From the course: Interaction Design for the Web

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,400 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Voice control

Voice control

From the course: Interaction Design for the Web

Start my 1-month free trial

Voice control

- There's a scene in the movie Blade Runner where the lead character uses voice commands to analyze a photograph. He must tell the device which sector to enlarge or enhance and where to zoom, pan, or rotate. The scene lasts for several minutes. The same activity would have taken less than 10 seconds with a touch interface. Voice control is great in some situations and not so great in others. If you have your hands full, if you're wearing heavy gloves, or if you can't easily reach the device you're trying to control, then being able to give verbal instructions is a real advantage. However, if you're in a loud environment or even if there are several people talking at a regular volume, voice interfaces can get confused. If you have an ambiguous command, then you might end up playing a game of 20 questions while the device tries to narrow down who or what exactly you meant to apply the command to, when, and how. And like I described just now, using voice commands for manipulation tasks…

Contents