Google: Headphones and Voice Magic
November 23, 2017
I read two interesting articles. Each provides some insight into Google’s effort to put the NLP and chatbot doggies in an Alphabet corral.
The first article is “Google SLING: An Open Source Natural Language Parser.” To refresh your memory, “SLING is a combination of recurrent neural networks and frame based parsing.”
The second article is “Google Introduces Dialogflow Enterprise Edition, a Conversational Apps Building Platform.” The idea is to provide “a platform for building voice and text conversational applications.”
Both are interesting because each seems to be “free.” I won’t drag you, gentle reader, through the consequences of building a solution around a “free” Google service. One Xoogler watches me like a hawk to remind me that Google doesn’t treat people in a will of the wisp way. Okay. Let’s move on, shall we?
Both of these systems advance Google’s quest to become the Big Dog of where the world is heading for computer interaction. Both are germane to the wireless headphones Google introduced. These headphones, unlike other wireless alternatives, can translate. Hence, the largesse for free NLP and voice freebies.
I read “Trying Out Google’s Translating Headphones” informed me that:
The most important thing you should know about Pixel Buds is that their full features only work with Google’s newest smartphone, the Pixel 2.
Is this vendor lock in?
I learned from the write up:
To be honest, it’s not exactly real-time. You call up the feature by tapping on your right earbud and asking Google Assistant to “help me speak” one of 40 languages. The phone will then open the Google Translate app. From there, the phone will translate what it hears into the language of your choice, and you’ll hear it in your ear.
Not quite like Star Trek’s universal translator, suggests the article. I noted this statement:
it’s worth realizing that the Pixel Buds are more than just a pair of headphones. They’re an early illustration of what we can expect from Google, which will try to make products that stand out from the pack with unusual artificial intelligence services such as translation.
A demo. I suppose doing the lock in tactic with a demo is better than basing lock in on vaporware.
Then there are the free APIs. These, of course, will never go away or cost too much money. The headphones are $159. The phone adds another $649.
Almost free.
Stephen E Arnold, November 23, 2017
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