Dialect
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Germany to use voice recognition to identify refugee origins
Germany will soon use voice recognition tech to help figure out exactly where refugees came from, according to Die Welt. Though the number of asylum seekers coming to the nation in 2016 dropped significantly to 280,000 from 890,000 in 2015, there was still a backlog of 430,000 applications at the beginning of 2017. Authorities from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) are therefore hoping the technology can help dialect experts to clear that number down.
Xbox One voice commands will only work fully in some launch countries, languages
Earlier this month Microsoft trimmed the list of countries where its Xbox One will launch to 13, and now it's revealed the new Kinect voice commands will only support all of its features in some of them. Pointed out by a thread on NeoGAF, a disclaimer on Xbox.com listed only a few countries with support for voice commands at launch. Since then, MS Director of Product Planning Albert Penello has responded with more details, explaining that, at launch the Xbox One will support eight languages / dialects: English (US), English (GB), French, Spanish (MX), Spanish (ES), Italian, German and Portuguese. That said, some voice features -- like the "Xbox On" command -- will not be available everywhere at the start, with only the US, UK, Canada, France, and Germany set to receive them out of the gate. As Penello explains it, users will select their language first, and then get a list of countries it's supported in. Confused? A more thorough explanation is coming to the Xbox website at some point, and Kinect's supported languages are expected to grow with updates after the system launches -- whenever that launch is.
Symbian Foundation dares to call characters in the dialer a 'brainstorm idea'
The good news: the alphanumeric dialer keypad was integrated into Symbian's codebase from a community-submitted suggestion. The bad news: it took a community-submitted suggestion to make the dialer keypad alphanumeric.
UK ATMs use cockney slang, we don't Adam 'n Eve it
If you're trying to innovate and be more inclusive, it's fine to have a local dialect -- as ATMs run by Bank Machine are doing in East London over the next few months -- but for the love of uncle Fred, don't use a lingo associated with wide boys and notorious criminals. For our American audience, imagine your reaction if your ATM asked if you'd like to "withdrizzle yo' monizzle, homie." Of course, in a world that already includes a Cockney Bible (not a joke), this sort of thing seems positively tame, and it is after all just an option. [Via Yahoo]
The Queue: Momma said knock you out
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.Another day, more Q&A. Let's just get started, eh?MauroDiogo asked... I'm facing a bit of a dillemma. I've got a level 80 druid (Feral). a 70 warlock waiting to be levelled and a fresh new Death Knight (and many many other alts which I dont feel like levelling at the moment) I've recently spent almost 3K Gold in new tanking gear,enchantments and gems for my druid and the following day I went a bit emo and lost interest in the druid. To make things worse Allison wrote the article about how feral druids are doing in comparison with the other in-game tanks. Shall I just stick with my druid and hope that better days will come or shall I focus on a different character?
News recycling: Brain Age doesn't like your accent
Bringing an old story back to the forefront with a new angle, BBC show Watchdog reports that Michelle Livesey of Manchester can't get Brain Training (Brain Age in the States) to recognize her saying "yellow" -- she's apparently not saying it "posh" enough. Although Watchdog added a new dimension with Brain Training's inability to recognize yellow, the original problem color blue is also in the mix. The issue is all in the accents.According to Nintendo, on page 47 of the Brain Training manual it gives hints on how to use the voice recognition properly. Suggestion number four is: "Pronounce each word as clearly as possible, and try to avoid using strong dialects or accents." Just check out Nicole Kidman saying scissors in a Nintendo ad to see how things could go wrong with accents. Nintendo claims it has been continually monitoring the voice recognition efficiency in its software since the game launched in June '06. We believe them, just as long as we don't have to say the color blue, or yellow if we're from Manchester.
Are we killing the language, or creating a new one?
As I've said before, we have a rule in our guild prohibiting leet speak and excessive abbreviation in guild chat. That being said, I've thought a lot about the use of abbreviations in WoW and how they are affecting the language. This might come from my days as an English teacher, but I think of the language as a fluid, breathing thing. The formality that people used when speaking 100 years ago doesn't exist now, and I doubt we would ever hear in game "pardon me, good sir, could you wait a moment?" instead of "one sec AFK" unless we were on an RP server or feeling particularly silly.
