Voice Assistant | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Thu, 16 Aug 2018 14:46:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Voice Assistant | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Voice assistants could make regional accents a thing of the past https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/damien-cox/voice-assistants-could-make-regional-accents-a-thing-of-the-past/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/damien-cox/voice-assistants-could-make-regional-accents-a-thing-of-the-past/#respond Thu, 16 Aug 2018 14:46:33 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=383524 Although voice assistants such as Google Home, Alexa, Cortana, Bixby and Siri are all getting progressively smarter in their responses, all have one disadvantage in common – understanding a thicker dialect. Enthusiasts intent on continuing their use of the devices could begin to lose their regional accents in the long-term according to a study, adjusting …

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Although voice assistants such as Google Home, Alexa, Cortana, Bixby and Siri are all getting progressively smarter in their responses, all have one disadvantage in common – understanding a thicker dialect. Enthusiasts intent on continuing their use of the devices could begin to lose their regional accents in the long-term according to a study, adjusting to a more received pronunciation way of interacting.

Since the rise in popularity of voice assistants, videos across the internet have comically mocked the struggles of those with thicker accents and different dialects when interacting with the helper. Once the novelty laughter wears off, however, owners are still having to completely readjust their speech patterns in order for the device to hear them and accurately respond.

The Life Science Centre in Newcastle-Upon-Tune, United Kingdom asked 536 visitors of their experience with voice assistants, with 375 respondents owning a compatible device. As many as 79 percent of owners admitted their struggles of having to tone down their accent in order for the device to react as intended, often repeating themselves multiple times.

While the majority of participants in the study were likely Geordie, a colloquial term for those sporting Newcastle’s signature accent, the problem isn’t confined to regional Brits. Any English speaking country could face the same woes with virtual assistants, including New Zealand and countries within the Caribbean.

“Ask anyone with a regional accent and they'll tell you the struggles of using automated voice recognition,” explains Life Science Centre chief executive, Linda Conlon. “The same people who decades ago were frustrated as teens trying to get cinema listings from an automated telephone system are now having the same issues with their smartphones or smart speakers – the technology has moved forward, but the inclusivity to cater for regional accents has not.”

According to Amazon, Alexa is “designed to get smarter every day. As more people speak to Alexa, with various different accents, the more she adapts to speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.”

It does beg the question of how long owners are meant to use their expensive devices without them working before they will suddenly acquire the ability to understand a new speech pattern without manual intervention to teach it. And by that point, will it be too late considering many users already feel the need to adjust.

KitGuru Says: Personally, I don’t think it’s fair to expect widespread adoption of a device that isn’t capable of catering to the masses fully. It feels much more like a beta test for those that aren’t housed under what these assistants already know, with no penned end date.

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Microsoft snaps up A.I. expert Semantic to make Cortana sound more human https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/damien-cox/microsoft-snaps-up-a-i-expert-semantic-to-make-cortana-sound-more-human/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/damien-cox/microsoft-snaps-up-a-i-expert-semantic-to-make-cortana-sound-more-human/#respond Tue, 22 May 2018 13:38:16 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=373986 Despite predating Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant, Microsoft hasn’t made as much of an impact with its Cortana voice assistant since its mid-2014 debut. Doubling down on its investments, the company has now absorbed conversational A.I. technology firm Semantic in hopes of playing catch-up and, preferably, make Cortana a little bit more human. “Their work …

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Despite predating Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant, Microsoft hasn’t made as much of an impact with its Cortana voice assistant since its mid-2014 debut. Doubling down on its investments, the company has now absorbed conversational A.I. technology firm Semantic in hopes of playing catch-up and, preferably, make Cortana a little bit more human.

“Their work uses the power of machine learning to enable users to discover, access, and interact with information and services in a much more natural way, and with significantly less effort,” Microsoft describes Semantic in its notes.

Chief technology officer at Microsoft AI and Research, David Ku has stated that the acquisition “will establish a conversational AI center of excellence in Berkeley to push forward the boundaries of what is possible in language interfaces. Combining Semantic Machines' technology with Microsoft's own AI advances, we aim to deliver powerful, natural and more productive user experiences that will take conversational computing to a new level.”

While it’s thought that the expertise of Semantic will help humanise Cortana, hopefully making her chattier, it’s difficult to ignore the elephant in the room that Cortana is the only voice assistant aside from Samsung’s (lacking) Bixby that doesn't have its own dedicated home-based hardware. Instead, Microsoft’s numbers are bolstered by the amount of users on its Windows 10 operating system.

