The infatuation never ends. Microsoft is letting it be known that it still feels a part of any new user interface technology will have to include speech recognition. Zig Serafin of Microsoft tells us: "Voice is the new touch. It's the natural evolution from keyboards and touch screens. Today, speech is rapidly becoming an expected part of our everyday experience across a variety of devices."

Serafin has a point. Besides it’s Star Treky coolness, speech is a ‘natural’ component of human communication. And, as computers become more intertwined with our routine world, communicating with them on our own terms (rather than there’s) makes a lot of sense. With this in mind Microsoft has been working on speech recognition technology for over a decade, and strengthened its commitment with the acquisition of Tellme Networks in 2007. Microsoft’s developments have been integrated into Bing for Mobile, Windows Mobile 6.5, and Windows 7.

Microsoft’s efforts perhaps need to be viewed as a work in progress. Right now there aren’t a lot of takers on speech enabled computers. In part because the training curve is still pretty steep (individual variation makes it hard to produce a one-size-fits-all solution). And because a lot of us are still uncomfortable with the idea of engaging with our hardware on a personal level.

Still, it’s the future that matters. As hardware and software mature it could be come a mainstream technology. Until then it makes sense for Microsoft, and others, to continue working on it.

 

Image Credit: lopezabraham716/Flickr

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