INTRODUCTION
PDA voice control functionality has been
rapidly moving from a luxury to a requirement. This is especially true
with many converged PDA devices, which haven't necessarily been designed
with the streamlined interface of a dedicated mobile phone. Combine
this with contact lists many hundreds of entries long, driving or other
personal multi-tasking, and you have a user interface nightmare. Users
who wish to add voice control functionality to their Pocket PC device
have a surprisingly limited number of choices, and VITO
Technology's new offering, Voice2Go, is a welcome addition.
Voice2Go offers several great features. As a long time user of Microsoft's Voice Command (reviewed here), I was eager to evaluate Voice2Go, and see if it addressed some of Voice Command's limitations.
WHAT'S HOT
Voice2Go builds on VITO Technology's Voice
Dialer software. Whereas the Voice Dialer software concentrates solely
on phone functionality, Voice2Go provides a broader suite of features,
and promises that "...you can forget about tapping the screen with
the stylus..."
SETUP
Installation was simple and straightforward.
I connected my Pocket PC to my computer via its USB cable, and launched
the executable. I went through the standard Pocket PC dialog, and the
setup program didn't install anything on my PC, which I appreciated.
PROGRAM FEATURES
Voice2Go offers 6 main features:
The Command window initializes with a futuristic sound. After you speak your command, it plays a confirmed or denied sound, and it also plays back your own recorded command on a positive match. Now here's where it gets tricky. If you have magic words enabled, you can say Correct or Wrong, but if you don't, you have to press correct or wrong on the screen. This seems to be a big design flaw. It would seem to me that you would want to enable magic words for a short period after a positive match so you could say Correct or Wrong.
Here are a few short videos showing Voice2Go in action.
 |
Successfully dialing with Magic Words (AVI 4.6MB) |
|
Unsuccessful match with Magic Words (AVI 3.4MB) |
|
Dialing without Magic Words enabled (AVI 4.4MB) |
Accuracy was relatively usable, but perhaps not as good a some other voice recognition products. Accuracy (and recording quality) improved tremendously by holding the mic much closer to my mouth. Obviously, consistency in your own pitch and timbre increases the accuracy, as does a low amount of ambient noise, but I still had some troubles in quiet environments (see the unsuccessful match video). Voice2Go had significant difficulty with positive matches in my car or with music playing, but to be fair, I have yet to find a voice recognition product that does an adequate job in noisy environments.
Continue On: Bugs and Wishes / Pros and Cons / Conclusion . . .
