A Disruptive Technology in the Making? Voice Recognition and Mobile Phones

The New York Times has a story today about two voice recognition systems that take voice mail from your mobile phone and send it to you as a text message or email. But as David Pogue enumerated the ways this could change your use of cell phones (live blogging via audio, phones as mobile transcription devices) this seemingly modest (does it really seem modest? usable voice recognition?) technology began to seem transformative to me. What sort of changes will this create?

Imagine, at the very least, the ability to give out your mobile phone number much more promiscuously than ever before. It would be child's play to have unknown numbers go straight to a voice-to-text system while previously-vetted numbers ring.

Even further, if many computers such as the new Mac Books and Mac Book Pros have built in microphones, this could mean that people will craft emails with voice.

What other uses can this technology have?

The New York Times has a story today about two voice recognition systems that take voice mail from your mobile phone and send it to you as a text message or email. But as David Pogue enumerated the ways this could change your use of cell phones (live blogging via audio, phones as mobile transcription devices) this seemingly modest (does it really seem modest? usable voice recognition?) technology began to seem transformative to me. What sort of changes will this create?

Imagine, at the very least, the ability to give out your mobile phone number much more promiscuously than ever before. It would be child's play to have unknown numbers go straight to a voice-to-text system while previously-vetted numbers ring.

Even further, if many computers such as the new Mac Books and Mac Book Pros have built in microphones, this could mean that people will craft emails with voice.

What other uses can this technology have?