Ready to chat with your computer? It may happen this year

PRIME November 2012 By Gary M. Kaye Editor, In the Boombox (www.intheboombox.tv) In 1968 the big news was 2001. That was the year we flocked to see the classic film "2001-A Space Odyssey." One of the film's stars was the HAL 9000, a room-sized, self-aware computer that ran an entire spaceship. Of course, it also ran amok. It would be another decade before the advent of the personal computer. Ever since, we've been talking to our computers – well perhaps more like yelling at our computers. But they haven't been listening. Now, Nuance, the company that makes the voice transcription software, Dragon Naturally Speaking, and the creator of the engine behind the iPhone's interactive voice concierge, Siri, is out to make true voice interaction with our personal computers a reality. One of the biggest stories to come out of the recent Intel Developer Forum (IDF) was the announcement that Intel is teaming up with Nuance to bring the first real voice interface to personal computing, called Dragon Voice Assistant Beta. The first iteration will come in a new version of the Dell XPS13 Ultrabook, which consumers will find available before the end of the year. Peter Mahoney, the chief marketing officer of Nuance and general manager of Dragon thinks that Voice Assistant will be available in a wide variety of machines powered by Intel's Core processor line within the year, giving people the ability to command and control, as well as dictate anywhere, simply by using their voice. The Dragon Assistant beta is a PC-based application that does not rely on an Internet connection and supports broad and popular PC usages, including: • Command: The application has the ability to launch other applications such as mail, and other programs simply by using your voice. • Search: The application allows for voice-activated searches of popular internet sites such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Wikipedia, Ebay, Amazon, etc. • Social: Dragon Assistant supports interaction with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and can make calls using Skype (you will need an Internet connection for these functions to work). • Media: The application supports both Windows Media Player and iTunes libraries. Dragon Assistant also supports the searching of media content through websites such as Hulu, iHeartRadio, LastFM, YouTube, etc. While Dragon Assistant is a software- only solution, it is designed for specific configurations of Intel-designed Ultrabook computers beginning with the Dell XPS13. Other computers with Intel's Core processors will eventually run the software as well, and Mahoney says that within a year we'll see broad deployment. For now, Dragon Assistant leverages the built-in microphone capability of the Ultrabook, the sleek Windows-based laptops designed to compete with Apple's MacBook Air. To encourage new software for the voice interface, Intel's newest development kit for software designers will support the Dragon Assistant, so we can expect a host of new voice-enabled programs soon. And while this will be a blessing for those of us constrained by vision or dexterity issues, it doesn't do everything you might like. For example, it will not let the user tell his or her computer to zoom in on the screen, though Mahoney says that can be done if the individual wants to go to the trouble of writing a voice enabled macro. Unlike Siri, which lets you know she's listening, users trigger the Dragon Assistant by saying, "Hello, Dragon." The system responds with an on-screen prompt, but as of now, no voice prompt. I expect that will change. The announcement of a voice interface for the personal computer comes as Microsoft Windows rolls out it's newest operating system, Windows 8. The system is optimized for touch, and will allow users to move items around the screen and launch applications with the touch of a finger, but only if they have one of the new computers with a touch screen. One of the great features of a touch screen is the ability to pinch text or pictures to blow them up. That's a huge step forward for those of us who strain to read what's on our screens. But because Windows 8 is optimized for touch, not voice, it's not clear how the two interfaces are going to work together. In either event, having computers that can be manipulated by either voice or touch should make things much easier for those of us with vision or dexterity issues. Not far behind interfaces with voice and touch will be gesture recognition, a technology already on Microsoft's Xbox Kinect gaming system that's currently being built into some Smart TVs. If it all comes together, it won't be long before users will be able to touch their computer screen, talk to it, and wave at it, getting it to do everything you want, without even using a keyboard or mouse. Gary Kaye is the creator of In The Boombox (www.intheboombox.tv), the first website to cover technology from the Baby Boomer perspective. Kaye has been covering hi-tech for more than thirty years with outlets including NBC, ABC, CNN and Fox Business. He is a regular contributor to AARP and other websites on issues regarding the nexus of technology, seniors and Baby Boomers.