Voice is the NO TOUCH!
Have you heard the term “Voice is the new Touch” while navigating through a plethora of voice-first applications provided by leading voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings?
Although the transition from touch-based to voice-based human-machine interface has been gradually happening for a while, recent times of COVID-19 bring out the real power of voice-based device control that can save lives! Touch has been one of the biggest culprits in spreading infectious viral diseases like COVID-19, Flu, etc. and hence CDC puts a lot of emphasis on washing and cleaning hands properly to maintain overall public health in times of pandemic outbreaks.
These are the times to coin a new phrase, “Voice is the NO TOUCH!”
Many articles give lots of credit to Google Home and Alexa Echo smart speakers for the success of contact-less, touch-free, hygienic voice interfaces. These intelligent speakers help reduce the need to touch many household devices, like electrical switches, outlets, touch panels, curtains, TV remotes, etc. It is very critical to avoid touching things as much as possible when schools are off, businesses are mandating working from home, and the entire family is staying indoors round the clock. In public places, gas stations, healthcare facilities, restaurants, warehouses, grocery shops, etc. it is even more critical to avoid touch-based contamination at all costs.
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Voice becomes the much-needed silver bullet in our efforts to control the widespread propagation of the outbreak.
Equally crucial to the smart speakers, if not more important, is the voice support from various IoT devices. Without the device support and integration into the voice eco-system, we would not be able to fully leverage the touch-free operations of the consumer, enterprise, and industrial equipment. Imagine the following voice-based command and control scenarios to move away from traditional touch-based services and thereby improve the overall community health.
- Gas Station: “Fill up {full tank, $x} of {gas quality} and pay with {cash, credit card}.” (instead of touching buttons or touchscreen)
- Hospital: “Monitor vitals of the patient in room #108.” (instead of touching keyboard to bring up the display) OR “Which hand sanitizer in section {name} needs a refill?”
- Restaurant: “Order 3 cheese pizzas and two diet cokes.” (instead of using touchscreen kiosk)
- Home: “Turn on {morning, evening, night} time routine.” OR “Change the TV channel to {name, number}.”
- School Classroom: “Dim the lights” OR “Turn on the projector” OR “Request the {office, principal, someone} to do {action}.”
- Online Shopping: “Add {item} and {item} to my cart.” OR “Order {something} from {site} and choose {next day, 2-day, free} shipping.”
The sky is the limit in envisioning the use cases that can be efficiently served by voice interfaces.
One of the main challenges in realizing the voice-first eco-system is for a variety of IoT devices to connect to all the voice assistants in a simple, secure manner. Device manufacturers should be able to connect to Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Samsung SmartThings, and any future voice assistant without worrying about individual APIs, SDKs, Cloud Software, User Registration, and other hidden complexities.
Speak to IoT is here to help with its patent-pending voice and IoT platform that can make any connected device voice-enabled with all the leading voice assistants in a simplistic, future-proof manner. We don’t know for how long the effects of COVID-19 pandemic are going to last, as a NY Times article says it could very well be 18 months before everything goes back to the old normal. Until then, we’re living in a new normal.
Let’s leverage the power of voice to accelerate touch-free, contact-less, hygiene-first, healthy communities around the world, and defeat COVID-19-like pandemics.
