Opera Promises Voice-Operated Web Browser

unassimilatible writes "Opera's latest browser talks and listens, according to AP. The new browser incorporates IBM's ViaVoice technology, enabling the computer to ask what the user wants and "listen" to the request. "Hi. I am your browser. What can I do for you?" asked a laptop with the demonstration versions of the browser. The message can be personalized, such as greeting users by name. The computer learns to recognize users' voices, accents and inflections by having them read a list of words into a microphone. Opera plans to first launch an English version of the voice browser for computers running the Windows operating system. Versions for other systems, including handhelds, will follow. Opera's press release has more details, including Opera's hopes that people will adopt this technology for presentations - and to replace PowerPoint."

Word Processing is clunky, will this be better?

[michael path]

Though I can certainly understand the need to market something unique, and the logic behind "Voice is the most natural and effective way we communicate....." [opera.com], I cannot ever see myself talking to my web browser like another human being.

I've worked with and supported both ViaVoice and DragonNaturallySpeaking solutions for voice-based typing in word processors, and neither of them felt natural. Perhaps because I'm a geek, or just because I've been doing it so long, I'd rather manually key in exactly what I want and let myself make the mistakes, not the interpretation.

With corrections, it always took longer to do the alleged "easier way" than manually keying in. Even with 99% accuracy, Word Processing was always clunky at best.

That, and every time I scream out "litigious bastards", I don't need it pulling up litigious bastards [thescogroup.com].

voice operated?

[goosebane]

I have tried a lot of voice operated software, but have never had any luck getting it to work. Has anybody else had better luck with voice activated software? What do you think the chances of this actually working for most people are? Until Ive seen a product that works well I unfortunately have to remain skeptical.

Voice activated Powerpoint? Uhm, no...

[LostCluster]

The key thing about PowerPoint presentations is that it's supposed to be a visual backdrop that you can control without disrupting your presentation. What a powerpoint presenter really wants is a simple wireless device to advance to the next slide, and maybe a back button in case of a mis-click. Any additional buttons beyond two are annoying.

Come on, this technology has existed for the TV weatherman for years. Why hasn't anybody gotten it right for PowerPoint users yet?

Re:a few things to say...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't think of it as a replacement for your current browser on your current desktop. This seems as if it would be a nice start to bettering the functionality of a web browser on a computer too small for a standard keyboard... i.e. pda and smart phones.

Homophones...

[LostCluster]

There are many words in the English language that have homophones. Google being a text-based search interface is smart enough to not mix up "four" and "for", "too" and "two", or "plane" and "plain". There's no way for voice recognition technology to tell the difference between those words in a search query, there simply isn't enough context...

Re:a few things to say...

[mahler3]

I don't see myself using a voice-commanded that much, either... heck, I haven't even programmed the voice dialing capabilities on my new cell phone.

That being said, this will likely make life better for people with severe spinal injuries or others with limited use of their hands. Kudos to Opera.

An important step in computer interaction

[Fluidic Binary]

I personally think having alternative means of interacting with our software is important.

For a user such as myself a keyboard and mouse is presently more intuitive, but eventually this sort of software should prove very useful, especially as computers become more fully integrated into our lives.

This technology might also be useful with a couple of modifications, for the blind if it was coupled with one of those applications that reads the text from the screen for you.

I hope the next step would be interfacing more easily with computers through gestures or non-standard spoken communication for those who are speech impaired and for some reason can't use a keyboard or mouse.

I suppose this is just my personal agenda shining through, but I think diverse means of interfacing with our information is essential to enriching the lives of those who are different as well as making the majorities life easier.

Re:a few things to say...

[gusmao]

"This sounds like a fun thing to play around with, but I certainly don't see myself using it as a normal web browser. I'll most likely stick with my keyboard"

Well, while you probably have the option to pick your keyboard, there are many handcapped people in the world that would find amazing just surf the Web all by themselves. This will be much more than a toy for them.

Great concept for people with Diabilities

[Frailty]

I installed some of the first off the shelf Voice recognition software a number of years ago for my sisters cousin who has cerebral palsy, and it made a huge difference in her being able to use the computer for her education, I sent the Opera Link to her Mom to look at in that this might be something that would suit her also.

