Talk To Me…
Back in my Home Automation and Theatre days, I played with a very cool voice recognition program called HAL 2000 here at the house. With “Ellie” (My name for the virtual assistant) I could turn on and off lights, control the security system, HVAC and home theatre. Although “Ellie” has been long gone, I still have all the control equipment in place and control the house on a pre-programmed schedule. Even the Christmas lights I’ll be putting out in a few weeks run on a schedule year round. All I have to do is plug them in.
Google is expected to release a free application today for the iPhone that lets you search for information, directions, or virtually anything else by speaking into the handset, eliminating need for the keyboard entirely. This new voice recognition takes your spoken words and passes them over the Internet to one of Google’s servers. They’re then interpreted by artificial intelligence, translated into a traditional data query, and the results are bounced back to your phone in a matter of seconds if you’re on a fast connection.
Google made the decision to launch this new App on the iPhone. They had the choice of launching on the iPhone or their own Android device, yet they decided go with the iPhone and launch in the App Store. Surely pushing out the app for Android would have boosted Android G1 sales, but they opted for what is best for the user, for now.
Google was under the impression that the application would be live on the App Store on Friday (obviously, since they pushed all significant press attention to it). Sometime Friday they found out Apple wouldn’t be pushing it, despite the fact that Google submitted it for review earlier in the week and got a thumbs up for Friday. One source says they’ve had little direct contact with Apple during the review, instead getting their updates via the standard iPhone developer tool, which has said “in review” for the last few days.
So with any luck today, you should be able to download this free App and then simply place the phone to your ear and ask virtually any question, like “Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” or “What were the REAL travel sales for YTB?” The search results will be displayed in just seconds hands free. And because it has GPS the iPhone will at times include local information, taking advantage of iPhone features that let it determine its location.
Could search results for flights, hotel, or a cruise via voice be that far behind?
Hummmm?
Here’s a cool video on the new application, and I’m sure technology geeks like me will be chomping at the bit to get this downloaded and start using it.
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Tags: Google, iPhone, Voice Recognition
November 17th, 2008 at 6:21 am
I am sure the results relayed will be the same as the Google search engine. So I might be very careful about putting in the phrase:
What were the REAL travel sales for YTB?
The top result it Pyramid Scheme Alert and then a bunch of other scam results along with your blog.
November 17th, 2008 at 7:14 am
How cool! Had no idea I would be ranked that high.
Thanks for taking the time to tell me.
PS – Yes John, the iPhone uses the same search results as Google. It’s a Google application.
November 17th, 2008 at 7:55 am
John;
Very few negative links on the first page. Besides, who has more credibility, this alert guy with links to your petition and the stock price, or Doug’s link to the leading Travel Publication who’s listed YTB two years in a row? You always complain about people who know nothing about travel. So what does this alert guy know about travel?
Back on the subject of the post:
I’ve wanted to get myself a new phone for a while and you posted about the G1 last week, and now you posted about the iPhone just to confuse me about which one I wanted.
Thanks a lot! ;-P