What is Tazti?

There are a number of MakeUseOf articles that have covered some of the speech-recognition advancements, such as voice integration into Google’s mobile iPhone by Jimmy, or this very thorough article by Saikat that mentions how you can use Microsoft’s Speech Recognition Engine to make use of voice activated menu commands.

Tazti is essentially a software application that not only opens and closes your applications or performs Internet searches by voice, but it also comes with integrated voice commands for your favorite music applications or social network websites like Facebook and MySpace. And if your not a computer programmer who can program the MS speech recognition engine into Visual Basic apps or into Word and Excel scripts, then Tazti allows you to create custom keyword or keyphrase control routines. And it’s all offered in one comprehensive package for absolutely free.

What Can Tazti Control?

Now, if you’re a gadget freak like me, you’ve probably attempted to use voice recognition software over the last few years.  And, like me, you probably threw the thing in the trash from sheer frustration.  There’s nothing worse than telling your phone to call Tom, and having your phone call your mom.  Screaming “yo fool, waazzzuuup!” at the top of your lungs when your mom is at the other end of the line is not a good thing.

So during this latest foray into the world of speech recognition technology, I didn’t have very high expectations. Needless to say, Tazti changed my mind quickly regarding the current state of this technology.

When you first install and run Tazti, you have to go through the “training” process. The software needs to learn how you say words, or parts of words.  To do this, you simply read text, and the software shows you whether or not it understood that particular word by highlighting it. As you read along, the highlighted text follows. It was actually kind of fun.

For the first training session, you read through a ten minute segment on how to use the software. I didn’t want the software to make any mistakes, so I decided to go through a second ten minute training segment by reading an excerpt from War of the Worlds.

Search the Web or Launch Applications

Upon first opening the software, I wasn’t at all impressed by presentation. The software has no pretty bells and whistles, just ten tabs filled with the keywords that you can use.

However, once I started testing the software, I realized that all of the bells and whistles are within the software itself. The first few tabs, as you can see above, have very basic commands and actions.
The controls under each tab are as follows.

• Basic: Control the Tazti software itself
• Stuff: Includes prebuilt commands to open specific websites.  For example, “get chili” opens up SkylineChili.com or “get pizza” takes you to Dominos.com
• Places: Allows you to open specific websites by voice, such as “go hotmail,” or “go ebay home”
• Fun: If you’re ever bored, this tab is entertaining just to see what the commands do. Saying “I’m bored,” takes you to the “best webcams on the net.”  Saying “kirk and spock,” takes you to Startrek.com
• Custom: Lets you create your own custom commands
• Music: You can control the iTunes application
• Bookmarks: Search through IE, Firefox, or Apple Safari bookmarks
• Search: Perform specific keyword searches on the search engine of your choice
• Social: Integrated control of Facebook or MySpace features
• Options: Customize how Tazti runs on your computer

While I was entertained by the software’s ability to open web pages or launch software, I wasn’t terribly impressed. Even basic programmers can write an application in a few minutes that can do stuff like that. However, the real heart of Tazti’s ability comes from its integrated features.

Integrated Application Control

Tazti designers took a gamble and integrated the software with some of the more popular applications. This could doom the application in time, but at the moment the software that it integrates with is very popular. In particular, Tazti can control Facebook, MySpace, iTunes, and three major web browsers, Firefox, IE and Safari.

The music controls allow you to perform specific functions on iTunes such as playing and pausing music, changing tracks, or performing searches.

For anyone who just wants to control the music player in the background with their voice, while doing other tasks on the computer, this feature is a real luxury.

The bookmarks feature allows you to say “search bookmarks,” and after the beep you say your search word or phrase.  Tazti sifts through bookmarks of your browsers and then reports back (in Internet Explorer) a list of all of the results.

You just click on the result you want and go to the website. In this case I searched for “analytics,” (a tough word to understand) and sure enough, Tazti found my Google Analytics bookmark.

Finally, Tazti is well integrated with the two major social networking sites, Facebook and Myspace.  Under the “social” tab, you’ll find commands like “login to facebook,” or “go facebook inbox.”

You have to set up Tazti with your ID and Password information, but once you do you can log into any part of your account without having to click a single button.

Other Applications and Websites that You Like

While it’s nice to open applications and websites, or control music and access your Facebook profile with just your voice, everyone has specific websites that they like which won’t be included in the Tazti software. What do you do then? Luckily, Tazti has a built-in tool that allows you to customize new voice commands to open any application or web page that you want.

Without the ability to customize, Tazti would be pretty useless after a while. But this feature lets you incorporate your own interests and daily tasks into the sort of voice commands that you need, not only those that come with the application by default. This one tool is probably the most useful part of the software, because you no longer need to be a programmer to control your computer or to web surf with your voice. All you need to do is configure the new voice command in Tazti, and you’ve created your own customized voice-activated control.

Have you ever used voice-recognition software? What tools or features do you find useful? Share your experiences, positive or negative, in the comments section below.

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Vlingo [iTunes Link] has all of the great features you would expect, but remains simple and easy to operate.  On top of that, the App allows you to choose which task you want to execute by voice (or by keystroke).

This is also the first app I’ve seen that lets you update Twitter and Facebook statuses by voice as well.

