Assessing the voice technologies

Even though we had several iterations of voice activated systems over the years, technology that would in some way mimic conversations and replace the venerable mouse and keyboard seemed to be far into the future.  As a consumer and user of technology, I have a vested interest in voice and wanted to be crisp and clear in articulating my asks

• I hate to type. Having had no formal training in the typing skills, I am slow, inefficient and error prone. Using a finger closest to the key to be pressed strategy, keyboards are becoming painful, just as I get to a point where the amount of typing is steadily increasing.
• As a human, I have several input and output faculties. Out of the five: vision, touch, sound, voice, smell; the drop off between sound and voice is significant. A more balances approach is definitely more desirable
• Over the past few years, I have begun to rely on the track-pad and touch sensitive screen quite a bit leading to painful hands. Trying to get things done with the unnatural systems is taking a toll.
• I want the ability to choose the most preferred mode of using technology. The choice should be mine and mine alone, without any rigidity. I do not want one natural system replaced by another one.

As the technology evolves and gets better, there are definitely risks to my consumer vision. Based on my research of the voice systems here are some visions of the big players that have the potential of causing more unnatural interactions for me. Let us stat with the top players and their mental models.  The following section is my view based on the approach, system design and actions and less on the words in the marketing.

Amazon

Amazon believes that most people have no need for the keyboard or mouse or even the computer. If everything you need to be done can be done in the cloud, why would you need a computer? You just need a speaker/microphone combination that lets you communicate, learn about things, get entertained or complete tasks all through a voice interface. You wont need a computer. All you have to do is to Ask Alexa. Even today with the constructs like "Alexa, ask the door to open", Amazon is programming the users to work with this imperfect technology

Google

Google believes that  the biggest problem in the world is information overload and with a voice interactive systems, users will be able to get to the information better. I feel Google is completely in the discoverability followed by the monetizable conclusion of the interaction. In simple terms, Users don’t need to remember anything, if they need something to be done, google will help you find who can help and help you get it done. 

Microsoft

Microsoft as always an interesting company.. Do it all. With one of the least sophisticated ASR and NLP systems, they cannot seem to decide weather to take the right road for consumers and protect the Windows business. Build a compact, portable ASR+NLP+TTS system, pack it into a home computer- or a newer iteration of it or follow Amazon with a "Service" model and run it in the cloud. There is of course the green grass on the Google side as well. This is unfortunate considering the fact that they are best suited to serve my requirements.

Apple

With Siri, Apple sees a way to stay relevant with the consumer devices based on iOS, Mac and tv countering the strategy followed by Amazon.  Apple sees no reason why a balanced use of senses cannot be made to work for the users. The interfaces can be a bit better but the vision is in the direction to my liking.

Others

There are several other players in the market without the ASR and NLP engines and hence using one of those provided by the big four. While some leverage the capabilities provided by the big four, others are building a fully integrated stack specialized for their customers. Just like Garmin or Tomtom.

The Open source community is not far behind with STT and TTS engines, IFTTT technologies and other components organically popping up around the world. I am very optimistic about the open source world and hope to join in the movement soon.

There is a place for everyone in this space and the chess boards are just being setup.