The World Just Got Easier to Understand

Science Fiction literature has often turned out to be much more than fiction.  After all, it was Arthur C. Clarke who predicted the deployment of communication satellites long before some scientists worked out the physics and others said it could not be done.  More recently we are still waiting for the food replicator from the Starship Enterprise but anyone who has experienced virtual reality goggles might be thinking the first commercially available “holodeck” can’t be far off.

When I recently discovered a new service provided by Skype my thoughts returned to the Star Trek stories that featured a computer that could universally communicate with any alien form regardless of language.  It was a universal translator.

Skype’s Translator is not universal nor perfect but it sure is a great start.  Translator is available free for those using Skype on computers and devices using Windows 8 versions or above and some Apple products.  The latter do not fully support this Microsoft product.  My tests indicate that those using Apple devices might want to wait a while before trying Translate.

To use Translate, the user signs on to Skype and places a video call.  Before connecting you must select what language you will speak and what language the party you are calling speaks.  When connected, you speak your language (in my case English) and the party you called speaks theirs. During the call you will hear a computer generated voice and see captions in English on your side of the conversation and your friend will hear and see the conversation in their language.   As of this writing, Translate works with English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and two dialects of Chinese.

I tried the English / French version and was impressed.   For sure it is not suitable for very important discussions or any legal proceedings, but is does a good job of translating simple conversations.  It helps to refrain from using jargon and/or idioms in your conversations and you should speak clearly.  Keep the background noise to a minimum. Some reviewers gave it low marks when using the Chinese option.

For those who want to use the Skype Text Chat service the number of supported languages increases to about 50.  Some Microsoft engineer with a good sense of humor even included Klingon as one of the languages.  Again, you type in English and your correspondent sees the message in one of fifty languages currently supported.

I am sure that in a few years this service will look primitive but right now I find it exciting and potentially very useful.

You Can Hear Me Now!

One of my favorite Star Trek movies is The Voyage Home.  The crew of the Enterprise had travelled back in time to save the earth’s whales and I remember the scene in which Scotty, the starship’s engineer, is attempting to use a vintage Macintosh computer by speaking into the mouse.  Of course his commands fell on the proverbial deaf digital ears as this technology had not yet arrived on earth in 1986.   Nevertheless, I always thought it was so cool that on the bridge of the starship Capt. Kirk could carry on conversations with the computer: making commands, setting the course and asking for answers to complex questions.  While it has been a long time coming, there are now some very practical and easy to use voice commands available on a number of new digital devices.

Perhaps the most well known right now is Siri, the personal assistant application available on the Apple iPhone and iPad. At first you might think that speaking commands is something that is cool but has limited real world uses.  You would be wrong.  There are several tasks that Siri can help with that are very practical and helpful.  For example, tax season is upon us and instead of using a calculator or computer spread sheet to add up a series of numbers, just speak them to Siri. Siri will give you the sum and show each number in the series so you can make sure you have all the entries.  Want to take a brief cat nap?  Just tell Siri to set an alarm.  Forget when you are to meet with a client?  Siri can check your calendar and tell you all the meetings you have with this person.  You can send emails and other messages using only voice commands.

On a road trip and need a cup of coffee?  Ask Siri the location of the closest Starbucks.  On a more serious note, Siri can find the closest gas station, bank or hospital.

For people with Windows devices, there are also applications that can make use of voice commands.  Using Windows 7 or 8 and the Google Chrome browser opens up a whole suite of applications.  By clicking on the microphone icon in the Google search box you can just speak your question.  Google can also do math functions.  Not only can you ask for the sum of a series of numbers, Google will do advanced math functions like square roots and cosines.

While you may not be able to control your starship you can ask Google to display a map.  Give it a try.  Ask for a map of Harrison, Ohio.  Then ask for a map of your street using your address including zip code.

Voice commands have come a long way and will continue to make the keyboard and mouse as Scotty would say, “Oh how quaint!”

Can You Hear Me Now?

I have confession to make. I talk back to my TV. My patient wife knows this all too well. My remarks usually are sparked by some atrocious grammar error or pronunciation mistake made by a “professional” announcer or newsreader. I am not above yelling at some politician on the screen who is avoiding a question or spinning some very negative happening into a something for us all to celebrate. And don’t get me going on the father and daughter TV tag team telling me that they will put aluminum siding on the back of my house for free. Of course my TV doesn’t listen to me. That may now change.

