Great possibilities for the disabled worker and consumer...
whenever a technology goes mainstream it helps us,,,

> Dialing, Without Fingers
>
> February 21, 2002
>
> By DAVID POGUE
>
>
>
>
> As millions of Americans can tell you, working from home
> has its perks: no cubicles, a commute of about 25 feet, and
> an unbelievably liberal dress code. Of course, you give up
> certain things, too, like color laser printers, sports
> betting pools and the illicit thrill of free office
> supplies.
>
> High-tech companies realize that a lot of potential
> customers work in these SOHO situations (an acronym that
> has come to stand for Small Office-Home Office, much to the
> dismay of people in SoHo). Several recent products have
> brought to home (analog) phones a particular time-saving
> feature once found only on a few cellphones or by
> phone-company subscription: voice dialing, in which the
> caller dials just by speaking the name of the callee.
>
> The idea is so good, it's not surprising that at least
> three companies - Siemens, ArialPhone and Digital Acoustics
> - have tackled it more or less simultaneously. But their
> approaches are radically different.
>
> The new Siemens Gigaset 4215, for example, is simply a
> cordless phone that can dial up to 20 people at your voice
> command. Actually, "simply" may not be the best word choice
> here: the small, sleek, sophisticated Gigaset ($180) has
> more controls than the Space Shuttle. If Alexander Graham
> Bell saw one, he wouldn't know what part of his body to
> hold it up to.
>
> For starters, the Gigaset is a multi- handset system. Once
> you have connected its base station to a phone line, you
> can buy up to three additional handsets ($100 each). They
> don't have to be plugged into a phone jack, so you can park
> them anywhere you like in the house. They can call each
> other as if they were intercoms or call the base station
> (to check its answering machine, for example).
>
> You'd need a book to list all of this phone's other
> features, and, fortunately, a very good one comes in the
> box. But two features are worth highlighting.
>
> First, a handset can dial your extension automatically when
> it detects sudden room sounds - the world's coolest baby
> monitor. And second, you can program the ringer to ring
> more or less loudly after hours. All inventions should be
> this respectful of your sleep.
>
> The big news, though, is the voice dialing. To set it up,
> you record each name you'll want to dial, pronounced any
> way you like (for all the phone cares, you can say
> "Brickhead" for your boss). When you voice-dial, the phone
> compares your voice with your recorded snippets.
>
> Up to four people can record triggers for the same person,
> so that your spouse can say "Mother-in-law," and you can
> say "Mommy," for the same person. The catch is that each
> additional recording uses up one of the 20 available
> recording slots.
>
> In other words, one person can record 20 names, two people
> can each record 10, or four can record five. That's not
> much memory on a phone costing $180. And if you have signed
> up for call-waiting, one final surprise awaits. When one of
> your voice-dialable people calls, the phone's speaker plays
> back your recording, announcing the caller's name for all
> to hear. (Come to think of it, maybe "Brickhead" isn't such
> a great trigger for your boss.)
>
> If you want to be able to dial more than 20 names, consider
> the ArialPhone (www.arialphone.com). At first glance it
> looks like any cordless headset phone, of the sort worn by
> home-office dwellers all over the country. The headset
> communicates with a base station up to 150 feet away. But
> unlike the base stations of standard cordless phones, this
> one connects to a Windows PC via a U.S.B. cable. When you
> touch a button on the headset, a tone in your earpiece
> prompts you to say the name you want: "Call Rudy Giuliani,"
> for example. ArialPhone, your obedient servant, dials the
> number.
>
> The genius of this idea is that you don't have to program
> any voice triggers. ArialPhone uses as its phone book your
> Microsoft (news/quote) Outlook, Outlook Express or the
> Windows address book (up to 500 names) and uses voice
> recognition to match your command with the right entry.
