October 17, 2008
Talk to your gadgets
Discover Magazine reports on AT&T's voice recognition system that can handle voice requests, complicateds voice command such as “Tell me where I can find the nearest ATM” or “Order me a pepperoni pizza.”
Known as Watson, it is so complex that it is more practical to run the software on centralized servers than to install, manage, and maintain it on countless mobile devices. Fortunately, today’s mobile devices have the ability to connect to the Internet in spades.
By including some very basic hardware and software to capture and compress speech (which phones already possess), any device can be given the gift of voice recognition. Captured speech is sent, via the Internet or a cell phone network, to AT&T computers running Watson.
The Watson software analyzes the speech and sends back a digital response that the device can translate into commands. To demonstrate the principle, AT&T researchers have built a voice-operated television remote control.
Designed to work with AT&T’s Internet TV service, U-verse, the remote lets you do things like ask it to find any comedies that might be on TV now or to search the listings for movies starring Bruce Willis.
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