The core of Vlingo is the home screen. From here, you can actually use any of its main features directly.  For simplicity though, let’s break them down. At the bottom the app displays:

• Maps
• Search
• Phone
• Social

Each function has been cued to specific keywords that are easy to remember. If you want to run a web search, simply prepend your query with “search,” “Google,” or “Yahoo.” If you just go with “search,” it defaults to Yahoo, but you can change the default easily from either the search screen or the options.

Likewise, the mapping function only requires a “find” in the front and then a regular Google Maps search query. “Call” brings up the phonebook function and very reliably brings up hard to pronounce names. You can specify “mobile” or “home” if you wish. The first time you use the phonebook, you’ll need to submit your contacts to the Vlingo servers, but this only takes a minute.

The last function is the most innovative. There are two status update options. You can update your Twitter status or your Facebook status. What’s nice is that you can say “status update” if you want to choose the service manually, or you can say one or the other. For instance you can say “Twitter update: This movie is really boring” and it will figure the rest out.

The first time you use it, Vlingo prompts you for your log-in information. As an added advantage, you can view your Twitter feed directly inside the app without switching to Safari. It works the same way with Facebook, using the API. It too provides the mobile version of Facebook inside the app, so there is no need to open a browser window. Keep in mind that the Facebook API is a bit finicky (at least it was when I tried to connect), so a WiFi connection is optimal. Otherwise, it might just time-out on you.

I’m hoping that Vlingo will extend their interest in status update networks and add in more services. Personally, I’d like to see Plurk, FriendFeed, BrightKite, and Tumblr added to their list.

So, the biggest question with any voice recognition app is “how accurate is the recognition software?” Well I tested it a bit and it is one of the best I’ve ever tried on the iPhone. Most recognition programs have a minimum level of quality nowadays, but often get tripped up on funny names and words. While there are limits, I found that even the trickiest names in my contact list were no problem for Vlingo.

The web search was the only sticky point. The longer the query the worse my results seemed to be.  This might be because longer phrases are probably less well pronounced and harder to decode. Also there is more room for error. Fortunately, Vlingo has a built in function to list alternate possible phrases under the search box. For some reason, the status update function had fairly good recognition, but that is probably because the choice of words in a tweet is easier to parse (lots of short verbs and location nouns).

In comparison to Google’s new search app, the two fared about the same. I tried searching for my blog, “Mason Tech Beat,” and neither app did very well, no matter how well I pronounced it. Google probably still wins this one because they have the hands-free option (but Apple is letting them have special privileges so it’s a little unfair).

Overall, I was very impressed by the new direction Vlingo is taking their voice-driven iPhone app. The status updates, the high recognition quality, and the overall ease of use has really warmed me to this app. I’m definitely keeping this one around for when I get a little tired of typing everything out!

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The new App is a completely different from the previous version, so let’s start afresh. The first screen you see upon opening the App is a brief instructional page about the voice recognition system. Simply place the phone to your ear and the App will “know it” because of the proximity sensors.

You’ll hear a short series of beeps and you can state your query.  When you are done speaking, take the phone away from your ear and you’ll hear another series of beeps to indicate completion.  A little sound wave diagram comes up on the screen (presumably the analysis of your speech, but it may be rotating clip art for all we know) and it processes for a while.

The longer your statement, the longer the processing time. Once it is complete you will be greeted with one of two screens.  For general “Googlings,” you’ll see the search results in a layout very conducive to the iPhone’s screen.  You’ll also have the option to change from Web to Images, Local, or News, all of which work about the same as they do on the regular webpage.

On the other hand, if your query sounded close to one or more of your contacts, Google will guess that you’re looking to quickly call one of your friends. The screen brings up all similar sounding contacts that match the voiceprint and you can choose to call them directly.

After you’ve used the search feature a few times your “home screen” for the App will (by default) populate with your previous searches.  If you want to change this, you can go into the settings and point the home page to other parts of the App instead.

If you want to type in your answers like an old fogey (or someone who can’t pronounce Francisella tularensis in a way that a voice recognition program will understand – like me), the App offers “search as you type” that works just as well as the regular online version. It will also make suggestions if you have them turned on in the preferences.

Google never misses an opportunity to pimp their webapps, so the middle category button is completely dedicated to listing all of their Apps. Clicking any of them actually takes you to Safari, so the whole thing is kind of lame. It’s no different from having Home Screen bookmarks (actually it’s worse because it requires more clicks). That being said, if you remove all but a few of them from the screen (notice there is an “Edit” button in the upper right), it might come in a little more handy.

Lastly the settings give you fairly decent control over the types of things searched for and the level of “safety” in your searches. You can even tune the webapps to come up for your custom domain instead of the general Google account screen (if your domain has been tied to Google).

Overall, this is a great App and a fantastic upgrade from their rather mediocre first attempt.  The voice recognition is about as good as it gets.  If you have experience with this kind of technology you know that you shouldn’t expect a perfect result every time, but when you speak clearly and use words that it will have a prayer of deciphering, your odds are pretty good.  By those standards the App performs admirably.  If you disagree, please let us know!

Personally I think I will be using this App from time to time, but with Safari’s new, easier to use Google search box, it may be a case of Google making their service to easy to use that an App is just extra bells and whistles.  Good luck Googlers!

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