The privilege of having a voice assistant is incredible as we all know. But when it comes to having the private details of an appointment with a doctor or specialist said out loud in public, it’s not quite as incredible.
Over the past few years, both voice command technology and voice assistants have become more popular, with over 100 million Alexa devices sold by Amazon alone. The technology is without a doubt here to stay, however people have been less excited about using voice commands when it comes to sensitive personal or business information, which is exactly why Microsoft has decided to do something about it.
They’ve introduced a new silent technology that makes whispering work. When whispering, we exhale breath from our lungs with our words. Microsoft, however is proposing that we inhale while whispering, in order to enable devices to process voice commands in public, without being overheard.
The only major drawback is that one’s face needs to be seriously close to the device, two millimeters to be precise. So people have got to decide for themselves if privacy is worth the cost of kissing their smartphones.