The Evolution of Virtual Voice Assistants: A Look at a Rapidly Growing Technology
The Evolution of Virtual Voice Assistants: A Look at a Rapidly Growing Technology As a robotics researcher, I am fascinated by the evolution of human-machine interfaces, particularly virtual voice assistants. These tools, which seemed futuristic just a few years ago, are now ubiquitous in our daily lives. In this article, I will explore the history and workings of voice assistants, using a simple yet representative example: the Virtual Voice Assistant project. What Is a Virtual Voice Assistant? A voice assistant is a software application capable of understanding and responding to voice or text commands. It can perform various tasks, such as: Answering questions (weather, news, calculations, etc.) Controlling smart devices (IoT, home automation) Launching apps or web searches Providing real-time information The Virtual Voice Assistant project is a basic but functional implementation of such a system, using browser-based speech recognition and te...