Technology
Voice of Change: Four Guiding Principles for the Voice-Controlled Smart Home
(This article is cross-posted from Parks Assoiciates’ Connections Industry Insights blog. Sridhar Solur is keynoting the CONNECTIONS conference in San Francisco, May 23rd).
As a technologist who builds products, few things have excited me more in my career than the evolution of voice technology. More than just a way to replace manual inputs, voice represents a profound shift in how we interact with products, and how we expect them to interact with us.
Voice functionality is at its best when the technologists who build it embrace the full experience, so I thought I’d share four key principles on voice control.
We are entering a new era of interfaces, moving from the world of mobile where the rules of interface design are well known, to a world of ambient interfaces (era of IOT and Machine Intelligence) where technology is looking to adapt to us. These rules are not yet written. Product developers need to carefully understand the different, modes (voice/visual/touch), channels (Mobile, web, TV, speakers) and the overarching context as interfaces are designed. In addition to this, trust plays a big role in always-on devices like ambient microphone and cameras...After all, the last thing I want to be paranoid about is my camera measuring my waistline, while I see advertisements about diets on my phone.