Google just added a handful of voice control features to Google Assistant. You can now manage notes and lists in select third-party apps, ask Assistant to search your photos, search for podcasts by topic and set reminders for the whole family. You ca...
If you're a free user on Spotify's streaming music service, you may hear an ad soon that asks you to respond verbally. Spotify has started testing voice-enabled ads on a small number of free subscribers in the US. The voice-enabled ads will only be d...
Steel Crate Games’ bomb defusal party game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (KTANE) was one of the first popular killer apps for virtual reality headsets. Now available via Steam and the Humble Store, the game no longer requires a VR headset to play, but it still requires at least two players. Until now. Programmer Devan Hurst made Charlie, a voice-activated software assistant that lets you enjoy the game on your own.
In case you’re not familiar with KTANE, it lets you pretend to be a team of bomb defusal experts. The catch is that only one player can look and interact with the bomb, which has randomly generated puzzles that need to be solved for it to be defused. The other player or players will read through the bomb defusal manual and look for the right ways to interact with the bomb’s puzzles, such as cutting wires or entering keycodes. Charlie plays the latter role. Devan programmed it to recognize key phrases that identify the different types of puzzles. Charlie answers back via text-to-speech, so you really are still talking with your partner. Here’s an exciting demo of Charlie and Devan teaming up:
Regarding the hilarious bit at the end, Devan says that he did program key phrases that will trigger an appropriate response from Charlie if they win or lose the game, but “Oh my god” wasn’t one of them. It seems Charlie is a tad paranoid.
You can download Charlie from Devan’s GitHub page.
Like 3D printers, electronic door locks and PCs on sticks, it seeems like everyone’s making personalassistantdevices these days. One of the latest electronic PAs is Mycroft, and it stands out from the rest by having open source technology.
Like its competitors, Mycroft is operated using voice commands. It can play music, search online for answers to your questions, control smart appliances and much more. Mycroft’s open source software and hardware should make it a lot easier for developers and engineers to add to or enhance its functions. The fact that it’s powered by a Raspberry Pi 2 and an Arduino microcontroller should greatly help its versatility as well.
Pledge at least $99 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a base Mycroft unit, or at least $129 to get the expandable version. The latter allows for easy access to the Raspberry Pi 2’s ports for mods and hacks.
If Cubic Robotics sales pitch is to be believed, we’re one big step closer to having a personal assistant on the level of J.A.R.V.I.S. in Iron Man and Samantha in Her. Its presenting its Android-based Cubic personal assistant as someone you’d want to talk to, whether you want it to do something or not. It just seems too good to be true though.
Like Siri, Google Now and Amazon Echo, Cubic lets you send messages, look up information online, be reminded of your appointments and more via voice commands. You can also use it to control your home automation setup. Finally, it has a sense of humor and can talk about several topics – practical or trivial – at once and at length. It can even be proactive and suggest things you didn’t request. It also remembers previous conversations and can refer to it in future interactions.
The Home Cube is the main unit. It can detect voice commands from up to 25ft away. If you want to talk to Cubic on the go, you’ll need the Power Badge accessory and the Cubic mobile app. The Power Badge and the app will let you control the Home Cube as well as your phone and supported apps.
Sadly, as you’ll see in these demo videos the current Cubic prototype has a significant – awkward? – delay before each response.
When it launches, Cubic will only support English and Russian, but Cubic Robotics says it will add support for other languages if the demand is high enough. The company will also release its API so that hardware manufacturers and software developers can add support for Cubic in their products. Coders will also be able to make and sell software add-ons that enhance Cubic’s functions.
Despite its potential, if I were you I’d wait until Cubic’s final version is out and has been reviewed. But if you’re already sold you can pledge at least $195 (USD) on Indiegogo to get the Home Cube and the Cubic app as rewards. You’ll need to pledge at least $249 to get the Home Cube, the app and the Power Badge in one set.
Virtual personal assistants are nothing new, from Google Now to Siri and even the navigation system on our cars. A new company called Jibo set out to make its personal assistant even more useful and user-friendly by making it a physical entity. Meet its eponymous robot, Jibo.
Like software-only personal assistants, Jibo understands commands delivered in everyday language and knows when you call his name. He can also read messages and reminders aloud and can even remember your face and voice.
But because he has a body, Jibo can do much more than his intangible counterparts. For example, he has two cameras, which he can use not only to see you but to take pictures of you as well. You don’t need to take a selfie if you have a Jibo.
Like smartphones, you’ll be able to make Jibo do more by downloading apps. In the video below, you’ll see him reading a children’s book aloud while displaying a complementary video.
As you can tell in the video, the best advantage brought by its body is that people will be more likely to get attached to and comfortable with Jibo. Granted, he looks like a cross between GLaDOS, the Pixar lamp and one of those Dyson fans, but the emoticons on his touchscreen makes up for his slightly creepy build. Pledge at least $499 (USD) on Indiegogo to get a Jibo as a reward.
At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), voice recognition specialist Nuance unveiled Dragon Assistant, a voice-activated personal assistant for Intel-powered computers and laptops running Windows 8. It’s not as smart – or sexy – as Samantha from Spike Jonze’s Her, but it’s a start.
Dragon Assistant works a lot like Siri, Kinect and other voice-activated assistants. To start using it, you just have to say “Hey Dragon.” From that point you can then use everyday language to open applications, search online and of course dictate text. The program’s voice can be set to either “British Butler” or ”American Female.” Aww man, no German Shepherd?
See that? Now we’re all Dragonborn. Nuance says Dragon Assistant is already available on various Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo laptops, ultrabooks, tablets and all-in-one computers, with ASUS and Toshiba computers to follow suit this year. Like other voice assistants, you’ll need an Internet connection to use all of Dragon Assistant’s features, although it can still execute certain commands even when you’re offline. Check out the Dragon Assistant support page for more on that.
The much awaited Consumer Electronics Show (CES), also known as International CES is just only a few days away from now. We have been eagerly waiting for this event since last and can’t wait anymore...
There are drive-throughs — but now there’s the drive-on. Ford and Domino's Pizza have joined forces to create the first known fast-food e-commerce app that is integrated with an automotive telematics...
Apple Balla reports that in a response to the increasing need to catalogue and search through digital photos accumulated in iPhones and other devices, Apple applied for a patent for a system that...
Google just added a handful of voice control features to Google Assistant. You can now manage notes and lists in select third-party apps, ask Assistant to search your photos, search for podcasts by topic and set reminders for the whole family. You ca...
If you're a free user on Spotify's streaming music service, you may hear an ad soon that asks you to respond verbally. Spotify has started testing voice-enabled ads on a small number of free subscribers in the US. The voice-enabled ads will only be d...
