While I'm a strong believer in using speech recognition, I'm not easily given over to hyperbole about speech applications. Frankly I find too few applications that wow me with their simplicty, their elegance or their usefulness. Even less frequently do I run across one that I find useful enough that I actually put the number in my cell phone's dialing directory (yes, it's speech enabled) and use often. That said, I've become addicited to Jott!
For those of you who haven't yet run across it, Jott is the brain child of a Seattle based company, Jott Networks that operates a voice to text service that makes staying organized and in touch easy. Simply put, Jott converts your voice into emails, text messages, reminders, lists and appointments.
After signing up for Jott's service at thier web site, you simply call the toll free number and your account is recognized from your caller ID information. The application asks you "Who you want to Jott", recognizes that request and then records your message. After recording your message, it is passed through a speech recognition process to convert it to text then sent on to the person, application or list you specified. It's an elegantly simple interface, that's intuitive and easy to use.
I use Jott to save reminder messages to myself, keep a record of business expenses and vehicle mileage throughout the day and add entries to my calendar without the need to pull out my laptop and find a WiFi connection. It's also great for sending "To Do" list items to my family members or co-workers. Direct application links are provided to dozens of tools like Google Calendar, Blogger, Twitter and many more so that your Jott's can be sent directly to them. They have a developer's site so that you can develope web service links to other applications that aren't already provided also.
I find it especially useful from my cell phone since it's user interface requires no use of hands, so with my headset I'm completely hands free for the entire transaction.
For you iPhone addicts, Jott has just added a mobile notepad that turns your voice into notes on your iPhone. It's available for download on Apple's App Store and their's a link to it on Jott's website at www.jott.com
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Hands Off - it's the law!
Beginning this week drivers in California and Washington join those in a list of other states who can't use their cell phones while driving to talk or send text messages unless they're using them in a hands free mode. In my home state of Washington, drivers who read and compose text messages or talk on a cell phone without a hands-free device could face a $101 ticket. The text-messaging ban took effect Jan. 1; the cell-phone law will be enforced starting in July 1st. Drivers are exempt in some situations, including emergencies, and neither offense will be enough to get a driver pulled over by the police.
Several of my clients who still have complex DTMF applications in service with high cell phone caller populatations which require lots of DTMF entry are moving rapidly to migrate those applications to speech recogntion based self-service to avoid any potential liability issues and to make sure that the applications remain available during the periods when callers actually want to use them, namely while driving or otherwise in transit.
A stunning 80 percent of mobile phone owners talk while driving, according to a recent survey by the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. It's a major distraction—some have even equated using a cell phone behind the wheel with driving under the influence, since reaction times can be slowed during a call.
According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, there are 115 road fatalities each day in the United States and distracted driving causes 80 percent of road accidents.
I've been making the recommendation to my clients that these facts alone justify the move from DTMF to speech recognition based functionality for any self service application with modest to high cellular caller populations and more than the simplest of input requirements.
I'm curious if anyone else is seeing this move to hands free cellular use as much of a driver for moving DTMF applications to speech recognition based self service or if anyone else has had the issue of liability raised.
Several of my clients who still have complex DTMF applications in service with high cell phone caller populatations which require lots of DTMF entry are moving rapidly to migrate those applications to speech recogntion based self-service to avoid any potential liability issues and to make sure that the applications remain available during the periods when callers actually want to use them, namely while driving or otherwise in transit.
A stunning 80 percent of mobile phone owners talk while driving, according to a recent survey by the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. It's a major distraction—some have even equated using a cell phone behind the wheel with driving under the influence, since reaction times can be slowed during a call.
According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, there are 115 road fatalities each day in the United States and distracted driving causes 80 percent of road accidents.
I've been making the recommendation to my clients that these facts alone justify the move from DTMF to speech recognition based functionality for any self service application with modest to high cellular caller populations and more than the simplest of input requirements.
I'm curious if anyone else is seeing this move to hands free cellular use as much of a driver for moving DTMF applications to speech recognition based self service or if anyone else has had the issue of liability raised.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Despite having a reputation as an early adopter . . .
. . . of almost any technology , I'm late in joining the world of blogging.
For just over a year now, I've been helping a client navigate the diverse world of speech recognition. Beginning with the issue that they had a capacity problem in their existing call centers and the idea that they wanted to add speech recognition based self-service to both relieve the capacity problem and to improve their overall customer service experience.
It's been an unusual experience for me. My typical engagement is very focused. I come in to help solve some specific problem or issue and depart as soon as that job is completed. This engagement has been very different in that I joined with my client for their entire journey from idea to completed delivery and post-implementation managment. It's been one of those rare opportunities to start with a blank page and to apply everything I've ever learned about "doing this the right way". It's been my job to act as a mentor, educating them, guiding them and making sure they "stayed between the white lines on the road" so to speak.
I decided to start this blog as a way of capturing what I've learned in the process and share that experience in a way that would help others new to speech recogntion accelerate their own learning curve. Both my client and I still have some unanswered questions and I thought that a blog might be an interesting way to create a community of others with similar questions, issues and experiences who are interested in sharing their own journey.
As this moves forward I hope to share with you what we've learned and explore what we've yet to answer.
Cheers,
-Jeff
For just over a year now, I've been helping a client navigate the diverse world of speech recognition. Beginning with the issue that they had a capacity problem in their existing call centers and the idea that they wanted to add speech recognition based self-service to both relieve the capacity problem and to improve their overall customer service experience.
It's been an unusual experience for me. My typical engagement is very focused. I come in to help solve some specific problem or issue and depart as soon as that job is completed. This engagement has been very different in that I joined with my client for their entire journey from idea to completed delivery and post-implementation managment. It's been one of those rare opportunities to start with a blank page and to apply everything I've ever learned about "doing this the right way". It's been my job to act as a mentor, educating them, guiding them and making sure they "stayed between the white lines on the road" so to speak.
I decided to start this blog as a way of capturing what I've learned in the process and share that experience in a way that would help others new to speech recogntion accelerate their own learning curve. Both my client and I still have some unanswered questions and I thought that a blog might be an interesting way to create a community of others with similar questions, issues and experiences who are interested in sharing their own journey.
As this moves forward I hope to share with you what we've learned and explore what we've yet to answer.
Cheers,
-Jeff
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