I sitting here dictating into a microphone and having a program called Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 type what I say on to the screen. A number of years ago a friend of mine and I had a discussion with regards to how useful such a program would be for navigating the Internet, for writing letters, for interacting with a computer.

I took the stance that it would be much faster to physically manipulate a mouse and keyboard to perform any tasks one would want to perform on a computer. I stand here, nay, I sit here dictating into a microphone, holding a cup of coffee, and holding the manual for the program that I took out of the box less than a half hour ago.

I am still a little clumsy with this. I still have to refer to the manual for doing some of the more sophisticated operations that are possible with this program. However for the most part I’m just watching the screen, watching the words appear, and marveling that all of these things I am saying are appearing as words on the screen in front of me.

As I am sitting here peeking into a microphone and watching these words appear, I’m also remembering that I read a number of articles recently regarding the capability, and motility, of the new generation of robots that are being developed throughout the world. Now I know that this program does not understand the meaning of the words it is transcribing onto the screen for me, but I can see in the not too distant future the marriage of a voice recognition program with a meaning recognition program. And it does not take much more imagination to envision the whole system housed inside some sort of mechanical device, possibly one that has a human like shape, mimics the motion of humans, and is able to converse with its own in a natural, albeit unnerving, manner.

Just recently I also saw a video of a four-legged robot that is being developed that looks a lot like a large dog. This brings to mind the idea that possibly in the not-too-distant future you will have finally a dog that will not only listen but also understand what you’re telling it to do. No more getting the slippers when you wanted the paper, no more pointing at something you want the dog to pick up and having it look at your finger in an inquisitive manner, and obviously because it is a robot, no more cleaning up after it on the sofa, carpet, or expensive wood floors. Unless of course it happens to have an oil leak. “Bad robot!”

If you happen to find any errors as you read this, it’s because I did not go back and reedit. Editing is within the capability of the program, but since I’m new at using this tool, I wanted to keep it as simple as I possibly could.

For those interested I also used it to surf the Internet, create and send an email, and to navigate around my screen choosing various icons and moving between open programs. Based on about 15 minutes worth of training that program to recognize my particular speech patterns, all the words I slur, and in general get used to the very poor diction I have, I am very impressed with what I am able to do. In case anybody is wondering why I even looked into this, I am due for some shoulder surgery later on this week, and thought this program might be of use to me during the time I am recouping. I was fully prepared to be disappointed, but instead I’m pretty pleased with it.

In case anyone is wondering, I did not get this program for free, I am not endorsing the program because of a contract, and I have no interest in the company other than I have purchased their program. Of course I would not turn down a lucrative contract as their spoke person, but I fear my only qualification would be the fact that if the program can understand what I say, it should have no problem understanding the spoken words of 99% of the rest of the population. But if they are reading this, I would be much more interested in them getting together with whomever is making any kind of robot, and speed up the time where I will be able to have a friend that, although it might be able to kill me with its little finger, would always be around for a game of racquetball, watching cheesy movies, and protect me from cougars and bears when hiking in the foothills of the Rockies. But yes I would carry an EMP device in case the thing went rogue on me.