Emerging Technology Report - Voice Technology 

Profile

Words are in; clicks are out according to Voicewizard.com (http://www.voicewizard.com). They project this old technology with a new trick, will stick. The key to it all is using your voice as an input device. This allows you to dictate text or commands into the computer. These commands trigger the functionality to open application programs, pull down menus, or save work. The fly in the ointment for this technology has always been the accuracy of the voice recognition. It has improved dramatically over the years. The technology now utilizes a neural net to "learn" to recognize your voice. Customization of the voice recognition occurs as the software records the way you say each word. This learning helps to overcome the varying accents and inflection that is unique to each of us. The software even goes an additional step to predict the words you wish to use through context and frequency algorithms. This creates a powerful statistical tool to eliminate word choices from the massive language database. Hold on, this technology will do much more then record your name and number!

It may be easy to dismiss these products as merely slick, high productivity dictation or word processing tools. That misses one of the key features -- voice macros. How would you like to say, "Read my mail", and then have the whole sequence of tasks connecting to the Internet using the correct icons and the computer's voice doing the reading? Pretty cool stuff, huh? These voice macros can configure routine keystrokes and activities through a trigger process using your voice command. Voice controlled actions can be user-friendly, but more importantly it can make life more convenient and natural to the user. This stuff goes way beyond dictation machines.

Potential

History

Adoption

Future

Conclusion

Bibliography