|
Hyatt at Fisherman's Wharf San Francisco, California - March 12-14, 2012 |
|||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
Organizers:
|
The voice-enabled mobile personal assistant--part of a chain reaction? San Jose, CA, March 5, 2012: The annual Mobile Voice Conference (MVC, www.mobilevoiceconference.com) in San Francisco, March 12-14, organized by the Applied Voice Input Output Society (AVIOS) and TMA Associates, addresses the use of voice technology such as speech recognition in commercial applications. Interest in the conference this year is driven in part by the success of Apple's Siri voice-driven personal assistant and similar capabilities being added to phones with other operating systems, as well as the spread of this "intelligent agent" behavior to other markets. The flexibility and acceptance of Siri leads to a question: How did speech recognition suddenly get so good after years of what most observers have viewed as mediocre success at best? Most consumers have encountered speech recognition when they called a customer service line and usually found the interaction only marginally better than pressing touch-tone keys. What caused this "tipping point," where flexible speech recognition is beginning to grow not only on mobile phones, but in automobiles, for controlling TV, playing games, providing better customer service, and more? The truth is that, while Apple may have driven realization of the maturing of speech technology, the current state of the technology has been driven not by a single tipping point, but more by a chain reaction of tipping points that built up to the point of explosion, according to Bill Meisel, president of TMA Associates and the MVC program organizer. In technology, Meisel claimed, an accumulation of "tipping points" (re Malcolm Gladwell's best-seller) can work together to create a chain reaction that spreads in multiple directions and markets. Speech recognition in particular is in the middle of such a chain reaction. The result will drive fundamental changes in many markets. The beginning of the chain reaction for speech technology is a combination of improving wireless connectivity, growth in the use of smartphones, pervasive use of the Web, lower cost of computing power to support compute-intensive processes such as speech recognition, the growing variety and complexity of web sites and applications, a steady improvement in the underlying core speech technology, and the growing availability and variety of labeled speech data to build better speech recognition models. The continuing explosion in the use of speech technology is the result of three key factors: (1) Enthusiasm for a user interface innovation that is particularly effective on small devices such as a mobile phone or when hands-free use is safer and more convenient (e.g., when driving); (2) The over-burdening of the Graphical User Interface by growing web and app variety (particularly evident on small devices); and (3) The simplicity, efficiency, and generality of the personal assistant model ("just say or type what you want, and get directly to the answer"). The Mobile Voice Conference, coming up shortly, provides attendees with information to help them take advantage of the rapidly developing opportunities created by the chain reaction in the use of speech technology. It covers the implications of this development in many areas, including marketing, enterprise use, and customer service. The talks provide examples of how to apply this development successfully in your business and resources for doing so. The detailed program is available at www.mobilevoiceconference.com. In one innovation, the first day of the conference, Vendor Day on Monday, March 12, is free. About the Applied Voice Input Output Society AVIOS is non-profit organization promoting the speech technology industry for over a quarter-century. For more info, see www.avios.org. About TMA Associates Bill Meisel's TMA Associates publishes Speech Strategy News, a no-ads, paid-subscription newsletter with 225 monthly issues so far. TMA also provides consulting services in practical applications of speech technology and associated market development. See www.tmaa.com. Contacts: ____________________________________________________ How connected are we to our mobile devices? In the SpeechTEK conference this month, an intriguing theme emerged suggesting that smartphones are becoming extensions of ourselves. Multiple presenters cited evidence showing that, because they are always with us, the expanding capabilities of the devices to be our “personal assistants” actually expand human potential. There is an interesting analogy to automobiles which extend our range of travel beyond walking distance, with the mechanics of driving almost automatic like walking when we use the vehicle. The idea of the mobile phone as an extension of our memory and capabilities that is always with us, in effect an extension of our brain, is perhaps a bit unsettling to some of us but, nevertheless, it is happening. Paradoxically, one major challenge to this “paradigm shift” is the rapid growth in mobile phone features and cloud-based services. While these make the device more valuable, the complexity makes them difficult to use. The rapid acceptance of voice search on mobile phones as an alternative to typing search terms is evidence that typing and navigating features and applications on smartphones is difficult enough to demand an easier and more natural way to interact with them if they are to achieve their full potential. One particularly natural option is to treat the phone as a personal assistant--just say what you want to get it. Providers of speech recognition options on mobile phones are expanding them to fuller assistant-style functionality, with all major mobile operating systems offering (or soon to offer) voice control, as well as independent apps that act in effect as a voice operating system on top of the operating system. The voice functionality of these assistant applications goes beyond the speech recognition capability. They include methods of analyzing the resulting text to determine the user’s intent and cut directly to what the user wants rather than just displaying a list of alternatives. If the user is not in an environment where they can speak to the phone, they can type what they want into a searchbox-style interface and still take advantage of these natural language interpretation capabilities. This intuitive interface is a prerequisite to full use of smartphone capabilities as they expand, and will make its evolution into an extension of our human capabilities more complete. The commercial implications of this fundamental paradigm shift will be explored in depth at the Mobile Voice Conference in San Francisco, March 19-21, 2012. The conference is presented by the non-profit Applied Voice Input Output Society, with Bill Meisel, editor, Speech Strategy News, and president, TMA Associates, as the program organizer. The conference is currently offering sponsorship opportunities and soliciting proposals for talks at www.mobilevoiceconference.com. About the Mobile Voice Conference The Mobile Voice Conference in San Francisco, March 19-21, 2012, provides attendees with information to help them take advantage of the rapidly developing opportunities created by the explosion of mobile phone use, and, in particular, with the increasing role of voice interaction on mobile devices, including its implications for app development, enterprise use, and customer service. The preliminary program is at www.mobilevoiceconference.com. The first day of the conference is the Vendor Showcase, part of the full conference registration, but free for those attending the one day. Information on conference sponsorship opportunities and participation in the Vendor Showcase is available at the conference website.
Previous Press Releases click here About the Applied Voice Input Output Society AVIOS is non-profit organization promoting the speech technology industry for over a quarter-century. For more info, see www.avios.org. Contacts:
|
Primary Sponsors:
Supporting Sponsors:
|
|||||||||||
| Designed by OlympiaDesign.com | © 2011 - All rights reserved -- Applied Voice Input/Output Society |
