| 2.1.17 Voice User Interface: |
| 1. During 2018, the old Graphical User Interface (GUI) shall be supplemented (and then replaced) by the Voice User Interface (VUI). |
| 2. Eliza; your Artificial Intelligent Assistant has evolved from a search bar to a simple voice command driven bespoke application service. |
| 3. Google Home voice activated software is now available free of charge. Amazon Alexa voice activated software is now available free of charge. All such software will run on a Raspberry Pi that can be hidden inside clothing and objects like wall paintings. |
| 4. The advent of a new era of computing has arrived where people talk to their mobile phone, rather than try to use a clumsy visual keyboard. The millions of GUI applications in the App-Shops are trivial and obsolete, because a new kind of application with a Voice User Interface is simply easier and faster to use. |
| 2. Job Invoice Ledger (JILL): |
| 1. As a typical case study, Jill includes a mobile application for time sheet details to be entered using a Graphical User Interface with keyboard. GUI design considerations are optimised for a mobile phone to be used in a portrait or landscape orientation - optimisation means different people have different ideas about what is acceptable. |
| 2. The bespoke GUI design involves the following steps:- |
| (1) Click on a favourite (or email) link to open the Jill time sheet form for the current week. |
| (2) Scroll down to the current day and date. |
| (3) Select the number of hours worked from a drop down list. |
| (4) Select the trade or job done from a drop down list. |
| (5) Select the client name from a drop down list. |
| (6) Enter details of the place and work done using a popup keyboard. |
| (7) Click "YES" to confirm that the data entered is complete and correct. |
| 3. The pending VUI design involves the following steps:- |
| (1) Tell your phone: "Show my current time sheet". |
| (2) Tell your phone: "For Tuesday enter 9 hours as a painter working in town house 4 level 2 and 3". |
| (3) Tell your phone: "Please confirm this weeks time sheet". |
| 4. The voice user interface is faster, more productive and makes the user more valuable to the business. The syntax of each command is simple with a predicted expectation of what is to follow - this is not free speech. A two-way dialogue is provided where Eliza asks a question and you reply to that question in context that provides complete validation of your data entry reply. The conversation is shown on the screen so misunderstanding can be reduced towards zero. |
| 5. A dialogue VUI design could involve the following steps:- |
| (1) You say: "Eliza show my time sheet" : Eliza says: "How many hours have you worked today?" |
| (2) You say: "Nine Hours" : Eliza says: "What job have you done?" |
| (3) You say: "Painting" : Eliza says: "What client (site) were you working for?" |
| (4) You say: "MPX" : Eliza says: "What zone were you working in?" |
| (5) You say: "Zone C South" : Eliza says: "What floors were you working on?" |
| (6) You say: "Floors 3 to 5" : Eliza says: "Can you confirm that you worked nine hours painting for MPS on Zone C South on Floors 3 to 5?" |
| (7) You say: "Yes" : Eliza says: "Thank you, your time sheet has been sent to MPX to have the hours approved and your invoice will be sent to you agent on Monday morning" |
| 6. Eliza has a knowledgebase that accumulates predictive replies to specific questions - Eliza knows your client list and so your reply must match a name on the client list. Eliza will learn from each dialogue to understand how you wish to be asked questions and what your replies are likely to be. Like a good assistant, gentle reminders will prompt the correct reply when something was misunderstood. Eliza runs your diary so she should know where you are each day and who you are working for - these questions may not be needed and can be implied. Eliza should know when you get to work and when you leave work, so the number of hours worked may be already known and implied. A chat with Eliza as you drive home will identify that you did some painting and mastic in Zone B from floor 5 to 3 - gentle simple questions that get the data entry job done with negligible overheads. |
| 3. Economics: |
| 1. Progress is made by making it cheaper, faster and better to use a new method, rather than persist with the old method. The VUI has major benefits over any GUI that involves a popup up keyboard - the keyboard must be replaced with voice data entry. |
| 2. In an open-plan office, people talk on the phone all day and one phone call does not cause issues with other phone calls. People in an open-plan office will be able to talk to Eliza on their mobile phone and get the job done in a more effective and productive way. People who are more productive are worth more to the business - Eliza is not a gimmick, she is a way to reduce the cost of doing business, a way to rapidly do business and a way to reduce errors as Eliza predicts and self-corrects data entry so it is always complete and correct. |
| 3. Eliza uses block chain to cause data to be replicated and encrypted so nothing can be stolen and nothing can be lost - not a reason to buy-into Eliza, but a way to eliminate security concerns. Data protection is a critical mandatory requirement, is a way to create trust between partners, but is rarely a reason to buy. |
| 4. The true value of Eliza is not the Voice User Interface, but the back-office management information, reports, invoices, communications with other parties and automated procedures. Back-office has a very high level of automation so the cost of doing business can be dramatically reduced with open and transparent trust between parties in the supply chain. |
| 4. Quality: |
| 1. Millions of low quality mobile applications have flooded app-stores - far too many to be evaluated and for the best to rise to the top. A few mobile vendor monopolies have evolved based on massive marketing budgets to promote low quality applications - the most popular may be some of the worst examples. |
| 2. The mission for many applications is to capture user data as a marketing trade-off in return for some "free" or very low cost services. It is said that 60% to 70% of all code downloaded in an application exists to capture marketing information, rather than provide the headline service. Downloaded applications demonstrate that "bloatware" from reusable libraries make many applications more than "ten-times" larger in size than they need to be. Very fast mobile phone processors are needed to run such inefficient software that continually call-back to the vendor to accumulate marketing information. |
| 3. It would be foolish to try to break such mobile application monopolies, but any application that has to be downloaded may be a sign that it is obsolete spyware. Jill time sheet application has proven that no software needs to be downloaded because a safe, secure and replicated encrypted data application must operate over many distributed data centers. Any downloaded application that stores data on a local mobile phone can never be secure from being stolen and can never be replicated so the data cannot be lost. |
| 4. It is suggested that a reason for mobile applications not to be prolific in the workplace is because the first-generation mobile applications are not truly fit-for-purpose. Block Chain technology (BitCoin) means replicated encrypted data that cannot be stolen and cannot be lost - Eliza may be the only mobile application that guarantees these two simple but essential requirements. |