A Thinking Man

OK. A quick techie post - the kind I feel compelled to make from time to time. Boring and annoying for those who do not share my interest in these things, and for those millions out there who have somehow managed to survive so far without an iPhone.

I find myself doing it more and more - speaking commands to the hand, that is. About seven years ago I seriously looked into voice recognition software as a way of me having to avoid typing up session notes for a course that I was doing, but I soon abandoned it.  There were two main reasons: 1) it was a faff to set up with the microphone, and, 2) I spent more time correcting the results than I wanted to, making the whole exercise uneconomic in terms of my time. It was just easier to type the words in, in the first place.

Despite that bad experience I am presently surprising myself (and amusing my partner) by the amount of time I am currently spending talking to my hand. Two pieces of software are changing the way I am interacting with the internet via my iPhone.

The first piece of software is the free Google Application for the iPhone. Although it has been around for sometime, I only recently noticed that the latest update allows voice searching.  The recent version has some welcome other improvements, such as the very fast Gmail interface, and I was so taken with the latter, and with the feedreader, that I failed to appreciate the arrival of the voice search.

I initially approached it with some scepticism, and although I can’t pretend that I found it to be perfect, it is far better than I imagined it would be.  I would give it seven out of ten so far for accuracy.  Some phrases it captured perfectly, and others it got most of the words right.  On only a few occasions did it type back my words in such an outlandish form that I concluded the ‘engine’ was a deaf, dyslexic foreigner who had imbibed too much alcohol.

When it doesn’t get it one hundred per cent right away I am learning to live with it, either by repeating the phrase more slowly and deliberately, or by shortening or paraphrasing the phrase.  Although I am a fan of the innovative iPhone keyboard it is arguably still easier to speak in the phrases most of the time.  When privacy isn’t an issue, there is now a fast alternative for iPhone users away from their main machines.

I don’t want to sound ridiculous, but the second software development really is easing my life and changing the way I get work done.  The software in question is an Application called ReQall (available for the BlackBerry and iPhone in a Free and Pro Version).  On the surface ReQall may appear to be just another smartphone calendar and task manager where you can arrange meetings, jobs to be done, and type shopping lists.  However, although that is true, it works in ways which make it much more valuable.

First, you can enter data in several ways - by typing from your phone, by calling ReQall and dictating information, or by speaking information directly into the phone.  I have found the voice recognition software to be amazingly accurate (say nine out of ten) for most of the time.  The information you speak is then sent back to your phone for reference, and reminders can be set up to inform you of events at set times before they happen.  (If you are at your desk and find it easier you can even email appointments and information to ReQall to be added to your account.)

The key to ReQall’s recognition success is that it uses a combination of automated speech recognition technology and human transcription and for some key tasks it has a restricted vocabulary.  It recognises dates and times and days and words like ‘Meet’ (which sets up appointments), ‘Buy’ which adds to a shopping list, and ‘Note’ which adds the item to a list of things to remember.  (See here for a fuller list.) I have found it very accurate for dates and times, reasonably accurate for grocery items, but it sometimes struggles with names and place-names.  I can forgive it the latter and make any corrections that are important later.

But there is more.  Not only can you interact with ReQall in a variety of ways, it can also communicate with you via a variety of means - text and email reminders, reminders on your phone, and crucially it can integrate with any calendar that supports iCal (for example Outlook and Google Calendar).  So once I have spoken to my hand and told ReQall about an appointment I know it will appear on my calendar.

This has made a huge difference to me.  I run a small business with my partner, often running back-to-back appointments with a need to enter future appointments quickly before the next client appears, and we need to co-ordinate the appointments on three computers and an iPhone based in two locations and ‘on the road’.  Because my ReQall syncs with Google Calendar, and Google Calendar syncs with my iPhone, as well as being available to anyone with the password and web access, I can now be assured that any appointments I make while away from the office by speaking to my hand (into my iPhone and ReQall) can be checked not only by me, but by my partner on any of the other computers in any of the other locations.  Both of us can confirm appointments at the time of calling rather than risk losing clients by having to call them back later once different calendars have been checked.

There are two other ReQall features that I have yet to exploit.  The first is Location Recognition.  Once location data is entered, the software uses the iPhone GPS features to recognise any appointments, notes, shopping items that are relevant to that location and brings them to the fore.  

The second other feature is the Tell Function.  You can issue voice commands (which are then typed by ReQall) to pass information on to particular people listed in your address book, and they will receive it either in their ReQall, or via email.  So, for example, you could tell several people about a meeting, or a family member could tell you to buy something on the way home from work.

My children used to tell me that I was the original Homer Simpson.  My friends now tell me that I am the man in the following video.  Joking apart, I think it explains very well what I have been trying to write.

 

Both the Google Application and ReQall are free to try.  I would be interested to hear any feedback if you have phones that will allow you to try them.

Tags: appointments, BlackBerry, data, Gmail, Google, Google Calendar, Google Mail, GPS, Homer Simpson, iCal, iPhone, keyboard, location recognition, memory aid, notes, Outlook, ReQall, search, shopping list, smartphone, software, Sync, To Do, voice recognition