Is Voice Activation Unsafe?

A couple of news headlines have appeared recently asserting that voice activation is unsafe. I thought it was time for Sensory to weigh in on a few aspects of this since we are the pioneers in voice activation:

1. In-Car Speech Recognition. There have been a few studies like AAA/U of Utah
   The headlines from these studies claim speech recognition creates distraction while driving. Other recent studies have shown that voice recognition in the car is one of the biggest complaints. But if you read into these studies carefully, what you really find are several important aspects:
   • What they call “hands free” is not 100% TrulyHandsfree. It requires touch to activate so right there I agree it can take your eyes of the road, and potentially your hands off the wheels.
   • It’s really bad UX design that is distracting and not the speech recognition per se.
   • It’s not that people don’t want speech recognition. It’s that they don’t want speech recognition that fails all the time.

   Here’s my conclusion on all this denigration of in-car speech recognition: there are huge problems with what the automotive companies have been deploying. The UX is bad and the speech recognition is bad. That doesn’t mean that speech recognition is not needed in the car…on the contrary, what’s needed is good speech recognition implemented in good design.

   From my own experience it isn’t just that the speech recognition is bad and the UX is bad. The flaky Bluetooth connections and the problems of changing phones adds to the perception of speech not working. When I’m driving, I use speech recognition all the time, and it’s GREAT, but I don’t use the recognizer in my Lexus…I use my MotoX with the always on trigger, and then with Google Now, I can make calls or listen to music, etc.

2. Lack of Security. The CTO of AVG blasted speech recognition because it is unsafe.Now I previously resisted the temptation to comment on this, because the CTO’s boss (the CEO) is on my board of directors. I kind of agree and I kind of disagree with the CTO. I agree that speech recognition CAN BE unsafe…that’s EXACTLY why we add speaker verification into our wake up triggers…then ONLY the right person can get in. It’s really kind of surprising to me that Apple and Google haven’t done this yet! On the other hand, there are plenty of tasks that don’t really require security. The idea of a criminal lurking outside my home and controlling my television screen seemed more humorous than scary. In the case of TVs, I do think password protection is great but it’s really more for the purpose of identifying who is using the television and to call up their favorites, their voice adapted templates, and their restrictions (if any) on what they can watch AND how long they can watch…yeah I’m thinking about my kids and their need to get homework done. 🙂