Google has already managed to humanise its Assistant, allowing the bot to make human-esque calls on behalf of the user that is difficult to distinguish from a real human. Meanwhile, Amazon is trying to expand Alexa’s memory and improve its context. Only time will tell if Microsoft can catch up.

KitGuru Says: After playing about with the Assistant-powered Google Home and Cortana on Windows 10, I’ve found that voice assistants can be quite lacking in knowledge as it is. Then again, it is only early days for machine learning. Have you been making use of a voice assistant? Which one would you say is the best?

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Samsung unveil Bixby 2.0, meant for all kinds of devices https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/damien-cox/samsung-unveil-bixby-2-0-meant-for-all-kinds-of-devices/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/damien-cox/samsung-unveil-bixby-2-0-meant-for-all-kinds-of-devices/#respond Thu, 19 Oct 2017 18:34:16 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=351041 Samsung’s Bixby is about to become a little outdated, as just six months after its initial release the company has announced Bixby 2.0. It seems that this is, in fact, a key step in Samsung’s long-term plans for a smart fridge powered by its digital assistant. The original Bixby initially struggled to find its feet …

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Samsung’s Bixby is about to become a little outdated, as just six months after its initial release the company has announced Bixby 2.0. It seems that this is, in fact, a key step in Samsung’s long-term plans for a smart fridge powered by its digital assistant.

The original Bixby initially struggled to find its feet regarding Western languages, resulting in a severely late roll out that has in turn created a lack of widespread adoption for the assistant. Luckily, Samsung have fine-tuned Bixby 2.0 to have greater natural language capabilities and include the rapidly new standard of differentiating between individuals.

“Bixby 2.0 will be ubiquitous, available on any and all devices” acting as “a fundamental leap forward for digital assistants,” describes Samsung’s executive vice president, Eui-Suk Chung. “This means having the intelligence of Bixby, powered by the cloud, act as the control hub of your device ecosystem, including mobile phones, TVs, refrigerators, home speakers, or any other connected technology you can imagine.”

Initially Bixby 2.0 will roll out to “select developers” for a beta period via the company’s brand new Bixby SDK. This prompts the question of what teams would develop for more obscure items such as refrigerators and other devices that Samsung is pushing its Bixby voice assistant on.

In other news, Samsung is stepping up its effort in VR, working on bringing ARCore framework to its Galaxy devices and developing its Windows Mixed Reality headset, the Samsung Odyssey that apparently won’t be coming to Europe.

KitGuru Says: One small step for Samsung, one giant leap for those that want AI-powered fridges. I am interested to see if the company can catch up to other assistants on the market in any sort of meaningful way, though. Do you use Bixby? What are your impressions of Samsung’s effort?

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Maker gets Cortana with Windows 10 IoT Core Creators Update https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/operating-systems/paul-taylor/maker-gets-cortana-with-windows-10-iot-core-creators-update/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/operating-systems/paul-taylor/maker-gets-cortana-with-windows-10-iot-core-creators-update/#respond Wed, 12 Apr 2017 19:41:42 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=330143 Maker aficionados of the Windows 10 IoT Core persuasion will be happy to know that Cortana has landed. The Windows 10 Creators Update milestone has delivered on a number of new features, including the Cortana voice assistant, which can now be used by makers in their Windows 10 IoT implementations. Other added features include new …

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Maker aficionados of the Windows 10 IoT Core persuasion will be happy to know that Cortana has landed.

The Windows 10 Creators Update milestone has delivered on a number of new features, including the Cortana voice assistant, which can now be used by makers in their Windows 10 IoT implementations.

Other added features include new APIs and development tools, as well as remote device discovery, cloud device management, support for additional hardware in the form of drivers and interoperability, power management among other things.

Right now it seems Microsoft Cortana may not have an identical set of voice commands as you'd have on a full desktop experience, and it will only support American English keyword spotting (KWS), but it does have the ones that matter and that make it a useful assistant: setting reminders, checking news, building to-do lists, checking traffic, calculator, weather look-up, etc… You can also develop your own voice commands to add local commands to Cortana.

Delivering a voice assistant is a good way of opening up the practical uses of devices (although using voice commands to command robots in a noisy factory might be an issue). Cortana seems like the right thing for Makers and their home projects. It will certainly go a long way to make that Magic Mirror project a bit more interactive. All you'll need to do is follow the guidelines in the Microsoft Speech Platform spec.

In terms of hardware support, you can now run Cortana on Raspberry Pi 3 and 2, DragonBoard 410C, MinnowBoard MAX and a number of reference development kits from Intel and Qualcomm.

KitGuru Says: It's good to see that Windows IoT Core is not stagnating as much as the rest of the IoT hardware business.

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