Re:Homophones...

[n8willis]

Well, but text-based search cannot distinguish between homographs, like bow (as in tie a ribbon into a...) and bow (as in one end of a ship). So there are trade-offs either way.

Re:voice operated?

[gryphokk]

I've used Mac's system "speakable Items" in both OS 9 and OS X,which uses a floder full of icons/scripts. Speak the name of the icon, and it actsw as a double-click. The biggest problem is using it in any kind of noisy environment. Hallway traffic interferes with it, and forget having the radio or stereo on.

It was pretty effective as far as it went, but not a total solution. I used commands to launch all my common programs, and common File: and Edit: commands.

(Photoshop. Select all. Copy This. Quark Express. Paste Here. Print it now. Close this Window. Quit this Program.)

And don't forget to turn it off when people come to talk to you -- one sentence misinterpreted as a command could do -- well anything.

(Select all. Delete. Save. Close Window)

Worse than not saving, you can accidentally blow away weeks of work and not know it 'til you reopen the document.

Of course there are safeguards, like requiring a keyword before accepting voice commands (Gilbert: Print it now).

Lots of fun, but it's off right now -- great wow factor but interferes more than it helps.

Accessibility, accessibility, accessibility...

[hkmwbz]

Opera is known to care about accessibility [opera.com]. This technology probably has many uses, and it will be especially welcome to people with certain disabilities.

To you, it might be a gimmick. To someone with a disability, this could make life a lot easier.

I had a parapalegic teacher in college..

[Azureflare]

And his favorite browser is Opera. I bet this will just make him love opera even more! It's tedious for him to type, as he has limited control of his hands, so this will really help him out. I'm really glad Opera is doing this.

Re:But I don't wanna talk to my computer

[andyrut]

What could I possibly have to say to my browser?

Agreed. While there are some cases where voice-activated technology has its uses (I very much doubt people would be thrilled with typing into their onboard navigation systems while driving) a web browser or other common features on your computer simply don't need speech recognition.

For Joe User, I doubt we'll ever see widespread use of speech recognition technology. Who wants to go hoarse telling a computer what to do when it only takes a flick of the wrist as it is? And man, an office could get noisy if everyone was dictating documents and telling their machines to "download Natalie Portman pictures."

Re:Gimmicky blah blah

[sysopd]

Yeah, mouse gestures are 'fluff' just like Palm's graffiti was 'fluff'.

You are correct, it is a hard arena to innovate in, and Opera is the only company I know that is actively innovating-- and at the same time making their product faster and less resource intensive. Voice recognition will be an optional feature, and will be quite useful especially for those who rely on non-standard accessibility features.

Many of the features opera has increase productivity and are downright addictive on the desktop, but guestures on mobile devices where you have no keyboard (such as a cellphone (with 'intelligent type' etc) or pda) are almost mandatory. Not to mention Opera's Small Screen Rendering [opera.com] (press Shift-F11 in opera to test it out) which makes browsing the web (ie, not WAP) actually possible.

You have to realize that Opera as a product is used on at least 7 different desktop OSs, several brands of Smartphones, PDAs, internet terminals/STBs, etc. Much of the so-called 'gimmicks' are a necessity for one of these other markets. The benefit to the Opera user is getting all of these features regardless of platform, and homogeneity of the product line (meaning Opera on Mac should have all of the features and a similar interface (barring OS/GUI differences) as Opera for Linux).

PDAs?

[asteinberg]

While the accessibility benefits you mention are nice, I think the key to this that most people seem to be missing is the usefulness on PDAs. I seem to recall Opera being most successful with the embedded version of their browser, and I'd say that is probably where voice interaction has the most usefulness.

Imagine a PDA that you can actually talk to instead of having to struggle with "Graffiti" or the little thumb keyboards. Hell, if it's good enough, you could even get rid of the need for a screen and just interact entirely through voice - here's how we could finally get a useable web browser/email client/schedule program in a watch!

One step closer to some of the concepts explored in Snowcrash, maybe?

Reminds me of the Passport article

[PetoskeyGuy]

A solution to a problem I don't have.

Re:Homophones...

[Rallion]

Makes no difference, as the speech software will run into the same problems anyway. All it does is convert it to text, after all.