Voice Operation System
 

Aside from the minor clip that was listed in a brochure of some sorts, what else (if anything) is known about the Voice Operation System that was originally planned for the SVX?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3060/...bbd6f8ec_o.jpg

Did it ever go beyond concept or does anyone know if an actual working prototype of this existed at one point of time? It'd be interesting to see how well a system like this would have worked in '92... especially being voice activated. Navigation also? Guess maybe the idea got scrapped pretty early but was just curious.

The huge space where the cover/flap is currently covering the CD deck went unchanged.... which kind of makes sense when designing a system like this to deter? the criminal minded.... to conceal a pretty expensive component. (aside from the CD player I suppose ;-) ).

I'm pretty glad that didn't make it to production. As a JDM owner, I would have to learn to speak Japanese just to operate the radio and aircon.:rolleyes:

In the photo, it looks like the screen is a cathode ray tube. I don't think colour tft panels (ie. laptop screens) had even been invented at that time. If they did exist they would have been very expensive.

The design on the user interface looks like it may have had touch-screen as well as voice.

Touch screens were in use in production cars in 1989. Here's proof, a 1989 Buick Reatta touchscreen. Note: they misspelled guages. :eek:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...cs/reattad.jpg
By the way, this is the infamous touchscreen CRT.

Voice activation is a fairly recent thing in production cars. I can't really remember who did it first.

Thanks for bringing this up. I never saw that pic before. I have the prototype brochure, but I don't remember it having that pic in it.

The Reatta's Touchscreen
 

I drove a Reatta on their press preview. The test drive was almost 300 miles over California back roads, and by the time it was over I really hated that thing. To do ANYTHING, or FIND OUT ANYTHING, you had to take your eyes from the road and tap the @#$%! screen. On top of which, the screen made a huge square hump in the middle of the dash. They were trying to be super high tech, but it turned into a super bad idea. I think if it had had normal instrumentation, the Reatta would still be with us, as it wasn't a bad car, aside from that.

Paul

Internet Rule #-6: Every spelling flame will inevitably itself contain a misspelling, usually in the very word being flamed about

"Gauges"
:lol:

Gages can be spelled in more than one way correctly in the American English dialect.


The more you know...

Ha!... hilarious :lol: :p

That would have been an LCD at the time. Color LCDs of that nature would probably have ran anywhere between $400-$1,000 in '92. (not including the actual custom computer and software to operate all that jazz).

I find humor in AM selection (as I've never really known too many people to actually use AM) and the way it's setup (permitting it actually is touch screen... which wouldn't have been too hard) I don't like the AM and FM on opposite sides including the seek/scan (which should have just been placed over each other on each side. (what a critic I am, right? ;) )

It does look like it made it to some prototype form though with the interface design.....

hmmm....

I wonder what happens if the radio DJ says something like "set the aircon to 20 degrees" and the voice command system hears it.:lol:

And what happens when your kids in the back keep shouting out "turn up the volume". Or when they argue about whose music to listen to: "Play CD 1", "Play CD 2", "Play CD 1", "Play CD 2". It would drive you nuts.:mad:

The company I work for makes automated phone systems. The type of systems where you call up, select from menus, say or dial your account number etc and if you are really lucky you will eventually get placed in a queue to speak to someone in an indian call centre.:p

Businesses LOVE these systems because they can save money on staff to answer the phone. And the longer they mess you about, the more money they make on the premium rate phone call.

Customers HATE these systems because people generally don't like talking to computers. When somebody calls up, they want to speak to somebody with a brain who will understand their problem and be able to help. But instead they get "say sales or complaints", "compaints", "did you say sales?", "no", "say sales or complaints", "compaints", "I don't understand, please try again"......

I think it would be the same with voice commands in a car. I don't think customers really want to talk to their car. At least not until it can understand and talk back on an equally articulate level. Speech rec technology was pretty poor in the 1980's. It has advanced a long way in the last 20 years but it's still crap.

FORD! LOL!:lol:
Anywho it might have been a contemplated option for later models to boost sales but they say that it wasn't gonna do anything but cost more to offer than they'd be able to sell.
-Gaddis

...I never had a single issue like that. the odd placement of the screen makes it super easy to see as it is just at the edge of your POV, it also doesn't become impossible to see in the sun like all the modern junk.

It did by the way come in a model without a touch screen, it obviously did not have all the features though. I have both, one of which is an ever elusive select 60... i bet you can't guess what year... hint: there is no cup holder.
The touch screen model is the better of the two hands down! ...then again I've also twin charged it with a series 2 and converted it to a 5 speed :D

Thats why we do all of our IVR and CTI development in house! And we constantly improve it as the longer someone messes with the IVR the more it costs US. You can almost cough the word and it'll figure it out.

I've had times where I spend several minutes trying to talk to a computer and get frustrated and start pounding 0 until I get a human being.:lol:

Oh God, Phil, I didn't realise you worked for one of those companies!!

I spent an hour yesterday trying to report a phone fault. Each time I had to ring back to talk to another department, I knew I had to go through the same crap of listening to the polite voice giving me the selection of options that I knew were useless, but I had to suffer through them to get to a person. :barf: :barf:

Would you like me to send you an internet course on sabotage??

:mad:

Joe

You're dealing with the finished product. Take it from me, they are much worse pre-release. Our QA and support guys who have to go through these systems dozens of times every day to test them out. The worst thing is when it is in a foreign language that you don't speak because you have no idea what it's asking you. When I first started with the company, I had to fix one that was in Danish. "Behage postere jeres kontonummer fulgt af hachis.":confused::lol: