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

matthewkaras.medium.com

241–250 of 296 posts

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

#241
I may date myself here, but the first thing that popped into my head when I read the title of this post was this scene from ST IV:

https://youtu.be/hShY6xZWVGE

It's kinda funny watching someone without a background in CS repeatedly ask google/alexa/siri a question in different ways that you know isn't going to elicit any kind of useful response.

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

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rt. 5? Do you mean I-5? I'm curious if using "Rt." instead of "I-" is a regional thing. Where are you located? Typically Rt. would only be used for a small state road, not a major interstate highway.

It's a regional thing. In New England, we call Interstate 95 "Route 95", Interstate 93 is "Route 93", etc. US Route 20 that stretches from Boston to Oregon is "Route 20". And both the US Route 3 that goes north from Boston through New Hampshire, and MA Route 3 that goes south from Boston down to Cape Cod are called "Route 3".

> In New England, we call Interstate 95 "Route 95",

Actually, in the Boston area, it's "Route 128." Despite it never being indicated as such at exits or on maps.

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

#243
I generally loathe voice input on computers & phones. I have very specific use cases for the two assistants I've created. "Open the pod bay doors Hal" = open the garage door (but only because it is funny).

"Start the dust extractor Hal" = start the workshop dust extractor, but I no longer use this since upgrading to remote start/power line detection on my dust extractor.

"Hey producer, " = start recording/cut cameras/re read the prompt/extreme close-up on keyboard/pan the camera to me/etc for video production in a one-man multi-camera recording setup.

Everything else, when it comes to NLP, chat bots and voice recognition is "too much trouble" and I find hitting a dedicated button or punching in to a few numbers on a physical keypad to be easier and more reliable than any voice interface.

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

#244

We really need to stop expecting so much from speech in technology. It simply isn't a great input method. It's loud, it lacks privacy, and for short commands it takes way too long. I think a lot of people are counting on speech to bring us into a sort of Star Trek future. The real game changer for input is along the lines of what the neural lace is supposed to be. Cognitive input. Silent, fast, efficient. In many cas…

And then you have thought pop in to your head to send your manager an email calling them a fuckhead so your phone makes it happen.

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

#245
Pretty much the only thing i've ever used the google assistant for was to ask it for definitions of terms from urban dictionary, then giggle like a school child while google read them out to me.

That was fun for about 10 minutes. It's been disabled ever since.

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

#246
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…

Without speech recognition our startup would not exist today. We are developing a text-based video editor where the video is cut over the transcribed speech.

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

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alarms and reminders are my most frequent uses of Siri (and to entertain/frustrate the kids...). It's also pretty good for hands-free quick texts while driving and hands-free calling, though I don't do those often. Your alarm example is frustrating. Of course, you could say "set alarm for tomorrow at 6:30 am" which would work, but then you're back in the realm not of natural language commands, but formal commands tha…

Yeah, I would think it would be obvious to most humans that "set an alarm for 6:30am" never means "6:30am four days from now." It seems like it should just be interpreted as the next occurring 6:30am unless otherwise specified, but hey, I'm not a computer. Edit: also, your "tomorrow at 6:30am" example is also open to interpretation if you're saying it two minutes after midnight. I'd really like it to recognize these…

Siri does resolve that ambiguity, it will ask you “do you mean 6.30am on day X, or 6.30 am on day Y?”, using weekday names for good measure. That’s actually one thing they got pretty well.

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

#248
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but you would still understand them if they did or take 5 seconds to ask a clarifying question.

I live in Redmond, WA. Frankly, if someone asked to meet for a meal at eighteen, I would assume they would like to get together in a Microsoft cafeteria closest to the (what I believe to be non-existent) Building 18. My backup option would be to assume that they have received a hard blow to the head at some point in their life. Again, whether I would understand them or not, no one to my knowledge speaks like that in…

Officially building 18 does not exist. Anything you may have heard about building 18 is just rumour. If you have any questions regarding the purpose of building 18, you should direct them to Shelley in HR.

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

#249
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…

Or my current peeve:

Siri play song “song-name” I’m sorry there was an error with Apple Misic Siri play song “exact-same-song-name” [song plays]

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

#250
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...set an alarm for tomorrow @ eighteen hundred." works just fine. At least in U. S. English, I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to 6 p. m. as "eighteen".

Except it isn't a hundred, it's sixty, and I protest that usage. >.<. I prefer eighteen o'clock.

That works fine in Siri.

Although it does have a problem with hours over 20 (“22 o’clock” becomes 20:02 for some reason, possibly because of my thick Italian accent).

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