Google Releases Innovative Voice Recognition Technology

During today’s Google keynote event, the company outlined the future of its expanding hardware line.  In general, they plan on blending elements of hardware, software, and artificial intelligence together to create new, innovative products that push the boundaries of consumer technology.  Over the course of the presentation, Google unveiled a wide variety of new gadgets, including the Pixel 2 smartphone, the Pixelbook laptop, and the smaller $50 Google Home Mini smart speaker.

Google Home Mini

The new Google Home Mini smart speaker / voice assistant

While cutting-edge hardware is great on its own, one of the more interesting features is the artificial intelligence-powered Google Assistant, which is available on all Google devices.  While this software isn’t new by any means, some of the new features the tech giant is incorporating are especially interesting.  One of which that is a real eyebrow-raiser is Voice Match.  According to a recent Ars Technica article on the feature, “Google Assistant will build a virtual model of your voice using Voice Match, so when you ask it a personal question involving your calendar, it will retrieve information from your calendar” (Amadeo).  While it is certainly exciting that our natural language processing technology has reached this point at the consumer level, this functionality also raises some privacy concerns.  For instance, many people have already shied away from other voice assistants like the Amazon Echo out of fear of the product eavesdropping on them in their own home.  Now with Google’s new technology, these products will not only listen to your conversations, but also recognize who is speaking through its sophisticated algorithms.

How do you feel about this new technology?  Would you be comfortable owning a Google Home?  Leave a comment below.

 

Amadeo – Oct 4, 2017 4:25 pm UTC, Ron. “The Google Home Mini Is Google’s $49 Answer to the Echo Dot.” Ars Technica, Ars Technica, 4 Oct. 2017, arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/10/the-google-home-mini-is-googles-answer-to-amazons-echo-dot/.

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8 thoughts on “Google Releases Innovative Voice Recognition Technology

  1. Well I don’t know if I would actually like to have one but the pro to this is it could record what people say. I know it sounds like a bad thing but in some cases it could be helpful. There is a case where a man was found dead in his home and where the police were wondering what happened. It turns out that the Amazon Echo was recoding and possibly it by listening what the Echo recorded the case could be solved. The only legal issue is if Amazon can hand over that information over to the attorney.
    http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/tech/amazon-echo-alexa-bentonville-arkansas-murder-case/index.html

  2. This new google technology is very appealing because of the voice match. I don’t know how accurate it would be, but it would allow for more personal customization which is always great. My family has an amazon echo and to be honest, it doesn’t get used that much and I think they are a little overrated. I don’t think they are very necessary and they seem cool, but when you actually have one you see that it might not get used as much as you would think. It’s very intriguing technology and I think in a few years this technology will be in everyone’s house, but right now it’s not totally necessary. The big advantage of the Google home is the price. The Google home is a fantastic price and I think because of the price and the voice match, the Google home is way better than the rest. This Google home may be the beginning of these devices taking over homes. Google may initially get some criticism about the security of this and how much personal information gets out, but that’s because this is the first of its kind with the voice recognition technology. They will have to make sure everyone’s information is very secure to make sure that every customer has trust in Google.

  3. I hope that Google similarly re-evaluates its speech-to-text functionality. I rely on it often to send text messages when I can’t use my hands to send messages. Its also useful to taking quick notes or making quick reminders. For some reason, it is difficult to get text-to-speech to do things like parentheses, or to recognize the difference between names and similar sounding real words. I’m not a linguistics major, the above post and text-to-speech make linguistics sound like a very interesting aspect to voice recognition technology. How does this type of technology respond to the exact needs for the user? How does it tell the difference between words? How can you fix it to make it easier to use. Anyways, I’m excited about new prospects for voice recognition technology.

  4. I will admit, this device is semi-enticing. Google is selling it for around $50 which is the cheapest I’ve seen on the market. I am among the skeptics for these home devices though. This device especially is taking its claim to fame that it can distinguish between voices. That means that it has to learn the household voices in the first place. Which means that it’s learning things. I’m sure I’m just being my typical skeptical self, but it does make me wonder what else it could be learning, especially being that this is Google we are talking about. I just know from experience of having an android phone that is powered by Google, that it stores a lot of information. I can show up to a restaurant and within moments it’s asking me if I’m at that particular place. Now, I know that is because I have my location services on, but the point is that it is constantly tracking my location and is able to formulate where I am and give me feedback almost instantaneously.
    This all rounds back to the Google Home Mini though. For the cost that it is at, I wouldn’t not buy one, but I would buy it only to see how this technology works. My house doesn’t have anything like Google Home or the Amazon Echo and as far as I know, none of my friends do either. So, my main purpose would be the curiosity at how these work and how decently they can actually do at doing things like giving me reminders and the like.

  5. In our age today, many different types of smart devices are helping to make our lives easier. This is another example. The voice recognition feature is quite amazing. We’ve reached this point in our society where everything can be operated through our own voice. However, the concerns of privacy and eavesdropping do worry me a tad. Recently, I’ve been weighing out the options of purchasing a smart speaker. But now with these concerns rising, I might throw that idea away.

  6. Technology is a tricky thing being that it keeps evolving to never-before-seen heights. These innovations seem amazing in theory, meanwhile as it keeps evolving it gets more and more scary and our lives get less and less personal. What is life if nothing is a secret? With this kind of technology, like the Alexa and even siri, they are replacing humans in our every day lives. From the people who turn out lights on and off, to feeding our dogs, technology can do it for us. With this new Google Home, not only will technology be taking over our homes but it will be listening to everything we say. Im sure everyone has heard of the stories where someone has an Alexa and they’re talking about something in their kitchen and the next day what they were talking about pops up as an advertisement on the internet. I really think thats Googles downfall, is its TOO personal rather than helpful at this point.

  7. Honestly, I toyed with the idea of buying Alexa (Amazon Echo) and then realized, just like many other people that I was afraid that it will eavesdrop on my conversations and/or record the conversations. Probably just paranoid, but you can never be too cautious about things like that. The concept/idea itself is interesting and similar to Alexa, would be groundbreaking and innovative. However, there is only a certain extent people will go to when it comes to technology. I don’t see the voice system/listening to the conversations aspect of new and developing technology go over well with people. Maybe later in the future, but as of now? I don’t think people are truly comfortable with that idea, and even though we are more easygoing with our privacy, this concept is just way too invasive. I personally think I wouldn’t invest in this, just like with Alexa.

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