Can You Hear Me Now?

I have confession to make. I talk back to my TV. My patient wife knows this all too well. My remarks usually are sparked by some atrocious grammar error or pronunciation mistake made by a “professional” announcer or newsreader. I am not above yelling at some politician on the screen who is avoiding a question or spinning some very negative happening into a something for us all to celebrate. And don’t get me going on the father and daughter TV tag team telling me that they will put aluminum siding on the back of my house for free. Of course my TV doesn’t listen to me. That may now change.

One of the technologies that got a lot of attention at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas, was voice recognition. While this technology has been around for a several years incorporated into mobile phone auto dialers and some high end automobiles, it has been somewhat unreliable. I for one have a hard time getting my phone to dial with voice commands. That is another column.

Responding to the complexity of the once simple task of watching TV in your living room, several manufacturers have demonstrated controls for TVs that allow you to speak the commands. Want to watch some college hoops? Just say “Watch ESPN2.” Want to know what Jim Cantore has predicted for the tri-sate? Tell your TV that you want to “Watch the Weather Channel.” The TV figures out the channel number or if the service is from cable, off air or perhaps from the Internet.

Samsung is building voice recognition into some new TVs and others are making remote controls that will respond to your voice commands. Many of these devices are still not perfected. Even some of the demonstrations at the CES were plagued with some miscues. Like any technology, the bugs will be worked out and soon voice recognition will be as ubiquitous as touch screens are now. Recently Apple released “Siri,” an application for the iPhone 4s that listens to your commands and performs tasks like web searches, appointment booking and meeting reminders. Perhaps this is the best example of how far voice recognition progressed.

The reason behind this effort to add voice commands to the TV is the desire to simplify controlling the myriad of options now available even in a simple TV. Turning captions on and off, changing from cable to off air reception, and watching a DVD or playing a game often require several commands. Since many TV manufacturers want to make the TV the centerpiece of the digital home, they must find a way to keep the operation simple and intuitive. What can be simpler than just speaking your commands?

So in the not too distant future when your kids ask the TV to “Watch HBO” they might hear “I’m afraid I can’t do that until you do your homework!”

Can You Hear Me Now?

I have confession to make. I talk back to my TV. My patient wife knows this all too well. My remarks usually are sparked by some atrocious grammar error or pronunciation mistake made by a “professional” announcer or newsreader. I am not above yelling at some politician on the screen who is avoiding a question or spinning some very negative happening into a something for us all to celebrate. And don’t get me going on the father and daughter TV tag team telling me that they will put aluminum siding on the back of my house for free. Of course my TV doesn’t listen to me. That may now change.

One of the technologies that got a lot of attention at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas, was voice recognition. While this technology has been around for a several years incorporated into mobile phone auto dialers and some high end automobiles, it has been somewhat unreliable. I for one have a hard time getting my phone to dial with voice commands. That is another column.

Responding to the complexity of the once simple task of watching TV in your living room, several manufacturers have demonstrated controls for TVs that allow you to speak the commands. Want to watch some college hoops? Just say “Watch ESPN2.” Want to know what Jim Cantore has predicted for the tri-sate? Tell your TV that you want to “Watch the Weather Channel.” The TV figures out the channel number or if the service is from cable, off air or perhaps from the Internet.

Samsung is building voice recognition into some new TVs and others are making remote controls that will respond to your voice commands. Many of these devices are still not perfected. Even some of the demonstrations at the CES were plagued with some miscues. Like any technology, the bugs will be worked out and soon voice recognition will be as ubiquitous as touch screens are now. Recently Apple released “Siri,” an application for the iPhone 4s that listens to your commands and performs tasks like web searches, appointment booking and meeting reminders. Perhaps this is the best example of how far voice recognition progressed.

The reason behind this effort to add voice commands to the TV is the desire to simplify controlling the myriad of options now available even in a simple TV. Turning captions on and off, changing from cable to off air reception, and watching a DVD or playing a game often require several commands. Since many TV manufacturers want to make the TV the centerpiece of the digital home, they must find a way to keep the operation simple and intuitive. What can be simpler than just speaking your commands?

So in the not too distant future when your kids ask the TV to “Watch HBO” they might hear “I’m afraid I can’t do that until you do your homework!”

How Did I Do?

