Google Now WTFs
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Posting this because I need to rant about it somewhere.
Google recently released an update to the Google Search app, enabling the "OK Google" functionality (being able to give voice orders without tapping the button) in Spanish. That's great, because I'm a native Spanish speaker, so I gave it a try.
From smaller to bigger WTF:
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WTF #1: how long does it take to "develop" that feature? Surely once you have it working in language, it's just a matter of getting enough speech samples in another language and retraining the algorithm? Google now has been out for 2 years, and Voice Search for 4.
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WTF #2: OK, so I can say "OK Google" to start a voice command... but only if I'm already in the search app. Why? And what's the point of doing that? If I have to tap on the screen, I might as well tap on the microphone that's slightly to the right and speak the command directly.
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WTF #3: the same thing happens if you set it to English (Generic) or English (UK) or any other English variation. Google Now is only fully usable in English (US).
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WTF #4: Google's TTS voice in Spanish sounds... well, "drunk" would be a mild way to describe it. "Mentally retarded" would be more accurate. Seriously, go to google translate and try it with any sentence. She puts way too much emphasis in vowels, and makes the last vowel too longggg.
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WTF #5: voice commands are only supported in a handful of languages (English, Spanish, couldn't find the list). Even if it does understand my words perfectly in another language, all it does is google them. All I'm asking for is some simple text pattern matching, the exact thing ELIZA could do in 1966.
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WTF?! #6: you can set the speech recognition language to a language other than your phone's language, which is good. But if you do that, voice commands will not work either. It will just google your sentence. As far as I know there is no technical reason to do that,
At this point it's clear this is less about technical limitations and more about Google not giving a fuck about anyone outside the US. My fucking SYMBIAN phone could understand voice commands better than Android does, not even joking.
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WTF #4: Google's TTS voice in Spanish sounds... well, "drunk" would be a mild way to describe it. "Mentally retarded" would be more accurate. Seriously, go to google translate and try it with any sentence. She puts way too much emphasis in vowels, and makes the last vowel too longggg.
Sounds reasonable to me. Where are you from? I'm not a native speaker, but I grew up in Southern California and spoke a bit of Mexican back in the day, and now I live in a neighborhood that's majority Central American. OTOH, Spaniards always sound like they have speech impediments to me.
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OK, listening to some more, it is a bit slow, but I think that's a good thing, because Spanish speakers tend to speak too fast.
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I think it sounds like baby talk. She sounds too cheerful.
"Verse" turns into "Versee!". Compare to the same word pronounced, for example, by http://www.readspeaker.com/ (lower left).
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The real sad thing is that Google Now is unable to understand me. Even if I speak very slowly, but now my friend has Apple iPhone and Siri is able to get me 9 out of 10 times.
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The real sad thing is that Google Now is unable to understand me.
It's not alone in this...
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The OK Google thing has been in beta for a long time - probably why the wait for other languages. Also note that there are limited tests now for the OK Google hotword to work from anywhere (as long as screen is on or phone is on charger).
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The OK Google thing has been in beta for a long time - probably why the wait for other languages.
So google beta means something now?
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en-US only?
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OK, so I can say "OK Google" to start a voice command... but only if I'm already in the search app.
You shouldn't have to. Is this something specific to Spanish?
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It's specific to every language that's not US English. If your speech recognition language is set to any other than that, the option to detect it from any screen will be disabled, and it explicitly says "This feature is currently unavailable for this language".
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Surely Google Now itself is TRWTF?
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The fastest speaker I've ever known was Spanish. We worked together on a project (with a really high WTF factor, alas, but for reasons unrelated to this story) a few years ago, and she could fit in 20 or 30 words where most other people — most other Spaniards even — would use just one. She assembled ideas not much faster than anyone else though; just used a great many more words to express them. Keeping up with parsing what she was saying was exhausting until I learned that I could usually miss between 80 and 90% of the words and still follow the ideas (which were usually good; no WTFs there).
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The fastest speaker I've ever known was Spanish.
Relevant and new:
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Real Developers™ use Python and English.
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Real Developers™ use Python and English.
I am using Java and C#.
and I am real developer.
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At the same time?
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At the same time?
On 2 different desktops. One a VM at my client and another my own. ellipse and visual studio 2012 for the win.
win as in windows.
