“It seems like Microsoft’s operating system presentations have a tendency to go awry. In a live product demonstration for a large group of Wall Street analysts, the company decided to show off Windows Vista’s speech recognition capabilities. As it turns out, the presentation, known as the Financial Analyst Meeting, was much more of a comedy rather than a professional demo,” Matt Mondok reports for Ars Technica.
Mondok reports, “It shows the presenter struggling to get Vista’s speech recognition software to cooperate. At one point, the presenter (Shanen Boettcher) said, ‘select all,’ and the software showed its violent side, writing ‘so double the killer delete select all.'”
Full article here.
Microsoft Vista Speech Demo Goes Bad:
Direct link to video via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV1kqthZf2g
[UPDATE: 7/29: 7:00pm EDT: Updated YouTube video links.]
What’s with the ugly-ass text floating on top?
Looks about perfect to me! <grin>
Where are the “Vista” rocks fanboys now?
hahahaha
On the bright side, I get to order a new chair tomorrow! This time, I think I’ll skip the leather and try something solid and heavy. Oh, and frosted glass for a bit of privacy.
It sounds like Mr. Ballmer has hoisted one “frosted glass” too many!
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I would hate to have to hear all the digs at my product when you are the wealthiest man on the planet and you can’t do a thing about it,
Ooops! for a minute I felt sorry for Bill
Wow… thats identical to a letter I wrote this morning!
“Dear Aunt, lets set so double the killer delete select all.
Sincerely with love,
The VERY Satirical Realist”
Ah, but Mr. Ballmer is Mr. Innovation now. So, this is innovation? I remember seeing a demo of AT&T doing voice back in the 1980s when I was a scout that worked better than this.
tuogh concept i know but vista DOES rock, its just beta. its a year away from being done.
buy a mac if u are too impatience to wait for the REAL DEAL!
Ambient noise? What dumbasses. M$ thinks people will believe anything.
The Microsoft tradition continues!
Everyone, we should spread the word about this and let everyone see just how “advanced” <snigger> Vista will be come 2007-2009 or whenever it is released!
Microsoft banned MSNBC from broadcasting it, but once placed onto Youtube, or video.google.com, they wont be able to stop people from this preview of what everyone can expect from Vista!
Yeah, sure… Vista will remain a Beta forever, or until Leopard is available, then they’ll try to copy those features too! Cos Microsoft has to show something to their investors and market analysts so that they’re not forgotten about, thats why they had to do this, but as you claim “its just a beta!”
Boot camp was (and still is) a Beta… but it works!
Stop deluding yourself and preaching how Vista will be the the next revelation. It never was, and never will be. It will just be Windows XP SP3 – something to keep the corporates happy (enough). That’s all its got going for it right now.
Microsoft employees are mistaking the voices in their heads with the ambient noises in the room.
here’s a better link to the video… no stupid text on top and better sound:
have fun!
That was really funny…
Ambient noise? You mean like from all the other people trying to use Windows Vista voice recognition in all the cubes around your cube. Initial bad press about “handwriting” recognition doomed the Newton…
NOTE TO MICROSOFT: Before trying something in a demo, do a rehearsal (with some “ambient noise”) to make sure it works.
I can’t believe I’m still laughing this hard at 1:30 in the morning. Almost woke the kids..This is freaking unreal. And people buy windows computers because of what?
MS really needs to stop demoing vaporware. You know it’s bad when they can’t even get the smoke-and-mirrors right.
Pretty hilarious that MS blew it in front of so many vipers er Wall Street analysts. If that’s all the better MS can prepare for such an important demo, yikes.
This should definitely have an effect on MS’s stock rating & price.
How many people work in environments WITHOUT ambient noise? Even in my home, there are phones ringing, kids running around outside, leaf blowers…
Warning label: “To use this feature, we recommend the Cone of Silence. To order, contact CONTROL…”
MW=certain; I’m certain that Vista’s going to be buggier than a bait store…
You mean like from all the other people trying to use Windows Vista voice recognition in all the cubes around your cube.
You know, WTF is the point of using speech recognition for simple functions like Select All? Isn’t hitting Command-A a lot faster and easier?
OK there’s a valid point of it being useful for visually-impaired users. But why would you need to demo that to Wall Street?
MS can call me back when they have foolproof dictation-quality speech recognition. FWIW I’m not holding my breath.
MDN should display microsoft’s stock ticker right below apple’s. it’d be good for a laugh.
anyhow, yeah, it seems almost all of their presentations have some kind of more-than-minor hiccup.
and when apple’s demos go awry, they at least recover gracefully. anyone remember early last year? “that’s why we have a backup!” it made me smile, because it was an obvious jab at MS.
you almost have to wonder if they did that on purpose…
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MW is brought. as in “Vista – from the people who brought you Windows ME”
Guys, guys, guys . . .
Don’t you recognize Microsoft’s new tool for easily creating random subject lines for spam e-mail?
Years ago I remember Microsoft representatives having a go at Apple’s Newton. Hmm, what’s that saying: “What goes around comes around”. Except in the case of the Newton it was ground-breaking technology whereas speech recognition has been around for several years. I really don’t want to sound arrogant but given Redmond’s recent track record all I can say is that it’s just so Microsoft.
After the video showed, this link popped up:
Windows Vista is Crummy
Starring Gates and Ballmer.
Actually, in Microsoft’s defense, the stage is a lousy place to do speech recognition demos. Apple does them at WWDC and the people on the stage do tend to have problems.
From what I understand, part of the reason is that the microphone picks up the words from the speaker and feeds it back into the microphone. Obviously not loud enough to create a feedback loop but enough to confuse the recognition system.
By the way, did anyone else notice how much better Microsoft’s speech recognition got after that patent-cross-license thing back in 1997?