This week at Mobile World Congress Microsoft will release a free technology preview of Microsoft Recite. Microsoft Recite runs on Windows Mobile 6.0 or higher and allows the user to record voice notes and then store, search and retrieve information from them by simply speaking a word that they want to search for.
It’s a rather odd piece of technology that can’t really be put into words – it’s much better explained by a video demonstration. Here we go:
You may think this technology uses speech recognition, but that’s actually not the case. It makes use of pattern recognition; instead of converting spoken word to text and comparing that text to previously recorded notes to find a match, Recite looks at patterns in your speech and finds the correct match this way.
It’s in technology preview right now, meaning it’s far from stable. You ned to have one of the following phones: AT&T BlackJack II, AT&T Pantech Duo, HTC Diamond, Motorola Q9C, Moto Q9m, Palm Treo 800w, Palm Treo Pro, SMT 5800, T-Mobile Dash, T-Mobile Shadow, or the T-Mobile Wing. Get it here.
Microsoft being innovative?
That’s unpossible!
Seriously, sounds interesting. Still though, I wish some other company besides Apple or Microsoft would take the lead position in the new cell phone market.
Android would at least allow other phone companies to collaborate together. I want to see what Nokia is doing with Qt/Symbian. RIM
When they do this on a PC, I’d maybe agree to it. But when it costs money (to clarify: I pay for traffic on my mobile, not a flat rate), I have to say no.
Who tried it could say a few words about its practicality.
Edit: It sends all the recordings to their servers for processing and search, right ?
Edited 2009-02-16 07:17 UTC
Since the user gains no advantage of MS collecting data, this basically means that MS wants the users to pay for MS’s data traffic. Nice try, but no thanks.
Edited 2009-02-16 09:15 UTC
If you have a data-capable mobile device and don’t have a data plan, simply call your cell carrier and make sure data service is disabled.
If MS Recite attempts to phone home, it simply won’t report back with the capability disabled at the carrier end. If your carrier states they can’t block it, that’s probably incorrect. Simply wait a few minutes and call back to get another person.
Most people with data plans have ‘unlimited’ plans so it’s not going to be an issue.
Since MS Recite does have a desktop installer, those who wish to try it can, with no data charges.
Funny you should say that. When I went to get my HTC, that has wifi, I asked to have data service (3G) disabled. They said it could not be done. Then last October I had mysteriously somehow downloaded in one evening $170+ through AT&T. Funny, because the evening in question, I don’t remember ever touching my phone. After calling to complain, then I was told after the fact I could have the service disabled.
I tested it and it works very well, even for non-English languages. Very interesting and innovative though it’s a bit annoying that you cannot operate by touching screen, for example to delete single items.
Other than that, it’s a wonderful technology for smartphone and Pocket PCs. I expect that final version will be more polished, with a little bit more functionalities but anyway it’s something making ur device a lot friendlier.
Why would one need to implement it online ?
The only reason is to tie people to it.
Dictaphones have long been one of the possible use of PDAs, it only adds pattern recognition using some FFT convolution. This can as well be done totally offline using mp3 files as storage. You’d just sync them with your desktop.
Still, I can foresee some issues with that…
– “darling, what did I tell you to buy this morning ?”
– “let’s see” (to the pc) “shopping”
– (pc) “Result 1: ‘do the shopping, buy eggs, salad, milk’; Result 2: ‘After shopping, call Linda to plan the weekend'”
– “Linda ? Who’s this Linda ? I thought you were going fishing this week-end!!!???”
The question is how well will Recite work in a real world setting, with more than just 5 phrases to search though. How well will it function 6 month from now, after you’ve accumulated dozens of movie suggestions, driving directions, shopping reminders and what not. That should be well over a 1000 memos. How long will it then take to do the search, how many results will it come up with, how many of those results will be relevant?
Recite is a good idea. But turning good idea into an actual working product is another story. Microsoft’s history shows that it’s the latter part that they have problems with. There was never a shortage of good ideas: many of them were freely available and Microsoft didn’t even have to innovate. They just couldn’t implement those ideas right. At least not on the first few attempts. Personally, I wouldn’t expect anything useful till Recite7.0 or something is out.
Edited 2009-02-16 19:09 UTC
Sounds like a more basic version of the Google app on my iPhone.
MS is again second. I wonder if it will work as well?
Edited 2009-02-16 21:13 UTC
Google makes an iPhone app that lets you search through voice memos?