Hear Me

Yeah everyone’s writing about the new Google phone. I’ve heard various reports about it being underwhelming, and in-need of the marketing hype that Apple is so good at. Everybody loves to compare the iPhone with the Nexus One and talk about screen size, weight, camera capabilities, software, etc.

Here’s my 2 cents on speech recognition and Bluetooth for these devices:

Apple’s initial iPhone release had speech recognition–phobia, with no factory options for implementing voice recognition commands. It was such a shocking omission that many of the mainstream reviewers even pointed it out. In various industry conversations I heard “Steve doesn’t like speech recognition”. As a result, 50 speech recognition applications quickly appeared in the Apps store, and by necessity Apple soon implemented Voice Control for music and voice dialing. I assume Apple implemented Nuance technology and most likely in a local version that runs on the iPhone.

What Google’s done with the Nexus is WAY different. They are embracing speech recognition from the start, and not just implementing “me too” features. Google is pushing the boundaries by including speech recognition for dictation (text messaging, email, social networking, etc.) and mapping/GPS type functions. I remember the original Android announcements mentioned that Nuance was their speech partner, but it seems like all the big guys like to start with Nuance then switch away. My guess is that the Nexus One uses homegrown (Mike Cohen and Co.) speech recognition, and since it is server based, it should adapt and improve and just get better with the data they are collecting.  I give Kudo’s to Google for this!

On the Bluetooth side of things, we were shocked and hurt that we couldn’t use our BlueGenie Voice Interface Bluetooth headsets to easily call up recognizers on the iphone for name dialing. Although Bluetooth makes a clear protocol for this, it wasn’t implemented on the initial iPhone. New iPhone versions do support this, but Apple never clearly thought through the importance of a cohesive user interface and functionality with Bluetooth connected to its phones, especially when speech recognition is involved.

If Google is smart, they won’t only introduce a Nexus One phone, but they’ll come out with a really cool Nexus One headset that TAKES ADVANTAGE of all the great speech recognition software on the handset, with one seamless voice user interface! The Nexus One has been blasted as nothing really new, but this type of integration with a hands-free headset or car kit could make it TOTALLY REVOLUTIONARY.

Hey Google – make a BLUEGENIE VOICE INTERFACE HEADSET!

Todd
sensoryblog@sensoryinc.com

The new Android OS doesn’t have this problem! I read about one of these devices with TTS (Text-To-Speech) built in and voice commands too, so of course I had to try one out. I put it into TTS mode where it speaks everything, hit the recognition button and it prompted “SPEAK NOW.” I said something like “Starbucks in Sunnyvale, California”…and guess what it recognized??? “SPEAK NOW.” I guess the recognizer started listening too early and heard the TTS itself saying “SPEAK NOW.”

Listening at the right time is always a challenge for speech recognizers, but in Speech Recognition 101, programmers learn to make the recognizer listen AFTER the prompt is spoken. In Speech Recognition 201, students are taught to trim the silence after the end of the speech prompt, otherwise those that studied Speech Reco 101 will have it listening for a recognition word too late (because there’s usually a silent tail on the prompt that users don’t hear, so they speak too early if it’s not trimmed). Therefore, the first few hundred milliseconds of the user’s speech will be clipped off.

That same TTS in the Android was a Verizon product. Guess how it pronounces Verizon? Well, not the way I’ve ever heard it pronounced. TTS isn’t easy, but this should be an easy fix. Someone at Google or Verizon will figure it out soon, and Nuance will probably get a call.

I heard a great NPR report the other day about the Amazon Kindle. The product is being boycotted by groups as diverse as Syracuse University, the National Federation for the Blind, and the Burton Blatt Institute for Disability Studies. The complaint is that the while the Kindle offers Text-To-Speech as an option, it only reads from the books, and does not provide a friendly user interface for the visually impaired. In fact, one spokesperson said that the Text-To-Speech function is just about impossible for a blind person to use. Basically, Amazon needed to offer a mode where the TTS reads any button that was pressed, which shouldn’t have added any real cost to the bottom line. Better yet, they could have added a little speech recognition so the buttons weren’t even necessary!

Todd
sensoryblog@sensoryinc.com