There is no such thing as olive dictation. I meant to write, “I love dictation.” Computer dictation is a handy tool, but it’s often embarrassingly inaccurate. Often hysterically inaccurate.
The dictation feature on Android phones works really well. In fact, I’m constantly surprised at how smart it it. And it’s about time.
Dictation is nothing new to computers. I remember sampling some dictation software back in the early 1990s. It was slow and painful. You had to train the program to hear your voice, which meant I had to read to the PC for about three hours. Even after that (and I was seriously hoarse), dictation was spotty.
Recently dictation has become more popular — and annoying.
God praise whatever company has an actual human answer the phone. Most of the time you get to speak to a computer. You must dictate, “Rep-re-sen-ta-tive.” I hate that.
Apple’s stupid computer support requires that you dictate your product serial number. I’ve never had that work.
YouTube has a special captioning feature, one that tries to “hear” what is being said in the video. Based on the results, captions are displayed. But like anything the computer does, the technology just isn’t quite there yet.
The best example of how humorous the translation feature can be is demonstrated by these two guys:
My guess is that dictation will continue to improve, so that videos like the one above will someday be viewed with nostalgia.
Yes, computers will one day listen and understand you complete. That will be something.
It would be a good way to write a song or a piece of prose. Read out someone else’s and get the youtube diction to translate it you never know it might be good!
Comment by chiefnoobie — February 2, 2011 @ 9:38 am