Voice-enabled technology makes sense in car, home and workplace

With the launch of its hands-free, in-car email solution iLane last month (RoW, July 27/06), Waterloo ON-based Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc. (IMS) rolled out one of the first voice-activated wireless devices on the market. Almost immediately after iLane’s release, future uses for this technology and how it could be applied outside of the car became evident. Otman Basir, president and CEO of IMS, tells Report on Wireless that one of the first pieces of feedback on iLane came from a blind man who said the product would be the perfect solution for him because accessing his email can be very difficult. Indeed, since the voice-enabled iLane device has no screen, keyboard or interactive parts it would be an ideal solution for the visually impaired. "Whenever you have a limited command interaction between a user and a device, iLane can be a good solution," says Basir. Basir mentions changing radio stations, adjusting the volume of the car stereo, or turning on the air conditioning with your voice as potential future applications of iLane. "So it takes us beyond email in the future, but the focus right now is to address this issue of information excess in the car," he says. If you think about it, the applications for voice-enabled technology could be endless. In some ways, we’ve seen it already. "We all grew up on Star Trek and other science fiction things like that," says Carmi Levy, senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group. "This is a glimpse of the next-generation interface between us and our technology. Voice-activated technology takes away the keyboard for input and the display for output and we are essentially left with a computer that talks to us and we talk back to. This really points us in that direction of countless scenarios where this would be helpful." Specifically, Levy says aerospace companies Boeing and Airbus are investing heavily in technologies like this to convert their manuals into wearable next-generation form factors so mechanics don’t have to constantly consult thick binders or a laptop every time they want to look up a complex process. He adds that mechanics of any kind could benefit from a wireless device that reads answers back to them when they are in a tight spot. "What this does is it starts to break free from the keyboard monitor paradigm that we’ve been locked into for the last generation," says Levy. "It recognizes that technology doesn’t necessarily have to be used sitting in a desk mode, that it can be used in pretty much any other mode as well." Embedding voice-enabled technology in the home as well and making it ubiquitous will allow people to receive information wherever they are, such as checking email on the way to the shower or checking the weather or traffic while getting dressed. Levy adds that this Star Trek model, where the user issues a voice command and the computer responds, expands the interface to every room of a home, which is what voice-enabled technologies are all about. He adds: "Right now, every time we use technology everything else stops. Obviously that paradigm has to change. Technology needs to be much more cooperative and less dominant over each usage scenario and is a very major step in that direction."

Voice-enabled technology makes sense in car, home and workplace

News | 08/25/2006 4:00 am EDT

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