It is always dangerous to make predictions. It is even more dangerous and potentially embarrassing to make those predictions in writing. Nevertheless, last year at this time I made some predictions and suggestions in this column regarding electronic products and services during 2008. How did I do? Well, let’s see

In that column I mentioned that you could look for some great deals on digital televisions after the 2008 Super Bowl®. Once that day passed, sales would slow down and you would be able to get some great deals. For sure that did happen and with the slowing of the economy and the added DTV manufacturing capacity now on line, there continues to be great deals on new digital TV sets of all sizes. Since they have been so deeply discounted, I don’t think you will see any significant price cutting as we move toward the February 17th analog cut off.

Also in that column and in several others during the year I warned that if you didn’t decide to subscribe to cable or satellite you needed to either purchase a new digital TV or get a set top adapter. Well, after a less than orderly start, the adapters did find their way into stores in early 2008. However, even today, some retailers have had supply issues. Also, the federal government began to issue coupons. Each household is eligible to get 2 coupons each worth $40 toward the purchase of a DTV adapter. That program from our good friends in DC has been less than smooth. Since they decided that the coupons would have a 90 day expiration period, many people found themselves with worthless coupons. If you have not ordered coupons, you can still do so. For more information you can call 888 DTV-2009 (800-388-2009) or go to www.dtv2009.gov.

I opined that the cell phone providers would begin to expand capabilities beyond one-to-one communication. Many will find it surprising that the United States and Canada are among the most backward countries in the world with our cell phone networks and hand set capabilities. In many countries today you can now do your banking via cell phone, pay for gas, buy a subway fare and watch sporting events. Well, I was a bit optimistic about this prediction. The flagging economy has slowed the introduction of several enhancements. I don’t see much change in 2009.

I predicted that more devices, especially in automobiles would be controlled by voice commands. This technology has been available on higher end products. Again I was wrong as the big car companies had other issues to address and slowed down implementation of this technology.

I predicted that the process of “data mining” would increase with the promotion of store affinity cards that identify you as you check out with your purchases. More and more stores have such cards and are using them to target the distribution of advertisements and coupons via direct mail using this information.

Finally, I predicted that the green energy efficiency movement will get into full swing with added emphasis on doing little things in your home that will add up to substantial community savings. For sure that happened, spurred on by the price of oil and electricity.

Next week I will have some predictions for 2009.

How Did I Do?

It is always dangerous to make predictions. It is even more dangerous and potentially embarrassing to make those predictions in writing. Nevertheless, last year at this time I made some predictions and suggestions in this column regarding electronic products and services during 2008. How did I do? Well, let’s see

In that column I mentioned that you could look for some great deals on digital televisions after the 2008 Super Bowl®. Once that day passed, sales would slow down and you would be able to get some great deals. For sure that did happen and with the slowing of the economy and the added DTV manufacturing capacity now on line, there continues to be great deals on new digital TV sets of all sizes. Since they have been so deeply discounted, I don’t think you will see any significant price cutting as we move toward the February 17th analog cut off.

Also in that column and in several others during the year I warned that if you didn’t decide to subscribe to cable or satellite you needed to either purchase a new digital TV or get a set top adapter. Well, after a less than orderly start, the adapters did find their way into stores in early 2008. However, even today, some retailers have had supply issues. Also, the federal government began to issue coupons. Each household is eligible to get 2 coupons each worth $40 toward the purchase of a DTV adapter. That program from our good friends in DC has been less than smooth. Since they decided that the coupons would have a 90 day expiration period, many people found themselves with worthless coupons. If you have not ordered coupons, you can still do so. For more information you can call 888 DTV-2009 (800-388-2009) or go to www.dtv2009.gov.

I opined that the cell phone providers would begin to expand capabilities beyond one-to-one communication. Many will find it surprising that the United States and Canada are among the most backward countries in the world with our cell phone networks and hand set capabilities. In many countries today you can now do your banking via cell phone, pay for gas, buy a subway fare and watch sporting events. Well, I was a bit optimistic about this prediction. The flagging economy has slowed the introduction of several enhancements. I don’t see much change in 2009.

I predicted that more devices, especially in automobiles would be controlled by voice commands. This technology has been available on higher end products. Again I was wrong as the big car companies had other issues to address and slowed down implementation of this technology.

I predicted that the process of “data mining” would increase with the promotion of store affinity cards that identify you as you check out with your purchases. More and more stores have such cards and are using them to target the distribution of advertisements and coupons via direct mail using this information.

Finally, I predicted that the green energy efficiency movement will get into full swing with added emphasis on doing little things in your home that will add up to substantial community savings. For sure that happened, spurred on by the price of oil and electricity.

Next week I will have some predictions for 2009.