Voice Recognition Technology Disrupts Markets

Dragon Go as it appears on the iPhone

In the article "The Human Voice, as a Game-Changer," author Natasha Singer discusses the opportunities, concerns, and disruptions caused by Nuance Communications' developing voice recognition technology. Not only does Nuance provide the software known as Siri for the iPhone 4S, the company has an app on the market called Dragon Go, which is similar to Siri, but doesn't talk back to you and can handle more common vernacular.  Nuance is working to apply voice recognition technology to other appliances and technologies, hoping to solidify a brand new market.

Although voice recognition has been around for awhile, it hasn't been able to communicate back to us, or clearly interpret what we are saying in past examples of the technology. For this reason, there are numerous opportunities and concerns that arise regarding utilization of voice recognition.

Opportunities

Nuance Chief Executive Paul Ricci

• Because voice recognition is now available through smart phones, tablets, and computers, Nuance has set its sights on disrupting the search engine market. Dragon Go will automatically connect your device to the internet link that is necessary to meet your instructions. The app has an advantage over other search engines because it skips the step that involves work - scrolling through search results. The only disadvantage of this feature is that it could potentially misunderstand you and bring up something you weren't looking for.
• The potential of voice recognition when combined with cloud computing and appliances is huge. Imagine telling your alarm clock to wake you up at 9:00 AM, and syncing it with your coffee pot so it has a hot mug waiting for you when you go downstairs. And soon, we might be able to sync all of these appliances with our phones so we could have a seemingly automated kitchen similar to that in The Beauty and the Beast.   

Concerns

• Privacy is a prime concern with new voice recognition technology. Because peoples' voices are stored by the software as algorithms, web-surfers may be more susceptible to data hackers. And if the future appliance market is voice controlled like Nuance hopes it will be, consumers' information could be obtained from anything connected to the internet. Nuance, however, states in its privacy policy that information will only be used to improve internal systems. 
• The psychological impact of more human-sounding and responding technology could be a problem. As machines interact with humans more seamlessly, the imperfection found in human to human interactions may be emphasized. Professor Sherry Turkle, from MIT, discusses the implications of technological communication in the voice-controlled age in her book Alone Together.  

 
I believe Nuance is an extremely versatile company because it has both consumer and corporate based products, and because it has made several important acquisitions to become the pioneer in a blooming market. One of the more recent acquisitions is Vlingo, a smaller, voice-to-text company. Acquiring so many companies is a smart move by Nuance because it prohibits larger firms like Google or Microsoft from gaining a sturdy hold on the voice-command market. Additionally, producing Dragon Go, a consumer product, will increase Nuance's brand recognition. This is a necessary step in the company's development as it moves towards larger corporate contracts with companies like IBM.

Although the Nuance stock is down about six dollars since February, its future growth looks very promising.