Microsoft Voice Command

ddewan · 01-18-04, 10:48 PM

Has anyone tried Microsoft's Voice Command?

It's a $39.95 piece of software that understands spoken commands and can voice-answer some questions. It looks like it's more for cell phones but it's supposed to work on any PocketPC 2003 device.

It's described here, plus a video demo:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobi...d/default.mspx

.

slza805 · 01-19-04, 09:02 PM

One day demo was nice but kind of glitchy...

01-19-04, 09:50 PM

Here is the code for as 25% discount on Voice Command @ Handango *9ACA36*

AchimH · 01-19-04, 10:13 PM

I tried it for a few hours but it didn't worked that good for me. Maybe it is just my bad speech;)

zowie · 01-19-04, 10:24 PM

I got mine a few weeks ago (only got a 10% discount though)

So far, it's a pretty cool toy. I am pretty impressed how well it understands you with out the 'training' voice recognition usually requires. You can have it read back you appointments today or tomorrow's, read contacts and the media player will ask you what you want to play by type, artist or album (I think).

It will also read your appointment reminders aloud if you want it to and is pretty handy in the car instead of trying to read info from the screen. I can really see it being usefull with a Smart Phone.

It's also pretty handy to say 'open inbox' or 'open internet explorer' instead of a couple of taps of the stylus (then again, I am a pretty lazy guy :) ).

I would be really nice if it could read back documents or e-mails. Even if it just read the sender and subject lines that would be helpful.

All in all an interesting and mildly useful piece of software, I only hope they (MS) continue to improve and add fucntionality to it and not make it an orphan product.

01-29-04, 01:44 PM

I tried the tried the one day trial and liked it enough to buy it. With the discount code (Thanks by the way) It came to $29.95.
I admit to being sufficiently "GEEKY" to wanting it just for the Geek factor and I do think its cool.

zowie · 01-29-04, 03:07 PM

I think the coolest fucntion is Media Player. Very cool to have your Axim ask you want you want to play or tell you what's currently playing!

Robotic Clone · 01-30-04, 03:47 PM

Well, I top all of you price wise, I got mine for free :p Anyway I tend to think of this program as more of a novelty. Yes it has a few nice features, but I would have like to seen ways for the user to alter it and have it do something custom. Like mabe; "Open file mario.nes" or if word was open "Open short story". Microsoft has sad that there will be upgrades and addons for it but you never know. They also said that they will give info to companys on how to develope software for Voice Comand. Until it gets a bit better, i dont think its worth spending $40 on ($25 at the most)

jimbosquid · 01-30-04, 03:51 PM

How does the contack support work. If you are driving down the road and say "Open Tom Jones" does it open the contact? Does road noise effect it? And will it read you the phone number?

01-30-04, 04:30 PM

You push a button and say "Call Tom Jones" and if there are multiple numbers in your contact file it asks you "Work, Home or Mobile?".

I have a bluetooth CF card and phone and this is a cool feature!

01-31-04, 10:50 AM

I was in the beta. Impressive recognition, even with background noise. My hunch MS's target will be SmartPhones. The commands are a bit bit limited for the PPC - "Show {so-in-so}", "Call {so-in-so}", "Open {app}".

The

factor is there! This would be an excellent app for the road warriors who spend loads of time in a car, etc. Definite good fit with B/T phone, like MyUncle.

Two limitations: You can't get it to read aloud emails or ebooks or other documents. Second, watch out if you have a large Contacts list. I'm reasonably sure this app builds an internal DB entry for each contact's name using something like the old Bell Lab's "soundex". Essentially, it breaks down the names into their phonetic equivalents. A necessary "evil" for accuracy and performance. But, the VC app grows in proportion to your contacts.

Alas, I unstalled it. Personally, it offered too little functionality and I chose to use the RAM otherwise.

It really is a great app for those who could use it. A bit on the pricey side, too.

joelw135 · 02-18-04, 01:57 PM

I just wish I could change the voice, to something other than that comes with it.

02-18-04, 02:24 PM

I have noticed that it crash's a lot. For some reason more when its cradled than off the cradle. I had to turn off all other notifications sounds to reduce the number of crashs. I have not had time to play with it to try and work out the bugs.
I agree on the voice. I guess startrek spoiled us all...lol

joelw135 · 02-18-04, 02:58 PM

Put it on yesterday, used a lot no problems at all. I guess time will tell.

routermike · 02-18-04, 03:14 PM

I received a free, full feature copy, and uninstaled it two days later. While the

factor was certainly there, there were a few problems.

I didn't care for what it did to the windows media player. I like being able to watch movies on it while working out, and the functional screen size was reduced, and there was no way that I could see to go to a full screen display.

This product does not integrate with third party PIM applications either.

If you're using the basic outlook functions, and don't care to watch any kind of video, this is certainly a nice toy. I'd personally wait for the next version before paying my own money for this. If you happen to have a spare handango gift certificate laying around after the holidays though, you may like this toy.