Seriously, talking to a machine and have it talk back to you accurately and time after time is a challenge that everyone is waiting for.

In the meanwhile a solution lies not in using one specific technology but a mix of them to deliver the experience…I think thats enough of an indication to the smart ones…

:-)

Y’know – I think I actually agree with that, but what else? I remember at the Global Voices Summit in Delhi a couple of years ago, one of the key points of discussion was around how to make Global Voices more inclusive – how to get those without knowledge of English to contribute to the collaborative blog project.

I felt that the only option was to use voice, and someone else suggested embedding audio files, and then allowing listeners with knowledge of that language to translate it into multiple languages.

So the same problem with search – how do you allow those who aren’t literate to search for information? What would you do?

Voice recognition as an interface instead of the keyboard is a dream that is being pursued on the computer as well and it hasnt succeeded … yet!

So is the “press #” the only solution in the meanwhile?

A pot of gold awaits those who get there first.

Additionally good chance that lot of the search will happen when the person is on the move which would mean ambient noise , traffic what not.

A solution using DTMF might be more easy to deploy but then if the intent is to provide city search then with more choices the menu will become really long the choice for the Zayed Bhai from whom you want to order Biriyani will the choice number 999 …

a mix of both could help.
So in answer to your Singh is king query. You say “Singh is King ” . The system prompts press 1 for movie , press 2 for CDS and press 3 for Ringtone.

Just a thought