Whether your first exposure to "talking
computers" was with Robby the Robot, HAL 9000 (or
Hal's bad-seed uncle, Colossus), or the
smooth-voiced 'puters on Star Trek,
("Working...dear") we've all grown accustomed to
associating the future of computing with the ability
to talk to them (flash on Scotty's magnificently
irritated "Hello, computer" from ST II). It's
rolling down the pike even as we speak -- so to
speak. The idea of talking to another person over
the Web has become reality, as has the idea of
voice-commanded computers. Excite is running
voice-driven message boards, Net2Phone and other
Internet phone providers allow you to make long
distance calls from your computer for under 5 cents
a minute, Cisco is implementing a system based on
VoIP (Voiceover IP) technology that is intended to
merge data and voice networks once and for all. Of
course, the ultimate goal is for users like us to
cuss out our computers and have them actually
understand us....
Whether your first exposure to "talking
computers" was with Robby the Robot, HAL 9000 (or
Hal's bad-seed uncle, Colossus), or the
smooth-voiced 'puters on Star Trek,
("Working...dear") we've all grown accustomed to
associating the future of computing with the ability
to talk to them (flash on Scotty's magnificently
irritated "Hello, computer" from ST II). It's
rolling down the pike even as we speak -- so to
speak. The idea of talking to another person over
the Web has become reality, as has the idea of
voice-commanded computers. Excite is running
voice-driven message boards, Net2Phone and other
Internet phone providers allow you to make long
distance calls from your computer for under 5 cents
a minute, Cisco is implementing a system based on
VoIP (Voiceover IP) technology that is intended to
merge data and voice networks once and for all. Of
course, the ultimate goal is for users like us to
cuss out our computers and have them actually
understand us....