15.5.2.3 Voice-based interfaces will continue to gain acceptance
As personal networks, wearable smart devices, and computing systems embedded throughout our environment become commonplace; voice-based interfaces will become the predominant way of interacting with these technologies within 5 to 10 years. The reasoning behind this prediction is simple; a wristwatch size device only has enough surface space for a few buttons or small touch surface. In order to issue any kind of complex instruction – such as a search query or request to schedule a meeting – the flexibility of verbal interaction would seem to be required.
Those of us who grew up before voice interfaces were common will feel somewhat awkward at first talking to our wristwatches and other smart devices – but people can adapt quickly if they see an obvious benefit. Walk down any street or across any college campus these days and you will see that most people seem to be talking to themselves – not too many years ago that would have been a sign of mental instability, now days we recognize they are just talking on their phone. The same thing is happening with voice-based web searches and Siri-like commands. It takes some people a while to catch on, but once you try it, some things, like telling your phone to “wake me up in an hour” just seem quicker, easier, and more natural than manually setting an alarm.
Currently, as of 2013, we have to launch an app and/or press a button in order to for our smart devices to accept voice commands. This is beginning to change. First, our devices will listen just for keywords, like “Ok, Glass”, “Ok, Google”, or “Xbox…”, and when the keyword is detected the system will “wake up” and accept a verbal command. As people become more comfortable with verbally interacting with computer systems, we will begin to allow our systems to ‘listen in” continuously on our conversations. This will enable the systems to automatically provide helpful comments without being specifically asked to do so. For example, if you are in the middle of a conversation with a friend and the system hears you say something like “I think Nick’s birthday is on Tuesday. We really need to figure out what we are going to do to help him celebrate.” Depending on the circumstances, and your personal preferences, your intelligent assistant might offer the following: “Sorry to interrupt Mike, but Nick’s birthday is next Monday not Tuesday.”