>
> ArialPhone therefore works only when the PC is turned on,
> but that's not the biggest problem. It was apparently
> designed by laid-back people who assume that you have as
> much time as they do. Instead of a printed manual to scan
> for information, you get a CD-ROM video of a blow-dried
> spokesperson slowly, repetitively explaining the features:
> "I don't have to run back to my office when I'm in the
> kitchen and hear the phone ring!" (Fortunately, an
> electronic written manual is on the CD.)
>
> ArialPhone wastes even more time by asking you to confirm
> every command. (You: "Call Pete Seeger." Synthetic,
> slightly drunken voice: "Do you want to call Pete Seeger?"
> You: "Yes." Your brain: "Isn't that what I said, you half-
> wit?")
>
> You can eliminate that annoyance by changing a preference
> setting. But no such adjustment removes the requirement to
> push the headset button and say, "Answer," every time the
> phone rings, or push it and say, "Hang up," after every
> call. Apparently the fine folks at Arial missed the Golden
> Rule of High-Tech Gadgetry: Good gizmos should be faster
> and simpler than the mechanisms they replace. Especially if
> those electronics, like ArialPhone, cost you an arm and a
> $300 credit-card bill.
>
> Even so, for frequent phoners who feel that any voice
> dialing is better than punching number keys, ArialPhone
> might still be attractive - especially in the next version,
> which the company says will fix many of the "1.0
> deficiencies." But there's already something better: the
> cleverly named Tell A Phone from Digital Acoustics
> (www.digitalacoustics
> .com).
>
> At first you are entitled to be dubious of this gadget, a
> tiny plastic box that connects your PC to a phone line.
> During my software installation, for example, error
> messages flew thick and fast: "DAO not found"; "Incorrect
> TAPI version"; "Object doesn't support this property or
> method." Tell A Phone also installs what a Windows message
> declares is an "unsigned driver" - one that Microsoft
> hasn't tested and approved.
>
> Next you import your names and numbers from Outlook, ACT!,
> Palm Desktop or some other address-book program. ArialPhone
> is more convenient in this regard because it consults your
> Outlook phone list directly. On the other hand, because
> Tell A Phone maintains its own phone list, you can type in
> whatever dial triggers you like, saying "Bitsy" instead of
> "Elizabeth J. McGillicuddy," for example.
>
> When you finally try Tell A Phone, though, all is forgiven.
> The masterstroke of its design is that it permits voice
> dialing on your existing ordinary phones - in fact, from
> any extension in the house, not just the one connected to
> the PC. You just say the name you want, right over the dial
> tone - upstairs, downstairs, all around the house.
>
> Like the ArialPhone, Tell A Phone recognizes most voices
> without training so everyone, even children, can use it
> right off the bat. Everything is fast, from the rapid-fire
> touch tones to your not having to say "Call" before the
> person's name (a pointless requirement on the ArialPhone).
> You just pick up the phone and say "Madonna Ciccone," or
> whatever. In fact, if your phone book lists fewer than
> about 200 names, you can even get away with just saying
> part of the name ("Madonna").
>
> Technophobes who live under the same roof won't have the
> faintest idea how it works. Indeed, they can ignore it
> completely if they like, using the phone just as they
> always have, even when the computer is off. This is
> technology the way it's supposed to work: invisibly,
> smoothly, and above all, optionally.
>
> Tell A Phone costs $100. It lacks the convenience of
> ArialPhone's wireless headset, of course. But if that idea
> appeals to you, there's nothing to stop you from buying one
> of your own, like the Plantronics (news/quote) CT10 ($100).
> Then, for two-thirds the price of ArialPhone, you'll have
> it all: freedom to walk around as you chat, freedom to
> voice dial from any phone in the house, and freedom from
> fluorescent lighting. You may never want to go in to the
> office again - except when you need office supplies, of
> course.
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/21/technology/circuits/21STAT.html?ex=101528251
> 9&ei=1&en=6242701757452110
>
>
>
> HOW TO ADVERTISE
> ---------------------------------
> For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
> or other creative advertising opportunities with The
> New York Times on the Web, please contact
> [log in to unmask] or visit our online media
> kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo
>
> For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company