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Originally Posted by jmbowman
...I work in an open office where we'd all go nuts if everybody talked to their computers, and I commute on a subway system where a device wouldn't be able to pick up my voice (a friend sitting next to me has trouble hearing me)...
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I am reminded of an incident in a supermarket a few years ago. A man pushing a grocery cart in the opposite direction said, "Hello." I didn't recognize him and responded with a dubious, "Hello?" Then I noticed the cell phone by his ear.
Now I live in China where everyone has a cell phone. Imagine riding the bus with people around you shouting in Chinese! It happens every day. As soon as a voice interface is available, people will find a noisy and intrusive way to abuse it.
But there is a redundancy mechanism we need to put into effect; gestures. My wife's English is imperfect. When she can't think of a word, or when I fail to understand her, she will act out the idea. You should see her doing "alligator"!
We could put the issue of potentially noisy PDA input to rest if only our pocket machines could understand our nonverbal gestures :-)