Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry.
“Call Alicia’s mobile number”
“Text message to Bryan and Jason – Congrats on the Giants winning the World Series”
“Find the nearest Starbucks to meet with Kristi”
“Get directions and map from home to Houstons restaurant near Lenox Square”
“Make a reservation at BJs to have dinner with Jennifer Thursday at 7:30 pm.”
“E-mail to Jill – Love to the grandkids – hug each of them for me.”
“Look up Bruce Grant in contacts”
These are the kind of things that new mobile voice recognition applications can do or will be able to do in your smart phone. Companies like Nuance, Vlingo, Yap and others have developed some sophisticated technology to process spoken commands and convert speech to text in your mobile phone.
This is a difficult problem to solve. It wasn’t too long ago that companies like IBM were using large mainframe computers to process speech. Then, fairly good processing came to the personal computer. Over the past few years, very good speech recognition systems have been created for mobile devices.
To be sure, many systems use a “client/cloud” model in which the speech is recorded and pre-processed on the phone. Then, it’s sent off to the supplier’s more powerful system that does the “heavy lifting” and the results are sent back to the phone for display and use by the subscriber.
Today, most smart phone users can download a voice recognition and processing application that can either do a lot of things (Nuance) or do more specific things like search or navigation. Here are the typical capabilities of today’s voice recognition and processing in mobile phones:
–Speak a reply to a text message that will automatically convert speech to text.
–Find someone in the contact list and dial that person’s cell phone number.
–Search for something (uses speech analysis plus a search engine).
–Request navigation information (turn-by-turn directions, maps).
–Compose an e-mail and have it sent to a number of people.
While I think that voice processing is very useful and beneficial in mobile devices (as well as adding to safety while driving), it’s important to remember that there are some situations in which voice processing isn’t appropriate. Three examples: 1) with a date at a restaurant, 2) with a group of people at a party and 3) in a meeting at the office. It simply wouldn’t be appropriate to start a voice request using your phone in these situations.
Most voice recognition services start by pressing a button to begin the voice activated application. This allows the application to “pay attention” only when necessary. I recently had a briefing update with Todd Moser of Sensory that has developed a low power logic that can sit in the background and listen for the key activation phrases. This enables voice recognition to be always available and eliminates having to take the time to begin the voice processing application.
Voice processing is now accepted by most smart phone users. While it might have been thought “odd” to give commands via voice to your phone a few years ago, most people today realize that there are real convenience benefits in asking the phone for information or to do something. In this way, smart phones are going to become virtual assistants that may get very intelligent over the coming years.
If you haven’t tried out a voice activated service on a smart phone, I recommend that you do so. You’ll find that it works well most of the time and will definitely save time. Before long, you’ll be telling all your friends how easy to use and productive this capability really is.
J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D. is Principal Analyst, Mobile & Wireless, MobileTrax L.L.C. As a nationally recognized industry authority, he focuses on monitoring and analyzing emerging trends, technologies and market behavior in the mobile computing and wireless data communications industry in North America. Dr. Purdy is an ‘edge of network’ analyst looking at devices, applications and services as well as wireless connectivity to those devices.
Dr. Purdy provides critical insights regarding mobile and wireless devices, wireless data communications and connection to the infrastructure that powers the data in the wireless handheld. He is author of the column Inside Mobile & Wireless that provides industry insights and is read by over 100,000 people a month.
Dr. Purdy continues to be affiliated with the venture capital industry as well. He currently is Managing Director, Yosemite Ventures. And, he spent five years as a Venture Advisor for Diamondhead Ventures in Menlo Park where he identified, attracted and recommended investments in emerging companies in the mobile and wireless. He has had a prior affiliation with East Peak Advisors and, subsequently, following their acquisition, with FBR Capital Markets.
For more than 16 years, Dr. Purdy has been consulting, speaking, researching, networking, writing and developing state-of-the-art concepts that challenge people’s mind-sets and developing new ways of thinking and forecasting in the mobile computing and wireless data arenas. Often quoted, his ideas and opinions are followed closely by thought leaders in the mobile & wireless industry. He is author of three books.
Dr. Purdy currently is a member of the Program Advisory Board of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) that produces CES, one of the largest trade shows in the world. He is a frequent moderator at CTIA conferences and GSM Mobile World Congress. He also is a member of the Board of the Atlanta Wireless Technology Forum.
