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25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer

matthewkaras.medium.com

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Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer

#41

Post by dreamer7 »

jkaptur wrote: post #13
dheera wrote: post #5

A 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.

That doesn't seem correct. People prefer apps because they are better at providing the information we need (menus, products, services etc) and the alternative for engaging through calls is either talking with overworked humans or a painful IVR service.

For me, the ideal interface to engage (order something, create a note etc) when you know what you want is through speech. It just feels so effortless.

Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer

#42

Post by marricks »

There's lots of reason it hasn't taken off like some hoped (accuracy, social aspects, privacy) but it's not faster unless you have no other option for input. If I have a computer, typing is faster, if I have a phone, which we almost always do, it's faster to trigger the command or type.

Speech is competing against every other tech item trying to be convenient, from laptops to phones to watches... the only space where I'd want it is something like baking or cooking when I can't interface with a computer.

(edit) and what about the response back? A visual interface I can confirm at a glance whether my input was accurate, a voice one I have to listen to the whole thing. I even don't like maps directions in the car as half the time I know the next direction already and don't want the interruption to music or whatever I'm listening to.

Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer

#43

Post by Spooky23 »

dheera wrote: post #5

A 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 think the issue is that the virtual assistant is there to assist, not replace an assistant.

I have an admin. I can text, call, talk, email her and say “let’s get bob, mary and finance on the phone at 4” and she’ll move stuff around to make sure that happens. I can also delegate complex administrative tasks that need to be done in my name.

When I’m at the dentist, I usually do a “hey Siri” to book it as it saves time. At home, “hey Siri turn on the lights” is helpful. It’s magic, but not the same.

The tech companies try to frame this stuff “bigger”, but in doing so they create an unreasonable expectation. Google home, Siri, Alexa are amazing, but we bitch and moan about them as a result.

Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer

#44

Post by bserge »

hirako2000 wrote: post #30
dheera wrote: post #5

A 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…

But your examples are way harder than they sound. Speech or non speech analysers have a hard time with context. What do you mean by "recent" photos. And what percentage? Of people wearing mask in each photo, or of 1 or more people with a mask in the whole set of photos? Or the percentage of photo having all people wearing a mask. We humans make a lot of deduction from context. We haven't been able to teach computers…

Recognizing masks is the hard part, indeed. But it can be done semi-decently by just analyzing tags (#wearamask or whatever).

The rest is easy, it could even be done completely on-device if you have a recent high end chipset. That's how powerful phones are nowadays.

Tbf, it is easier to just run your own server, and pre-program everything for yourself, a truly personalized experience.

Though Google could easily do it for the millions of people using Android. I really wish they allowed custom modules or something for their Assistant, the voice recognition is unmatched.

Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer

#46

Post by stainforth »

detritus wrote: post #9

I dearly wish I could have a Speech Recognition aspect to the 'creative' and CAD-like software I use - I think it would be fantastic to be able to do two or three operations 'at the same time' - eg. click an object with the mouse, hit ctrl on the keyboard to lock to some plain or angle, as I use the mouse to move, or whatever, whilst verbally instructing the software to 'zoom viewport out' or achieve whatever other f…

Just because this thread is dealing with user interaction in general, I do know there are also foot pedals people use as modifiers or input actions along the lines of what you're saying.

Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer

#47

Post by jefftk »

To avoid wrist pain, I have started dictating quite a lot as a way to enter large amounts of text into my laptop and phone. It's really very good, especially on android. Aside from the relatively large downside of it being noisy, I like it almost as much as I did typing.

Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer

#48

Post by ketzo »

lqet wrote: post #20
dheera wrote: post #5

A 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 N…

Well, to extend the GUI/console metaphor, it means that at some point soon, we'll all be using NLP because it's dramatically more user-friendly for the vast majority of people.

Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer

#49

Post by lm28469 »

dheera wrote: post #5

A 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…

As soon as you see them for what they are it makes perfect sense. They're basically a proxy to google search with extra dumb features on top. Every single feature that isn't google search has been hard coded (map directions, setup alarms, &c.), as soon as you get out of the hard coded cases it's blatantly obvious these things are anything but "smart"

imho they're just used to give google/amazon a few more data points for their graphs

Re: 25 Years In Speech Technology and I still don’t talk to my computer

#50

Post by joombaga »

Swizec wrote: post #14
dheera wrote: post #5

A 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.

How do you say "00's"? Does Alexa say it the same way?
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