'Texting While Driving' Solution
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It doesn't have to be made illegal in the UK, because doing anything other than driving, while driving, is illegal. The simple, obvious laws are often the best.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Except it was made illegal, quite a few years ago now. They had the catch-all of failing to be in control or whatever it was called but there is a new law that doubled the phone and gave three penalty points. You are not allowed to use a mobile communication device that is not fixed to the car whilst the engine is turned on - or something like that. Not sure it has made much difference, except to increase the number of people with points on their licence.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
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It's not illegal to use a hands-free phone, assuming it's all properly installed. Bizarrely, it's not illegal to smoke! Lighting a cigarette while driving must be dangerous (I don't smoke, so have no personal experience of trying it)
The smoker whilst driving thing has always amazed me, even back when I was a smoker. Lighting a cigarette, trying to get the end out of the window to flick off ash, throwing the damn butt away (littering too) has to distract you from what you are doing. They can still use the failing to be in proper control thing for that of course, as they can if you have an accident whilst using a hands free phone.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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It's not illegal to use a hands-free phone, assuming it's all properly installed. Bizarrely, it's not illegal to smoke! Lighting a cigarette while driving must be dangerous (I don't smoke, so have no personal experience of trying it)
The smoking one gets me too! You read stories of drivers being given tickets for eating sausage rolls[^] or blowing their noses[^] even when stopped at traffic lights, because an over-officious officer believes that they are not in full control of their vehicle, but you never see smokers being stopped for the same reason.
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
How about this? http://gizmodo.com/5638161/gm-will-shove-facebook-and-voice-texting-into-your-onstar+equipped-car[^]
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
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It's not illegal to use a hands-free phone, assuming it's all properly installed. Bizarrely, it's not illegal to smoke! Lighting a cigarette while driving must be dangerous (I don't smoke, so have no personal experience of trying it)
Electron Shepherd wrote:
Bizarrely, it's not illegal to smoke!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Electron Shepherd wrote:
Bizarrely, it's not illegal to smoke!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
'Fraid it isn't. "Lighting-up at the wheel has been added to the list of "distractions" which police and lawyers can cite in court when seeking a conviction for a traffic offence. " "A major change is the inclusion of smoking at the wheel as behaviour that police may interpret as a distraction and failure to be in proper control of the vehicle." So, in summary, smoking while driving is not, in itself, illegal.
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Wouldn't that be about the same as just calling the person on the phone and actually talking to them? Last time I checked, every phone has that capability built into it already. ;)
-NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.
Heh, not really... Think of the difference: Calling: "Call Bob" "Calling Bob... ring ring... ring ring..." "Hell- No, I don't want fries with that- Hello?" "Hey Bob, it's Joe, I was just-" "Hey Joe, caught me in the middle of something... One sec- I said a CHEESEburger, you idiot!" and so on... Voice Texting: "Text Bob." "New text message to Bob. Begin dictation" "Hey Bob, was just wondering if you wanted to go out for drinks after work. Get back to me... Send message" "Message sent." Then you just have to incorporate the inevitable jokes when it screws up the voice dictation... But my brain isn't powered up enough to think of a good one right now :)
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels) -
Software like Dragon Naturally Speaking claims >> 90% accuracy however having tried this many times in the past it certainly has its problems. These things are very inaccurate with small words like a, an or the but really good with words like constitution, mammography, federation. That is as long as you speak in mono tone into a microphone.
John
That's the overall problem the SW will always claim 90 - 95% accuracy, however dependent on where its developed it will be with a clear spoken neutral accent. As you said if you start adding accents and background noise then accuracy drops rather quickly...
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That's probably in an idealised environment, which a moving car certainly isn't. My car has "voice control" for things like the CD selection, cabin temperature and so on. It works fine, but then it only has to deal with a very limited vocabulary. Even then, it gets things wrong sometimes.
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Heh, not really... Think of the difference: Calling: "Call Bob" "Calling Bob... ring ring... ring ring..." "Hell- No, I don't want fries with that- Hello?" "Hey Bob, it's Joe, I was just-" "Hey Joe, caught me in the middle of something... One sec- I said a CHEESEburger, you idiot!" and so on... Voice Texting: "Text Bob." "New text message to Bob. Begin dictation" "Hey Bob, was just wondering if you wanted to go out for drinks after work. Get back to me... Send message" "Message sent." Then you just have to incorporate the inevitable jokes when it screws up the voice dictation... But my brain isn't powered up enough to think of a good one right now :)
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)An the message received by Bob: "Hey Bob, I don't want fries I said a CHEESEburger, you idiot!" Needless to say - after a while you won't have any friends.
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You can train it, for up to two voices, but it works without training. The commands are of a set syntax , such as "Disc Three Track Four" for the CD player "Temperature nineteen" for the climate control "Navigation zoom in two" for the sat nav and so on, so the matching must be easier (and therefore more reliable) than "freeform" speech.
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
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'Fraid it isn't. "Lighting-up at the wheel has been added to the list of "distractions" which police and lawyers can cite in court when seeking a conviction for a traffic offence. " "A major change is the inclusion of smoking at the wheel as behaviour that police may interpret as a distraction and failure to be in proper control of the vehicle." So, in summary, smoking while driving is not, in itself, illegal.
:thumbsup: The Highway Code is not law, it is suggested best practice and a road sign dictionary.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
But if the message you want to send is that important so you need to text while driving, are you really going to trust some dodgy speech recognition algorithm/software to do it right?
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Wouldn't that be about the same as just calling the person on the phone and actually talking to them? Last time I checked, every phone has that capability built into it already. ;)
-NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.
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With the pressure on to make texting while driving illegal (already law in 19 states in the US) I'd expect to see a lot of cell phone apps for converting speech to text, and back again. So far I've seen nothing of the sort, but I live a sheltered life. Are such apps available, and do they work? If not, are any of you working on one?
Will Rogers never met me.
What about Vlingo? http://www.vlingo.com/[^]
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Wouldn't that be about the same as just calling the person on the phone and actually talking to them? Last time I checked, every phone has that capability built into it already. ;)
-NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.
There actually is a reason that people prefer texting, at least in some cases. I have a number of friends who can't get a regular cell phone account - lousy job, poor credit, etc - and so use only prepaid services such as TracPhone. The cost per minute for phone calls on these things is enormous - $0.40/minute and up! The cost of a text, however, is just 1/2 minute, regardless of length.
Will Rogers never met me.
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There actually is a reason that people prefer texting, at least in some cases. I have a number of friends who can't get a regular cell phone account - lousy job, poor credit, etc - and so use only prepaid services such as TracPhone. The cost per minute for phone calls on these things is enormous - $0.40/minute and up! The cost of a text, however, is just 1/2 minute, regardless of length.
Will Rogers never met me.
I agree with you. Personnally I use texting more than talking on the phone now. In fact, I keep in touch with my wife and kids much more now that I've adopted texting as a mainstream form of communication, and our relationships are better for it. I just think it is ridiculous to have an app that will convert speech to text and then from text to speech. If that is really necessary, then revert back to the old school way of using a phone and call the person. Geez... (Now that I think about it a bit more, maybe I'll push this 'speech-to-text app' thing a bit more and then a couple of years from now I'll put out an app that allows people to call each other directly and actually talk to them. I'll make millions.)
-NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.