{"id":6134,"date":"2019-02-26T08:06:19","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T07:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.red-orbit.com\/blog\/?p=6134"},"modified":"2019-02-26T08:06:19","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T07:06:19","slug":"evolving-role-voice-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.red-orbit.com\/blog\/evolving-role-voice-search","title":{"rendered":"The Evolving Role of Voice Search"},"content":{"rendered":"

People have always been fascinated – at times even obsessed – by the attempt to recreate the natural world.<\/p>\n

History is littered with examples of inventors who devised new automata that could replicate the functions of living organisms.<\/p>\n

In 1739, Jacques de Vaucanson unveiled his Digesting Duck <\/a>(or Canard Dig\u00e9rateur) to an amused audience. The copper-plated \u2018duck\u2019 could swallow grain and then seemingly digest it, before defecating the metabolized matter.<\/p>\n

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Fast-forward through the next few centuries of automata and we see numerous other ingenious evolutions in this field, as displayed in the image below.<\/p>\n

Typically, these enterprises isolate a function (sound creation or touch, for example) and then aim to create a working simulacrum of the action.<\/p>\n

Luminaries from Ada Lovelace to Thomas Edison have applied their intellect to creation of these machines, driven by the pursuit of deeper understanding of the world around us.<\/p>\n

Over time, one area has fascinated inventors more than any other: human speech.<\/p>\n

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(Image taken from https:\/\/medium.com\/swlh\/the-past-present-and-future-of-speech-recognition-technology-cf13c179aaf )<\/em><\/p>\n

Our ability to communicate verbally is complex and imbued with connotations both scientific and cultural.<\/p>\n

To create a machine that can understand the nuances of language and then respond in kind, is a multifaceted endeavor that still occupies the finest minds at companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.<\/p>\n

Voice Search Today<\/h2>\n

And so, to modern voice search.<\/p>\n

Search engines are programmed to answer questions, but not to understand them.<\/p>\n

This is an important distinction as we consider how to use this technology to connect with an audience.<\/p>\n

The technology is now at the inflection point where it will go convincingly beyond the realms of novelty and into the arena of genuine, quotidian usefulness.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s Super Bowl ad made reference to this, with the impressive claim that over 1 billion words are communicated daily through its Translate service.<\/p>\n