Comments on: Voice-Activated

By: Dany

Dany — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:22:44 +0000

Bee: “I haven’t tried that one”

Try that one too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pZewiYyBG4

Regards, Dany.

By: Escape Hatch « Thoughts from My Pocket

Escape Hatch « Thoughts from My Pocket — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:45:27 +0000

[...] 18, 2008 This: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/02/14/voice-activated/ cracked me up! Posted in Uncategorized [...]

By: Random Linkage » Blog Archive » Random Linkage 2008-Feb-16 PM

Random Linkage » Blog Archive » Random Linkage 2008-Feb-16 PM — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:30:18 +0000

[...] looks like there may be an escape hatch of sorts from some automated voice recognition [...]

By: Dany

Dany — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:52:07 +0000

Alexey Petrov:”Let robots deal with robots!”

Indeed. However, notice the difference between The AstroDyke and Julianne approach. Since he/she is trapped in an airplane and Chicago is closed the purpose of the phone call is completely obscure. It is hard to decide who is more stupid. I think that V.V. suggests a reasonable solution and R.Penrose gave fairly accurate analysis of the general situation.

Regards, Dany.

By: Alexey Petrov

Alexey Petrov — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:55:21 +0000

I’m wondering if someone could write a code for a laptop (with voice recognition/voice out software) that would talk to those robots until human picks up the phone and then inform you about that. Let robots deal with robots!

By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:19:42 +0000

Most people get discouraged when pressing 0 does not work. Well, it usually does eventually – the trick is to keep pressing it, perhaps 10 or more times.

By: starfish

starfish — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:21:58 +0000

One tip for United’s reservation system is that you should register your cell phone number under your united profile: lately, when I have called from that cell number, the system simply asks me “Is this [my name], or someone calling on behalf of [my name]?” and then whether the itinerary is domestic or international. That’s it, and it’s about 1000x better than having to punch in your MP number, tell them whether it’s a new/existing itin, etc. (I am a 1K, so I can’t promise the system is quite as efficient if you’re not super-exalted-elite, but registering your cell phone should still mean jumping through one less hoop.)

Good luck getting home.

By: Sili

Sili — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:55:13 +0000

I can’t find it on LanguageLog unfotunately, but I’m sure I’ve seen this mentioned elsewhere.

If I recall correctly some systems can even judge the level of frustration in the voice and use that to transfer a caller faster.

The annoying paperclip thingie in Micro$soft programs can be turned off in much the same way. If in doubt then swear at it and it’ll help you get rid of itself.

Isn’t practical linguistics fun?!

By: Julianne

Julianne — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:17:21 +0000

But V.R. Man is so slooooooow. It takes foreeeeeeever to give him all the information he wants. That’s why he’s on my list.

I’d like to add that I would never, ever say F.U. to a real agent, no matter how slow they were. But V.R. Man’s chirpy inefficiency is fair game.

By: The AstroDyke

The AstroDyke — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:38:05 +0000

I’ve found United’s “Voice Recognition Man” better than average. In my family we call him “V.R. Man”, and I find myself saying, “Goodbye” when I hang up, which is pretty silly, really.