Vista Speech Recognition Goes Awry

An anonymous reader writes "It seems even MSNBC is willing to take a jab on those rare occasions when Microsoft products don't work. During a demo of Vista's speech recognition technology, Vista couldn't differentiate between mom and aunt, and all attempts to rectify the problem just made it worse. Wait until you see what it spat out, I think we have a new 'All your base.' Don't you just love Microsoft's live demonstrations?"

Roald Dahl

[Ithika]

Reminds me of the Roald Dahl short story about the ant-eater who ate someone's aunt because their accent rendered the two words the same.

I can't remember what the story was called.

Awww...c'mon guys....

[JoeLinux]

It's just a one-time thing.

I mean, it's not like they have a reputation for releasing half-assed code that's been hyped up through marketing to the point that it will never perform as advertised.

And it's not like this is a company that is having image problems due to its monopolistic nature.

Or headed by an infamous ragaholic with a history of intolerance towards free standards.

Nope, I'm sure that this is just an accident by a company that spends its off hours petting little baby chickens and bunnies.

Hee hee

[kefoo]

Reminds me of the time when I worked at a computer store and we played with the voice recognition card in a PowerMac floor model. Somebody programmed it so that if someone said "Computer, bite me", it would respond with "Can't bite what's not there". Over time the accuracy of the recognition fell. One day as a salesman was talking to a customer about the computer it misinterpreted something he said and said "Can't bite what's not there". Needless to say that system was wiped and we weren't allowed to play with it anymore.

Well

[antifoidulus]

it could lead to surprising porn....

Remember the Win98 BSOD?

[Enderandrew]

Not quite as embarrassing as the Windows 98 BSOD, but more entertaining than the Ballmer developer's video.

http://www.ntk.net/media/developers.mpg [ntk.net]

Just from MicroSoft Insider

[Seiruu]

Steve Ballmers accidently send an e-mail while diligently testing the software. The e-mail says:

"Sir put down the chair, then we'll talk"
"No Steve wait up, don't do that"
"BOOM CRASH BOOM CRASH BOOM CRAASH WAAAH NOOO STOOOOP"
"DUDE, THE COMP HAS A BSOD! WAAH!"

Re:I'd love to see what it 'spat out'...

[Anonymous Coward]

that comment is as sad as the video.

It's hard

[wootest]

It's hard to wreck a nice beach. :)

Vista couldn't differentiate between mom and aunt

[jcraveiro]

Maybe they're twin sisters... ;)

Sequence of events

[daveschroeder]

"Dear mom comma"

Dear aunt,

"Fix aunt"

Dear aunt, let's set

"Delete that"

Dear aunt, let's set

"Delete that"

Dear aunt, let's set

"Delete that"

Dear aunt, let's set so

"I think it's picking up a little bit of echo here...delete - select all"

Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all

*Manually selects all and deletes*

"Okay, I'm glad you're enjoying this"

*Laughter*

OS/2 Still Kicking Microsoft's Ass

[Greyfox]

C'mon! IBM put on a great speech reco demo at the '95 Atlanta COMDEX. Their product worked flawlessly! Well... Except the guy fired it up and started talking and the little text editor was picking up the words when someone in the back of the audience yells "FORMAT C!" The crowd went wild and the guy doing the demo cracked up too, which caused the speech engine to freak out a bit. He had to delete a bunch of junk out of his text editor once things settled down.

Speech recognition is still just a gimmick anyway. We still have a LONG way to go before it gets to the point that Joe Average User imagines it should be. Joe average user wants his computer to respond like the one in Star Trek. I still want to set up my Asterisk server with speech recognition, though, so that people can either dial or say the extension they want. It'd also be neat to pick up the phone, say "Call Mom" to the dial tone and have it call my aunt for me.

Re:Well

[acariquara]

...or a new slashdot signature.

Re:Awww...c'mon guys....

[calculadoru]

Preperation (clap), preperation (clap), preperation (clap), preperation (clap), preperation (clap), [pitch of voice higher], preperation (clap), preperation (clap), [wheeze out of breath, pitch even higher], preperation (clap), preperation (clap), yeah!!!

One would be inclined to think that since you went and typed that word nine times, you would have managed to spell preparation correctly at least once...

Re:Awww...c'mon guys....

[tomstdenis]

I used the Vista Beta Speech Recognition?

[and I copy/pasted it. Yeah I know, I'm hardly literate. What you wanna fight about it?]

Tom

Re:OS/2 Still Kicking Microsoft's Ass

[maxwell demon]

It'd also be neat to pick up the phone, say "Call Mom" to the dial tone and have it call my aunt for me.

Seems Microsoft's speech recognicion is just right for you :-)

Re:Man, that brings back memories!!!

[TheRaven64]

I recall a friend of mine demoing the MacOS speech recognition engine a decade or so ago. The dialogue went something like this: User: Open SimpleText. Computer: Are you sure you wish to shut down. User: No. Computer: Shutting down... As you can imagine, he didn't leave it switched on all that often...

Re:Is SR ever going to be good enough?

[NormalVisual]

all those holodeck scenes, Troi ordering chocolate, etc.

Hmmm - holodeck, Troi, chocolate.....the combination of those three items is something that gives one pause to ponder.

Um, I'll be back in a little bit.

Re:Awww...c'mon guys....

[BasilBrush]

I have been using the Microsoft Vista speech recognition feature for a while now and I can assure you all that it worms delete no delete bastard undo select back 8 you fucking aunt no select all enter

Re:Sequence of events

[lurker412]

Got ham pizza ship

Since when did Mum sound anything like Aunt?

[tomhudson]

Since when did Mum sound anything like Aunt?

... probably in the same jurisdictions where "wife" is spelled "first cousin" or "sister".

Re:Dear aunt

[KlaymenDK]

Wait a sec ..... I think [MS] marketing folks can't use noise-cancelling mics. Nothing would be recorded!

Badabing! Thanks folks, I'll be here all week.

Re:Roald Dahl

[palad1]

Oh great, man-eating ant-eaters! [sadgeezer.com]

Bad News

[PixelScuba]

My mom is in a coma.

My aunt is in a,

I've also noticed this as a beta tester

[Lonath]

Every time I say the word "Linux" it gets typed out as "Windows". Go figure.

Re:Oh Please

[Bing Tsher E]

Who knows how the algorithm they implemented works.

Probably nobody at Microsoft. . .

Re:Awww...c'mon guys....

[WilliamSChips]

Because most high powered sales people are just cocaine snorting asshats that make peoples lives miserable.

And I think calling them that would be an insult to the cocaine-snorting asshat that makes people's lives miserable community.

Actually, not really

[jpardey]

The PR guy was demoted. Microsoft put him in a box with a keyboard and called him "Vista Speech Recognition." See, such technology is in reach!

Re:Roald Dahl

[Reverend528]

Eat up Martha?

Re:Awww...c'mon guys....

[Hikaru79]

the speech recognition field has a long history of staying in such a state forever.

Wow. I think my head exploded just trying to think about that.

Re:Awww...c'mon guys....

[miskatonic alumnus]

Or the classic "Scuse me while I kiss this guy".

Re:Since when did Mum sound anything like Aunt?

[tomhudson]

I think the government has a monopoly on f*cking the dead.