Page 10 - index

Here are some descriptions (and advertise-
ments) found for each of these Voice Recog-
nition & Control Apps.
 Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recog-
nition Interface) is a computer program
that works as an “intelligent personal
assistant” and “knowledge navigator”,
according to Wikipedia. “The software
adapts to the user’s individual lan-
guage usage and individual searches
with continuing use, and returns results
that are individualized”, also from Wik-
ipedia. “Hey Siri” is the wake phrase,
which can be turned on or off.
 OK Google lets you do things like
search, get directions, and create re-
minders. For example “OK Google do I
need an umbrella” to see if there is rain
in the weather forecast. To use “OK
Google”, make sure you have the latest
Google Search App and turn on “OK
Google detection” in settings.
 Cortana is an App with which you can
use your voice to make a call, send a
text message, search the web, or open
another App. Cortana can help you:
schedule a meeting, set a reminder,
get up-to-date weather or traffic.(Note:
you need a Microsoft account to use
Cortana.)“Hey Cortana” seems to be
tied to the “Notebook”, and thus is set-
up in the Notebook-Settings, which
may not be obvious. (You get to the
Notebook-Settings by clicking in the
search bar on the Taskbar, then select-
ing Notebook [the square icon under
the home icon], and finally Settings.)
 Alexa is the name of Amazon’s assis-
tant that comes with the Amazon Echo.
Echo is a wireless speaker and voice
command device. The device consists
of a 9.25-inch tall cylinder speaker with
a seven-piece microphone array.
“Alexa”, the “wake word” is always on
and can be changed by the user to ei-
ther “Amazon” or “Echo”. The device is
capable of voice interaction, music
playback, making to-do lists, setting
alarms, streaming podcasts, playing
audio books, and providing weather,
traffic and other real time information. It
can also control several smart devices.
Echo requires a Wi-Fi internet connec-
tion in order to work. The Echo must be
10
plugged in to operate since it has no
internal battery.
If these personal digital assistants are suc-
cessful, many more may show up. I just read
that the company that brought us the Sound-
Hound App also has a personal assistant
called Hound that they hope to embed in oth-
er applications so that those Apps can be
voice controlled. Imagine setting up an Uber
ride by voice. (If you will recall, SoundHound
is like the Shazam App, just hum a tune and it
will tell you the tune’s name.) With all these
personal assistants around, we certainly will
never have to feel lonely.
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through Zelda, Donkey Kong and the rest.
1982 brought forth development from another
direction; sports training. Devices appeared
that monitored the athlete's heart rate.
In 1999 stationary bikes with monitoring and
visual feedback were popular.
GPS technology came to the masses in the
year 2000 when it was released for public use.
Now there was an earth wide means of track-
ing movement.
A 3D accelerometer was developed in 2003
which allowed technicians to measure move-
ment in all three directions: up, down, left and
right, forward and backwards.
Take the mixture of all of these changes from
1921 to 2003, and a company was able put all
of these functions into a small wearable size in
2008, Fitbit
The new models of Fitbit now monitor your
heart rate, and sleep. All these functions de-
signed to motivate us to a more healthy life-
style with the means to monitor our goals in
the device and online. James Park and Eric
Freidmen were the creators of Fitbit. It is so
popular that there are competitors in the mar-
ketplace from Apple, Android and Garmin.
In 2015 Fitbit was encouraged to issue an IPO
and it is now worth around $3.7 billion. And
Park is now #29 on the list of those 40 or un-
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