INTRODUCTION
While human-computer
interactivity interfaces via sound waves have not
quite caught on with desktop computers, their
implementation on mobile computing devices are much
more compelling. With desktop computers and laptops,
you usually don’t need an audible interface since
you’re already looking at the screen and have
perfectly usable visual and tactile interfaces.
However, when your hands and eyes are already being
occupied by another interface such as driving a
car, computer interaction via sound waves becomes
much more important.
As far as I can tell the
most important features that should be included in a
voice recognition program for interacting with a
mobile computer would be: 1. The ability to make
phone calls, 2. The ability to make music
selections, 3. The ability to set/lookup
destinations for use in GPS Navigation. Let’s
see how VoiceCentral stacks up.
WHAT’S HOT
VoiceCentral 3, now integrates the
features of VoiceDialer with other system commands
original found in previous versions of VoiceCentral. This
combination makes for a compelling alternative to
Microsoft’s Voice Command software.
PROGRAM FEATURES
VoiceCentral offers an extensive set of features for
accessing personal information, including email.
However, it’s interface always has to be actively
activated. There’s no automatic notification of
appointments, incoming callers, or automatic email
reading.
You can launch VoiceCentral from a
program icon or the configured hardware button.
When you start VoiceCentral, the
above screen appears and the application starts
listening. The progress bar on the left indicates
the level of audio that VoiceCentral is hearing. The
central pane shows what you can say at the main
level. Saying one of the commands listed there will
either perform the command or bring you to the next
level of the command.
If you say "Tasks" in the main
level, VoiceCentral will read the number of tasks
you have, specify their priority, and read their
titles.
In the Calendar sub level, you
have many ways to request data for the entire week.
A nice feature in the Contacts sub
level is the ability to find contacts by Company
name.
The Inbox sub-level even lets you
reply to messages without using your hands.
VoiceCentral records your voice as an audio file and
then emails that as an attachment along with the
text; "Please listen to the attached file." Very
nice. Be careful with the word "Delete" though, I’ve
had that command accidentally activated. You can
still find the message in your deleted items folder
though.
VIDEO IMPRESSION
See the above WMV video file for a
sampling of the Inbox function in action (right click
– save as). It would be nice if there was a command
that could activate an Inbox Send/Recieve. Also,
there’s no way to specify which inbox account you’d
like to access.
If you’re in a sub-level, you can say "Go
to Sleep" and VoiceCentral will stop accepting
commands, but it will remain resident and listening.
When you say "Wake up" or "VoiceCentral", the
program will re-activate and begin listening for
other commands again. This is a great feature if you
don’t want VoiceCentral to accidentally perform
commands while you’re speaking to some one else.
Oddly, the same "Go to Sleep" function will quite
VoiceCentral if you’re on the main level.
PROGRAM
SETTINGS
In the Programs folder there’s a "VoiceCentral
Settings" icon that lets you customize many of the
functions in VoiceCentral. This is where the
application really shines.
The first two tabs are pretty self
explanatory. The "Minimize display" function makes
the primary voice recognition screens less
obtrusive.
The "Contacts" and "Apps" tabs
show all your contacts and applications with
checkmarks next to them. Unchecking the items will
remove them from being recognized. Also in the
"Menu" menu, you can assign new pronunciations to
each item. That’s right, you can customize it’s
ability to recognize your voice. So if VoiceCentral
doesn’t understand your pronunciation of "Paula
Czernewski", you can make it understand by having it
record your own pronunciation.
The "UserCmds" tab lets you create
your own custom commands. It’s a little difficult to
figure out. First you choose Menu>Add Command. Then
you type in what you want to say to activate the
command and it’s listed in the primary pane. Next
you have to tap in the area of the second column,
which brings up a pop-up menu of applications. Once
you choose your application, then you have to tap in
the Parameters column to add what to do in that
program. If you choose Internet Explorer as the app,
you can enter a URL for the command to launch. If
you choose Windows Media Player, you can choose an
audio file or Playlist file for it to play
automatically. However, this method does not allow
you to select playlists or audio files on a Storage
Card.
The "Timing" tab lets you adjust
the recording timing when listening for an email
reply, pronunciation, and other user input. The
"Voice" tab lets you customize VoiceCentral’s
text-to-speech voice. Each option will sound pretty
close to the way this technology sounded in the 80’s
when Digital Equipment Corporation invented it. The
best that you can hope for is something that’s
moderately intelligible.
HELP SUPPORT
The help file on the
Pocket PC explains each of the functions of
VoiceCentral in significant detail. Due to the
visual interface included with the software, reading
the help file was not necessary for most functions.
The visual interface nicely displays what commands
you can speak at what times, thus making learning
the commands very easy. I did need to reference the
help file when trying to figure out how to create my
own user commands and pronunciation customizations
though.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
VoiceCentral
3.0 requires a host PC
running Microsoft Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, or XP; 11MB hard drive
space; CD-ROM drive; a Pocket PC 2002 or higher running on the Intel StrongARM SA-1110;
and 2MB free memory.
BUGS AND WISHES
VoiceCentral is not quite as integrated with the
Windows Mobile operating system as Microsoft’s
Voice Command software. Out of the box, VoiceCentral has no way of
controlling Windows Media Player, which is one of my
must-have features for mobile computing.
However, you can create your own commands for
playing certain songs in Windows Media Player as
long as they’re in main memory. Furthermore, VoiceCentral doesn’t even have the
capability to mute other system audio while it’s in
Listening mode. So, if you’re in the car listening
to music through your Pocket PC’s Media Player and
you activate VoiceCentral, the music won’t stop and
it will interfere with your voice commands. If
you’re listening to any music about calling people
or calendars, be careful because that my activate
VoiceCentral. If you use voice prompts in
a GPS Navigation program, these too will not be
muted while in listening mode.
There also does not seem to be any way of getting
address destination information out of the contacts
database and into a GPS Navigation program. Perhaps
the User Commands feature will be able to do this
someday.
Lastly, these voice recognition programs really need
to be able to function through a bluetooth headset.
This is likely something Microsoft needs to
implement in the operating system.
PURCHASING
Fonix VoiceCentral 3 can be purchased directly from the
Fonix website for $29.95 or from
Handango for the same price. A free trial
version is also available for download.
PROS
- High
quality voice recognition - Listen to and reply to
emails without using your hands - Does not
require training, but can still be fine tuned with
voice tag recordings
CONS
- Control
over Windows Media Player is very lacking - Can’t send commands to any
GPS Navigation software - Doesn’t announce events such
as appointments, incoming calls, emails, or text messages. - Doesn’t
work through a Bluetooth headset
| Value |
 |
| Ease of Use |
|
| Features |  |
Overall |
 |
OVERALL IMPRESSION
Since many of the features in
VoiceCentral overlap with features in
Microsoft Voice Command, people naturally tend
to compare the two. However, the two applications
are very different. VoiceCentral offers much more
customization capabilities, great email features,
and more PIM related functions… yet lacks the
ability to control all aspects of Windows Media
player, lacks passive text-to-speech features such
as incoming caller and appointments notifications,
and lacks system status commands. If only the
features of both programs could be combined into
one… and some GPS Navigation software integration
was thrown in… then we’d be talking about
progress! Meanwhile, if you don’t use your Pocket PC
as a media player, but do use it as a phone,
VoiceCentral is an excellent choice.
Originally published on Pocketnow on March 28, 2005. More Reviews articles from the Pocketnow archive.