Speech-to-text technology has come a long way in the past few years. Voice recognition has become more sophisticated, and the technology has begun to creep into everyday life more and more.
Most mobile phones and tablets and some desktop and laptop operating systems now accept voice commands to drive many functions such as phone calls, opening and closing applications, through to choosing the perfect tunes for the drive home from work.
One of the more interesting innovations to come up in speech recognition is the Amazon product Alexa, a Bluetooth speaker system that does a lot more than play your favourite music.
Directly from Amazon’s website, Alexa can:
- Play all your music from Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and more using just your voice
- Call or message anyone with an Echo, Echo Dot, or the Alexa App.
- Fill the room with immersive, 360º omni-directional audio
- Hear you from across the room with far-field voice recognition, even while music is playing
- Answer questions, read the news, report traffic and weather, read audiobooks from Audible, give info on local businesses, provide sports scores and schedules, and more using the Alexa Voice Service
- Control lights, fans, switches, thermostats, garage doors, sprinklers, locks, and more with compatible connected devices from WeMo, Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings, Nest, ecobee, and others
Additionally, there are more products on the market that can drive many aspects of everyday living, either from an iPad or voice controls. These are just another example of how advancements in technology can be applied to make our lives easier and more entertaining.