Talk to Me

ne day soon, while driving your car, you may instruct it to check your e-mail and read back the most urgent messages. About this time, you'll stop dialing numbers on your cell phone. You'll just speak the name of whomever you want to call. And forget the pen you now use to navigate between menus and applications on your handheld computer. In the future, you'll control it with your voice.

Speech recognition technology has gone beyond dictation. As the wireless Web begins to take off, companies are banking on speech recognition as the command and control technology-the user interface-of the future.

Yet it's only recently that speech recognition technology has become viable for general use. In days past, voice recognition software was clunky and took forever to train. Even then, the software was only marginally accurate.

But the software has matured. Now, it takes about five minutes to train the software as opposed to 60 to 70 minutes in the past, says Klaus Schleicher, director of product management for Lernout & Hauspie's Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software. And because voice recognition is a computing intensive application, the dramatic rise of processing speed has increased the software's accuracy. Schleicher says the percentage of accuracy is now in "the high 90s." This means executives can dictate with more assurance that what they are saying is exactly what the computer is transcribing.

The advances in the core technology have also led to new uses. These days, speech recognition is being used to control computers. Users can open menus, navigate through documents or various applications, even surf the Web by giving a computer voice commands.

Plus, in the case of e-mail and the Internet, just to mention a couple examples, the software can read text in a human-sounding voice. Gone are the days of strange, robotic sounding voices, Schleicher says. "It is human sounding technology."

Industry leaders expect voice recognition technology to play a key role in appliances meant to access the wireless Web. This means handheld computers, cars, even cell phones will use the technology in both command and control and information reading capacities.

"The wireless Web is more of a highway than a destination," says Patty McHugh, director of new business development for IBM voice systems. "Voice recognition technology is an extension of a real, natural user interface."

And data from L&H supports this, calling speech the "easiest means of communication." People who write by hand average 10 to 20 words per minute; a fast typist typically taps out 60 to 100 words per minute; talkers belt out 80 to 160 words per minute.

Plus, with voice technology a user isn't restricted by what he or she sees on an appliance's screen, McHugh says. "You're going to see a lot of different kinds of devices meant to access the Internet wirelessly. Voice will be the thing that ties them all together," McHugh says.

But McHugh points out a drawback to the technology. "People who use it have watched too many science fiction movies and [they expect] to be able to talk to an appliance like it is a human being. But we're still a ways away from Star Trek."

Even so, drivers will soon instruct their cars to monitor traffic congestion. The cars will do this by accessing real-time traffic data from the Internet. The cars will then be able to suggest alternate routes to avoid tie-ups. "You will use speech technology to help keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel," says Raj Desai, IBM director of worldwide automotive solutions. "You will interact with the car just as if you were talking to someone sitting next to you. You will give commands and it will respond."

HARDWARE

Apple's New Cube

"The Cube floats," says Linda McNulty, director of desktop product marketing at Apple. "It is encased in Lucite. The Cube starts an inch and half off the ground. In back, there is an arched cut-out that allows the cable to be plugged in."

A PowerPC G4 processor speeds the Cube along at either 450 or 500 megahertz. The unit comes standard with 64 megabytes of memory but can be upgraded to 1.5 gigabytes. The Cube's hard drive weighs in at 20 gigabytes. However, Apple also sells the Cube with 40 gigabytes of storage. The power supply rests on the floor, away from the unit "The Cube was designed for places with a limited amount of space," McNulty says. "The Cube's only noise is . . . when the hard drive is spinning." The Cube features a DVD-ROM, a 56-kilobyte-per second modem and an Ethernet connection.

But perhaps most interesting is how the Cube circulates air to cool its G4 processor. Because the air is warm inside the cube, it pulls cool air through a grill at its top. Warm air exits through the bottom.