一层
镇楼

Conversational computing
Now we’re talking
Voice technology is making computers less daunting and more accessible
会话式计算
现在，我们说上话了
语音技术让计算机不那么令人生畏，且更易接近

ANY sufficiently advanced technology, noted Arthur C. Clarke, a British science-fiction writer, is indistinguishable from magic. The fast-emerging technology of voice computing proves his point. Using it is just like casting a spell: say a few words into the air, and a nearby device can grant your wish.

英国科幻作家亚瑟·克拉克（Arthur C. Clarke）曾说过，任何足够先进的科技看起来都与魔法无异。迅速兴起的语音计算技术证明了他的观点。使用语音就如念出咒语：对着空中说几个词，身旁的设备就能满足你的愿望。

The Amazon Echo, a voice-driven cylindrical computer that sits on a table top and answers to the name Alexa, can call up music tracks and radio stations, tell jokes, answer trivia questions and control smart appliances; even before Christmas it was already resident in about 4% of American households. Voice assistants are proliferating in smartphones, too: Apple’s Siri handles over 2bn commands a week, and 20% of Google searches on Android-powered handsets in America are input by voice. Dictating e-mails and text messages now works reliably enough to be useful. Why type when you can talk?

亚马逊Echo是一台置于桌面、由语音驱动的圆柱形电脑，会对Alexa这个名字做出回应。它能播放音乐和广播、讲笑话、回答琐碎的问题，还会控制智能家电；圣诞节还没到它就已经入住了约4%的美国家庭。智能手机里的语音助手也在激增：苹果的Siri每周处理超过20亿条指令，美国安卓手机上20%的谷歌搜索由语音输入。现在语音输入电子邮件和短信的可靠程度已经足够使用。能说话的时候为什么还要打字呢？

This is a huge shift. Simple though it may seem, voice has the power to transform computing, by providing a natural means of interaction. Windows, icons and menus, and then touchscreens, were welcomed as more intuitive ways to deal with computers than entering complex keyboard commands. But being able to talk to computers abolishes the need for the abstraction of a “user interface” at all. Just as mobile phones were more than existing phones without wires, and cars were more than carriages without horses, so computers without screens and keyboards have the potential to be more useful, powerful and ubiquitous than people can imagine today.

Voice will not wholly replace other forms of input and output. Sometimes it will remain more convenient to converse with a machine by typing rather than talking (Amazon is said to be working on an Echo device with a built-in screen). But voice is destined to account for a growing share of people’s interactions with the technology around them, from washing machines that tell you how much of the cycle they have left to virtual assistants in corporate call-centres. However, to reach its full potential, the technology requires further breakthroughs—and a resolution of the tricky questions it raises around the trade-off between convenience and privacy.

语音不会完全取代其他形式的输入和输出。和机器交流，有时打字仍然会比说话更方便（据说亚马逊正在研发带嵌入屏幕的Echo）。但是在人们与身边科技设备的互动中，语音必将占据越来越大的份额，无论是与告诉你还需要多久洗完衣物的洗衣机互动，还是和企业热线的虚拟助手交谈。不过，要充分发挥潜能，这项技术还需要更多突破，而且必须解决由它引出的棘手问题——在便利性和隐私之间权衡。

Alexa, what is deep learning?
Computer-dictation systems have been around for years. But they were unreliable and required lengthy training to learn a specific user’s voice. Computers’ new ability to recognise almost anyone’s speech dependably without training is the latest manifestation of the power of “deep learning”, an artificial-intelligence technique in which a software system is trained using millions of examples, usually culled from the internet. Thanks to deep learning, machines now nearly equal humans in transcription accuracy, computerised translation systems are improving rapidly and text-to-speech systems are becoming less robotic and more natural-sounding. Computers are, in short, getting much better at handling natural language in all its forms (see Technology Quarterly).

Alexa，深度学习是什么？
计算机语音识别系统已出现多年。但在以前它并不可靠，而且需要漫长的训练才能学会识别特定使用者的语音。如今计算机无需训练即能可靠识别几乎任何人的语音，这一新能力是“深度学习”力量的最新体现。深度学习是一种人工智能技术，用通常来自互联网的数百万个范例来训练某个软件系统。正因为有了深度学习，现在的机器将语音转为文字的准确度才堪比人类。计算机翻译系统也正迅速改进，而把文字转为语音的系统也变得越来越不那么机器腔，听起来更加自然。简而言之，计算机在处理各种形式的自然语言时表现大幅提升。

余下全文：http://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404061208121584598#_0