[extropy-chat] Elo delta of IA?

[Chris Hibbert]

> Regarding computer interfaces, they have become soooooo much better
> today than they were before I was a geezer, it gives me hope for the
> future of human/machine interfaces.  I don't understand why
> development in this area is as slow as it is.  Computer hipsters, why
> don't we have televisions that work by voice recognition?  Why can't
> I just say: TV, go get on your Tivo I bought you and find me some
> original Star Treks or Ally McBeals, first season please.

My geezerhood is also at hand.  An older :-) friend worked at a startup 
that was building voice interfaces for TVs.  They managed the technology 
fine, as far as I can tell second-hand, and as a non-consumer of the 
product (TV).

The hurdle in getting to market was getting buy-in from the cable 
companies, who were apparently wrestling with too many other incremental 
technologies to be able to focus on yet another ease-of-use upgrade.  So 
the problem here seems to be that there are bottlenecks in the 
distribution path that are dominated by politics.  In order to win big, 
you have to figure out how to bypass the big players and sell directly 
to consumers.  Tivo did it, and so did Apple with the iPod.  I don't 
know why voice-activated consumer appliances don't get sold that way.

Chris
-- 
It is easy to turn an aquarium into fish soup, but not so
easy to turn fish soup back into an aquarium.
-- Lech Walesa on reverting to a market economy.

Chris Hibbert
hibbert at mydruthers.com
Blog:   http://pancrit.org