One of the technologies that got a lot of attention at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas, was voice recognition. While this technology has been around for a several years incorporated into mobile phone auto dialers and some high end automobiles, it has been somewhat unreliable. I for one have a hard time getting my phone to dial with voice commands. That is another column.

Responding to the complexity of the once simple task of watching TV in your living room, several manufacturers have demonstrated controls for TVs that allow you to speak the commands. Want to watch some college hoops? Just say “Watch ESPN2.” Want to know what Jim Cantore has predicted for the tri-sate? Tell your TV that you want to “Watch the Weather Channel.” The TV figures out the channel number or if the service is from cable, off air or perhaps from the Internet.

Samsung is building voice recognition into some new TVs and others are making remote controls that will respond to your voice commands. Many of these devices are still not perfected. Even some of the demonstrations at the CES were plagued with some miscues. Like any technology, the bugs will be worked out and soon voice recognition will be as ubiquitous as touch screens are now. Recently Apple released “Siri,” an application for the iPhone 4s that listens to your commands and performs tasks like web searches, appointment booking and meeting reminders. Perhaps this is the best example of how far voice recognition progressed.

The reason behind this effort to add voice commands to the TV is the desire to simplify controlling the myriad of options now available even in a simple TV. Turning captions on and off, changing from cable to off air reception, and watching a DVD or playing a game often require several commands. Since many TV manufacturers want to make the TV the centerpiece of the digital home, they must find a way to keep the operation simple and intuitive. What can be simpler than just speaking your commands?

So in the not too distant future when your kids ask the TV to “Watch HBO” they might hear “I’m afraid I can’t do that until you do your homework!”

How Did I Do?

It is always dangerous to make predictions. It is even more dangerous and potentially embarrassing to make those predictions in writing. Nevertheless, last year at this time I made some predictions and suggestions in this column regarding electronic products and services during 2008. How did I do? Well, let’s see

In that column I mentioned that you could look for some great deals on digital televisions after the 2008 Super Bowl®. Once that day passed, sales would slow down and you would be able to get some great deals. For sure that did happen and with the slowing of the economy and the added DTV manufacturing capacity now on line, there continues to be great deals on new digital TV sets of all sizes. Since they have been so deeply discounted, I don’t think you will see any significant price cutting as we move toward the February 17th analog cut off.

Also in that column and in several others during the year I warned that if you didn’t decide to subscribe to cable or satellite you needed to either purchase a new digital TV or get a set top adapter. Well, after a less than orderly start, the adapters did find their way into stores in early 2008. However, even today, some retailers have had supply issues. Also, the federal government began to issue coupons. Each household is eligible to get 2 coupons each worth $40 toward the purchase of a DTV adapter. That program from our good friends in DC has been less than smooth. Since they decided that the coupons would have a 90 day expiration period, many people found themselves with worthless coupons. If you have not ordered coupons, you can still do so. For more information you can call 888 DTV-2009 (800-388-2009) or go to www.dtv2009.gov.

I opined that the cell phone providers would begin to expand capabilities beyond one-to-one communication. Many will find it surprising that the United States and Canada are among the most backward countries in the world with our cell phone networks and hand set capabilities. In many countries today you can now do your banking via cell phone, pay for gas, buy a subway fare and watch sporting events. Well, I was a bit optimistic about this prediction. The flagging economy has slowed the introduction of several enhancements. I don’t see much change in 2009.

I predicted that more devices, especially in automobiles would be controlled by voice commands. This technology has been available on higher end products. Again I was wrong as the big car companies had other issues to address and slowed down implementation of this technology.

I predicted that the process of “data mining” would increase with the promotion of store affinity cards that identify you as you check out with your purchases. More and more stores have such cards and are using them to target the distribution of advertisements and coupons via direct mail using this information.

Finally, I predicted that the green energy efficiency movement will get into full swing with added emphasis on doing little things in your home that will add up to substantial community savings. For sure that happened, spurred on by the price of oil and electricity.

Next week I will have some predictions for 2009.