanding speech ( language context) is much harder problem I think.
25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer
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Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer
#12I will consider talking to my computer when my computer is the only one that would hear me. I also never talk to my phone.
same here, what's the point of using things like Facebook container in Firefox and blocking Google tracking as much as I can, and then happily share my private life with them in even more direct way
Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer
#13A big problem with the assistants is that as soon as they fail at a query they seem stupid, I feel stupid, and I stop using them for a long time. Last weekend I had the following failed queries: "OK Google, what is the air quality like at Mt. Shasta today?" "OK Google, add a waypoint for the last gas station before the mountain pass" "OK Google, what percentage of people can you detect to be wearing masks on recent I…
> I can set my own alarms, thank you.
And not only that, but a specialized user interface is often preferable to voice even when the assistant passes the Turing test. There's a reason that people use apps to get food delivery rather than calling.
Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer
#14A big problem with the assistants is that as soon as they fail at a query they seem stupid, I feel stupid, and I stop using them for a long time. Last weekend I had the following failed queries: "OK Google, what is the air quality like at Mt. Shasta today?" "OK Google, add a waypoint for the last gas station before the mountain pass" "OK Google, what percentage of people can you detect to be wearing masks on recent I…
“Alexa, play punk rock”
“Playing ”
“Alexa stop. Alexa play punk rock playlist”
“Cannot find punk rock playlist”
“Alexa play punk rock 00’s playlist”
“Can’t find”
“Alexa play early 2000’s punk rock”
“Playing punk rock 00’s playlist”
It’s like she’s trying to mock me.
Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer
#15I've had a similar experience, worked in voice for a long time. I simply have no desire whatsoever to speak to my electronics, I don't find it helpful or useful in anyway.
Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer
#16A big problem with the assistants is that as soon as they fail at a query they seem stupid, I feel stupid, and I stop using them for a long time. Last weekend I had the following failed queries: "OK Google, what is the air quality like at Mt. Shasta today?" "OK Google, add a waypoint for the last gas station before the mountain pass" "OK Google, what percentage of people can you detect to be wearing masks on recent I…
I use my voice assistant on my phone to set timers.
That's it.
Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer
#17Very unlikely I will ever talk to my computer irrespective of how good the speed technology gets. If I have to talk to my computer how will I work in crowded places ? How does it work ?
If you had two mics, you could probably work out a filter that captures audio roughly 'in front of the laptop' which would probably work well enough. But I think the wins are going to be in places where you don't normally have a computer, where a mouse and keyboard aren't natural companions to the task at hand. Yes, some environments will be noisy enough that speaking is a bad modality, but not all of them.
Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer
#18I will consider talking to my computer when my computer is the only one that would hear me. I also never talk to my phone.
Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a croweded place the noise has to be cancelled or speech recognition application must learn to recognise with noise in input audio.
I think the real problem is social, no one wants to hear you talking at your computer in a coffee shop.
That would quickly change if people actually wanted to do it though. Social norms are just unwritten agreements - if enough people decide to dictate their novels and blog posts in coffeeshops then the default will quickly change so talking is acceptable.
Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer
#20A big problem with the assistants is that as soon as they fail at a query they seem stupid, I feel stupid, and I stop using them for a long time. Last weekend I had the following failed queries: "OK Google, what is the air quality like at Mt. Shasta today?" "OK Google, add a waypoint for the last gas station before the mountain pass" "OK Google, what percentage of people can you detect to be wearing masks on recent I…
Which is exactly why I prefer formal query languages over NLP queries. In both cases (at least with most state of the art NLP techniques), you have to learn certain patterns and ways to phrase a query so that the system will reliably understand it. With formal query languages, these patterns are well-defined, can be looked up and will most likely not change significantly (so there is value in memorizing them). With NLP systems, the patterns are completely opaque, you have to learn them through trial and error, they may change anytime (e.g. because the model is retrained) and they are usually significantly less powerful.
I sometimes feel that the trend to prefer NLP over formal query languages is comparable to the trend to prefer GUIs over consoles in the 80ies and 90ies.