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I heard eliipse is a much better piece of software than eclipse. I'm happy for you @Nagesh
Though discourse is happy for @Maciejasjmj, as that is what popped up when I did @N
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For phones like the Moto X you can say "OK Google" at any point when the phone is in earshot, even when the phone is locked (passwords limit what you can do at lock though).
It's pretty much my favorite feature of any phone I've had recently. I can be driving and say "Ok Google navigate to the nearest gas station" or when I'm getting ready in the morning I can say "Ok Google, do I need an umbrella today?" and even things you're too lazy to type... like "Ok Google, how old is Cher?". I'm pretty impressed with the contextual search result recognition Google has been starting to do, even on desktop search.
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What happens if there are multiple such phones in earshot?
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and even things you're too lazy to type... like "Ok Google, how old is Cher?"
So after a few tries, I got to this search using only my voice:
Thanks, Google.
They totally know when @ben_lubar's birthday is, too, since I'm logged in as Ben Lubar and I have my birthday set in my profile and it shows up on the front page of Google for me.
Filed under: When is St Louis, When is Ben blueberry
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What happens if there are multiple such phones in earshot?
It would also affect anyone wearing Google Glass, or anyone with a web browser open to https://www.google.com/ on a machine with a microphone.
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I should just walk around town saying 'OK Google' very loudly then. Troll the lot of 'em.
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XBox on
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That's actually a good question - my wife also has a Moto X and it's never made the mistake. It must have some form of basic voice recognition. When you first set up the phone it asks you to repeat the phrase 3 times.
When Google becomes self-aware I'm probably screwed.
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There's this, too.
Aaron Paul Accidentally Turns On Xbox One Consoles
A new Xbox One commercial starring Aaron Paul is accidentally turning on user consoles whenever it airs.
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The funny part is, I remember a comment in a computer magazine back in the 1990s when voice recognition first began to be a viable thing, giving an example of this very problem in the context of Star Trek: The Next Generation - if Picard asks the computer for something and then talks to Riker about it, how does the computer know he's not talking to it?
And here we are, 20 years later, problem is alive and well.
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if Picard asks the computer for something and then talks to Riker about it, how does the computer know he's not talking to it?
Some evolved form of the Xbox motion-detection camera. How do we know? Usually because we're facing the other person. Even we can be confused of someone's facing us but talking to someone else, so it should not be expected that a computer can tell that apart.
Picard: XBOX, ON
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Yes, but...TV Computer! Picard probably just reversed the polarity of his syntax to keep the computer from getting confused.
Filed Under: That's how everything gets fixed right?
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Picard probably just reversed the polarity of his syntax to keep the computer from getting confused.
Let us first try to imagine what speech/syntax polarity means.
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Probably @Yoda.
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First try to imagine what speech/syntax polarity means, let us.
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First do or do not imagine what speech/syntax polarity means, let us. There is no try.
FTFY
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Apple iPhone and Siri is able to get me 9 out of 10 times.
I briefly had an Android and it would understand me correctly almost always. I now have an iPhone and Siri not only misunderstands me, she gets things wildly wrong. "Call my brother,": "Now playing Pink Floyd - The Wall." "What's the weather like tomorrow?" "Now calling Pablo Gonzales."
It doesn't matter how much I enunciate, and I don't generally have much problem with people understanding me.
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I briefly had an Android and it would understand me correctly almost always. I now have an iPhone and Siri not only misunderstands me, she gets things wildly wrong. "Call my brother,": "Now playing Pink Floyd - The Wall." "What's the weather like tomorrow?" "Now calling Pablo Gonzales."
It doesn't matter how much I enunciate, and I don't generally have much problem with people understanding me.
What accent is close to your natural tongue?
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Did you try telling Siri that the guy's long dead?
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Did you try telling Siri that the guy's long dead?
Nice. I originally typed the real name of a colleague of mine, but then as an afterthought anonymized it with a different Latin surname. (The original wasn't any phonetically closer to what I said.)
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(The original wasn't any phonetically closer to what I said.)
Nice try, we all know you're just trying to protect your friend Pablo Theweathertomorrow.
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Now you can tell Google Now "no, I said ..." and correct a single word from the last search/command.
http://www.androidauthority.com/google-search-voice-correction-401958/
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correct a single word from the last search/command
What are the odds it will "correct" the wrong word?
Pablo González Garza - Wikipedia
