Google, Microsoft look beyond mobile search for voice interaction

Organizing all of the world's information is no good unless that information can be accessed, and Google's recent move into free 411 searches shows that the company is serious about voice search. But Google's plans appear to extend far beyond finding local businesses. In a patent issued last year, the company outlined a full-blown natural language voice search platform, and Microsoft's own recent acquisition of TellMe indicates that a voice search war could be brewing.

The Google patent, issued in April 2006 and naming Sergey Brin as an inventor, describes a system for providing search results from voice queries, but it goes well beyond the system currently implemented as GOOG-411. In the patent, the inventors recognize the problems inherent in this sort of searching: lack of context and very short queries. "There is very little repetition in queries, providing little information that could be used to guide the speech recognizer," they note. "In other speech recognition applications, the recognizer can use context, such as a dialogue history, to set up certain expectations and guide the recognition. Voice search queries lack such context."

Nevertheless, Google believes that it can solve the problem, and the fruits of that effort appeared to be on display in GOOG-411, which can take moderately constrained input data (a business or business category, constrained by city) and return useful results. Though limited to business search at the moment, the system can handle a huge variety of accents and ways of requesting the same information, and pairing voice queries with the eventual search results is an excellent way to build up a database of useful voice snippets. This is exactly what Tim O'Reilly thinks is going on: Google is using an early implementation of the system to gather enough data to improve its voice recognition algorithms before a broader launch.

Voice search has been heating up in the last few months; one of Microsoft's largest buyouts this decade was made earlier this year, when the company acquired TellMe, which develops voice-recognition applications for use over the telephone. One of its most successful products is an automated 411 system; could Google's launch of a similar service less than a month after the Microsoft acquisition be pure coincidence? It certainly could, but it could just as easily be a show of strength from Google, which wants to make clear that Microsoft's expensive purchase can already be generally replicated by Google engineers.

New patent hints at Apple TV 2.0

A new Apple patent may give some foresight to the company's plans for offering a "true" multimedia center experience for the living room, as either enhancements to the Apple TV or an entirely new device. The patent is for a "Multi-media center for computing systems" and describes a system involving a central multimedia hardware hub that can make use of a number of external "modules," all controlled through a centralized menu system on the device.

These external modules can consist of anything that a multimedia center might want to read from, be that a computer, iPod, external DVD player, or hard drive. However, the module could also (speculatively) be something like a recording device or something to stream from/with, like a Slingbox. According to the patent, the modules would not interact with each other at all but would be managed dynamically by the central multimedia center through a main user interface. The device will also be able to function as a traffic manager, with the ability to "instantiate and keep track of media-modules, route events associated with user input, and control what is displayed."

The patent text also says that the system could take inputs from a variety of different things, such as a keyboard and mouse, over the network from another computer, or remote devices (such as a "media-player with remote control capabilities"). Some have theorized that perhaps the iPhone—or really any type of mobile phone—may be able to control the media center's menu capabilities via Bluetooth or some other wireless option.

Reading through the patent, there seems to be no limit to the number of modules that could be connected, opening up the doors for a truly versatile Apple TV solution with the simplicity of the current Front Row-like interface. The clear benefit to the segmented system with external modules—as opposed to an all-in-one device—is that it would allow customers to add on whatever extra functionality they prefer to the main device. This would allow power users to have all variety of extra modules for storing, playing, and streaming media—all through a centralized control hub—while more "average" users could settle for the simplicity of the main Apple TV-like device and just one or two extra modules as they see fit for their lifestyles.

It would seem to make the most sense to add these features onto the current Apple TV rather than launch a new device, as the Apple TV could make use of these technologies with just a few software updates and a hub for connecting the modules. The true question would be whether Apple would allow third party manufacturers to design modules for connection with the Apple TV, or whether the company would want to sell them with the Apple name themselves.

The patent describes a plugin system that would allow each of the modules to interface with the main multimedia hub in order to offer a consistent user experience on the receiving end. If Apple were to make the software available, third party manufacturers would likely fall all over themselves to make products to function with the Apple TV, just as they have for the iPod. This would save Apple the hassle of being tied into creating and maintaining the modules themselves. And with the potential to generate another thriving accessory ecosystem that revolves entirely around another Apple product, perhaps the Apple TV will end up becoming the "iPod for your TV" after all.

Microsoft tries to outshine Flash with Silverlight

Microsoft is preparing to announce the first public release of Silverlight, the new name for what was formerly Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere, or WPF/E. The technologies will be formally announced at the Mix07 conference, which starts on April 30 in Las Vegas.

Silverlight is a set of technologies that are based on the Windows Presentation Foundation programming interfaces that shipped with Windows Vista. Formerly codenamed Avalon, the WPF toolkit allows all sorts of different multimedia types to be displayed on the screen, including vector graphics and video files. The language used to construct WPF objects is Microsoft's XAML, a XML-based user interface composition language. The idea behind WPF was to cleanly separate the user interface from the program itself. WPF/E was intended to be a cross-platform version of WPF that didn't have all the features of WPF, such as 3D acceleration support.

Now, with the fancy new Silverlight name, Microsoft is planning on positioning Silverlight as a replacement for other web-based graphics technologies, such as Adobe's Flash. Microsoft is pushing the fact that Silverlight can deliver streaming videos encoded with its own VC-1 codec, which can be delivered in up to 720 lines of resolution. Flash, currently the king of streaming video on the Internet thanks to YouTube, is limited to 576 lines.

Microsoft's plan is to entice web developers over to Silverlight gradually, emphasizing that they can leverage existing skills with HTML, Javascript, AJAX, and XAML. The company plans to release a suite of Silverlight development tools to make this process easier. Tools such as Microsoft's Expression XAML builder (currently in beta) can also be used to create Silverlight presentations. While Silverlight is cross-platform in terms of web browser support, the development tools are Windows-only.

On the server side, Silverlight applications will work fine with Linux-based web servers, but Microsoft is encouraging people to use Windows-based servers by bundling extra tools to make the process easier. Windows Server "Longhorn"—the server version of Vista expected to ship later this year—will come with Streaming Media Services for deploying VC-1 video for Silverlight clients.