There's been a buzz for home automation for years, BBC's Tomorrow's World showed us in the early 80s that we could turn the lights on with a request made to a crazy robot voice in the walls. They were even highlighting the advances in touch-screen units in 1981. (As an amateur inventor, Tomorrow's World was the staple BBC show for me at that time. I can honestly say that I miss it! CNET would later take over, though this was only syndicated through cable channels at odd times of the day.) In the past few years, we have accepted the use of personal assistance in the forms of Siri (October '2011), Google Assistant (May '2016), and Cortana (2014). Newer still, is the creation of Alexa, an Amazon fuelled techno-blob that will do minor tasks for us.
What is the point in Alexa? Well, if you read the outlines for both the taller Echo and the stubby Echo Dot, they offer features such as:
- Music on demand
- News and weather updates
- Search facilities
- And other things that have been done for some time now!
This sounds a little degrading, but I am not aiming for that. I am a little taken with the Echo system, I am not sure how much is being done to make this the true future living, but movies have made a good job of showing us that automation will be the norm in the nearest years to come.
The only crux is that we need to make this an all-round technology, that way, we can have the 'tech-talker' working wherever we are. Our mobile phones are grate at this, there is still work, but they are able to lots with just our voices.
Talking to a phone makes me reminisce about the nightmare of IBM's ViaVoice Suite (August '1997). This was an added software bed, that actively allowed you to 'talk' words into your word processor. There was also the Dragon Naturally-Speaking software (June '1997), this had a similar, and yet, still the unsatisfying operation of talking to Microsoft Word too.
The ideas were great, it was there to give those that couldn't, the chance to write on their computer, I don't believe that this was always the case though. you would often read about companies that used to buy it to replace their secretaries (old speak for a personal assistant), I am not sure what the overall success of this was though.
Are we feeling better about this kind of technology? We were once a species that felt awkward at the mere thought of talking into an answer-phone machine, what are we like now? How often do you see people walking around talking to there phone on speaker, rather than the more traditional at-ear approach?
I don't believe there's a big difference! The public can't interact anyway and headsets always made you look like you were talking to yourself. At least asking your phone for the nearest place that will sell you a pack of Rolos looks like you are on the speaker-phone, and you might even look like you have a friend too, which is quite nice for many in the community.
As a rule, we must progress to become a better society (whatever a better society is). We will create ever more impressive tech every ten years. The decade that opened up from the Millennium was one of great advancement. Everything from mobile communications to hair styling products took a rocket ship to new heights. I would like to think that, likely in the next decade, we will be able to create better technology for those with physical and mental disabilities.
Imagine a world that uses technology to make us better, there is a feeling that we are being less communicative in this decade, perhaps we are becoming distant from each other, up to the point that we live our lives in individual pods, sectioned from the rest of the world. Could voice technologies help us to communicate better? What if it is the answer?
'I hypothesise that talking to electronics could bring about a communication revolution. What if the need to be on our devices could be merged with good old fashioned person to person interaction (AKA talking!) If we can't free ourselves from our phones, maybe we could use it to open up connections before it's too late.' (G.Rudd - 4/17) (This is only suggestive, what do you think?)
What do you think about the way we are talking to machines? Will there be a day that we are able to use machines as a true sound board? I guess we'll have to see. Please visit www.beingstem.uk to see my work with STEM. Become an insider too, you can offer suggestions and ideas.
Stand under the STEMbrella. Think, design, then build!
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| @beingSTEM 2017 |
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