This Uncanny Valley of Voice Recognition

Re:This Uncanny Valley of Voice Recognition by aaronpk on Monday February 09, 2015 @04:42PM (#9023937)

Is it just me or is the author using the term "Uncanny Valley" completely wrong? Ignoring the silly Pixar story, I still don't understand how voice recognition (or more accurately, speech recognition) is currently in the uncanny valley.

You know when your GPS says "recalculating" in a condescending voice? That's the uncanny valley of text-to-speech.

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Re:This Uncanny Valley of Voice Recognition by recursive on Monday February 09, 2015 @05:43PM (#9024304)

I'm no valley expert, but it seems to me that uncanny valley refers to an artificial system intended to mimic a natural one. It mostly gets the mimicry right, but not enough that we are completely fooled. This freaks some people out.

Siri's UI intends to mimic a person that understands what you are saying. In practice, it gets it wrong in hilarious and frustrating ways, breaking the illusion.

So "uncanny valley" seems ok to me.

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Re:This Uncanny Valley of Voice Recognition by brianmcc on Tuesday February 10, 2015 @06:07AM (#9026467)

Is the term not about getting so close to real that it's that the remaining shortfall makes us uncomfortable?

E.g. something "50% real" is so far off, we psychologically dismiss it as a cartoon, drawing, whatever. It's not trying to compete with real.

Something "98% real" freaks us out though. Surprised I have not yet seen this link:

http://blog.codinghorror.com/avoiding-the-uncanny-valley-of-...

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Re:This Uncanny Valley of Voice Recognition by ars on Monday February 09, 2015 @11:16PM (#9025349)

> I still don't understand how voice recognition (or more accurately, speech recognition) is currently in the uncanny valley.

We are OK with stupid computers, we don't expect anything from them - we order them around is very formal language.

But now there is an attempt to use natural language - and it doesn't work right. So it's actually better not to use natural language, and just stick to the formal language.

That's where the valley part comes in.

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Re:This Uncanny Valley of Voice Recognition by StavrosK on Monday February 09, 2015 @05:43PM (#9024307)

"Uuuugh I can't believe you missed the fucking turn, I've been warning you for TWO MINUTES, Jesus! Fine, I'll plot another course for your stupid ass!"

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Re:This Uncanny Valley of Voice Recognition by mtVessel on Tuesday February 10, 2015 @12:15AM (#9025504)

Yeah, the application of the term was a total stretch.

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