Voice recognition gone wrong
While the world plus dog is praising the Nexus One for
its built-in voice recognition software it is starting to miff people who do
not like the fact it sensors their messages.
For some reason Google has taken it upon itself to find a
list of words and words that SOUND rude and replace them with ###. The voice-to-text feature is made to let users dictate
their text messages, emails, and even search queries--so long as they're
G-rated, it seems. An spoken insult could be translated by the phone into
"#### you.” It even censors the "S" in "BS." (Whiskey tango foxtrot!? sub.ed.)
It is ironic that Google is going to war with China over
free speech and firewalls while at the same time correcting the language of its
customers. A spokesGoogle said that it is worried about what might accidentally
be transcribed, given the limitations of voice recognition technology.
A Google spokesperson told Reuters, "We filter
potentially offensive or inappropriate results because we want to avoid
situations whereby we might misrecognise a spoken query and return profanity
when, in fact, the user said something completely innocent."
Of course that means that any Croatians going by the name
of Fuk his name will forever more be ### and my mate Mr Kuntz is really doomed. (Not sure that's a very popular name in Croatia. sub.ed.)