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PDA Meets Voice Recognition
Aired November 03, 2003 - 14:26 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's time to check in with our high tech guru, Daniel Sieberg. That means we got some good new toys to play with. He's going to give you a skinny on a new line of PDAs. Does any know what is a PDA?
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: Besides a public display of affection, no. A personal digital...
(CROSSTALK)
SIEBERG: software, Miles, we should say. This is new software coming out from Microsoft today, as a matter of fact, called Voice Command. Voice recognition software has been around a long time but Microsoft is saying this is the first time it works with a PDA and cell phone and doesn't have to learn a lot of the commands.
We can give you a demo in the studio of how it works. We got a couple of them here.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: I've got one of these phones where you say the name, but you have to teach it. This is a big difference?
SIEBERG: This is different because it already knows all these different commands. They're meant to be intuitive type of commands, not where you're not fumbling around trying to figure out what to say. And it's meant to replace a Stylist or menus that a few people find cumbersome.
This is only for Pocket PC. This is the Microsoft version of PDA. Not Palm. This is not Palm in this case.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: All right.
SIEBERG: The key to all of this, if you see here, this is the Pocket PC edition they sent us from Microsoft. The way it works is it's a software program you download for $40. Once you put it down here, you need to push this microphone button to activate it. The microphone then comes on and I say, "What's my next" -- here we go. This is a live demonstration, in case you didn't know.
O'BRIEN: We understand.
SIEBERG: What's my next appointment?
MECHANICAL VOICE: In 32 minutes ask boss for 20 percent raise.
SIEBERG: So I need to ask my boss for a 20 percent raise.
(CROSSTALK)
SIEBERG: You've got one as well. We're going to try to use yours. It's meant to access the features you have in there, your organizer and calender and play them back to you.
O'BRIEN: I say, "Play music."
MECHANICAL VOICE: What do you want to play? Album, artist, genre or everything?
O'BRIEN: It sort of sounds like Steven Hawking.
SIEBERG: It does.
O'BRIEN: Album.
MECHANICAL VOICE: Which album? Sample album one? Sample album two?
O'BRIEN: Sample album two.
SIEBERG: Now say, "Beatles."
O'BRIEN: Beatles. Beatles.
Now, OK. Let's try it again. Ready? Beatles. All right.
PHILLIPS: Gee, I'm buying one!
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
MECHANICAL VOICE: Try again.
O'BRIEN: Play music.
MECHANICAL VOICE: What do you want to play? Album, artist, or everything?
O'BRIEN: Everything.
MECHANICAL VOICE: Everything?
(MUSIC)
O'BRIEN: All right, pretty cool. Wow.
SIEBERG: The point of all of it is it's sensitive. You need to speak clearly into it. You need to pause and wait for the microphone to be ready. And it's meant to cut down the background noise.
It's not perfect because you can't add something to it. You can't say note to cell five and appointment later. It can read back things to you but you can't input things using your voice.
O'BRIEN: In a lean way, it offers you a capability and I'm thinking of driving, you can actually pull up to people...
SIEBERG: That's right. What is what Microsoft said they made it for commuters, people who are driving and want to use hands-free. That is the key to this technology.
The reason the voice is like that they wanted to compress the size down and in order to do that, they had to use this robotic voice.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: All right. Daniel, thank you very much. Good toy. The demo gods were kind of dicey as they often are.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 3, 2003 - 14:26 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's time to check in with our high tech guru, Daniel Sieberg. That means we got some good new toys to play with. He's going to give you a skinny on a new line of PDAs. Does any know what is a PDA?
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: Besides a public display of affection, no. A personal digital...
(CROSSTALK)
SIEBERG: software, Miles, we should say. This is new software coming out from Microsoft today, as a matter of fact, called Voice Command. Voice recognition software has been around a long time but Microsoft is saying this is the first time it works with a PDA and cell phone and doesn't have to learn a lot of the commands.
We can give you a demo in the studio of how it works. We got a couple of them here.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: I've got one of these phones where you say the name, but you have to teach it. This is a big difference?
SIEBERG: This is different because it already knows all these different commands. They're meant to be intuitive type of commands, not where you're not fumbling around trying to figure out what to say. And it's meant to replace a Stylist or menus that a few people find cumbersome.
This is only for Pocket PC. This is the Microsoft version of PDA. Not Palm. This is not Palm in this case.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: All right.
SIEBERG: The key to all of this, if you see here, this is the Pocket PC edition they sent us from Microsoft. The way it works is it's a software program you download for $40. Once you put it down here, you need to push this microphone button to activate it. The microphone then comes on and I say, "What's my next" -- here we go. This is a live demonstration, in case you didn't know.
O'BRIEN: We understand.
SIEBERG: What's my next appointment?
MECHANICAL VOICE: In 32 minutes ask boss for 20 percent raise.
SIEBERG: So I need to ask my boss for a 20 percent raise.
(CROSSTALK)
SIEBERG: You've got one as well. We're going to try to use yours. It's meant to access the features you have in there, your organizer and calender and play them back to you.
O'BRIEN: I say, "Play music."
MECHANICAL VOICE: What do you want to play? Album, artist, genre or everything?
O'BRIEN: It sort of sounds like Steven Hawking.
SIEBERG: It does.
O'BRIEN: Album.
MECHANICAL VOICE: Which album? Sample album one? Sample album two?
O'BRIEN: Sample album two.
SIEBERG: Now say, "Beatles."
O'BRIEN: Beatles. Beatles.
Now, OK. Let's try it again. Ready? Beatles. All right.
PHILLIPS: Gee, I'm buying one!
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
MECHANICAL VOICE: Try again.
O'BRIEN: Play music.
MECHANICAL VOICE: What do you want to play? Album, artist, or everything?
O'BRIEN: Everything.
MECHANICAL VOICE: Everything?
(MUSIC)
O'BRIEN: All right, pretty cool. Wow.
SIEBERG: The point of all of it is it's sensitive. You need to speak clearly into it. You need to pause and wait for the microphone to be ready. And it's meant to cut down the background noise.
It's not perfect because you can't add something to it. You can't say note to cell five and appointment later. It can read back things to you but you can't input things using your voice.
O'BRIEN: In a lean way, it offers you a capability and I'm thinking of driving, you can actually pull up to people...
SIEBERG: That's right. What is what Microsoft said they made it for commuters, people who are driving and want to use hands-free. That is the key to this technology.
The reason the voice is like that they wanted to compress the size down and in order to do that, they had to use this robotic voice.
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: All right. Daniel, thank you very much. Good toy. The demo gods were kind of dicey as they often are.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
