Outside Voice

There are a number of technologies that are going to make public voice interaction with displays a lot more reliable:

• Improved speech to text
• Improved and lower cost DSP technology
• More resilient displays (e-ink)
• Easier and longer range Internet connectivity (through 5G or LoRa or similar)
• Faster NLU responses

Some applications where this improvement will be seen:

• Ordering kiosks (similar to those in McDonald’s)
• Interactive robots
• Drive through windows

Imagine a line of food trucks with pop up kiosks so you don’t need to wait in a long queue to order or a fleet of way pointing robots that guide your through stores or rush to answer questions if you have one. Perhaps this is a space where companies like Square could help level the playing field between an establish franchise / big box store and a part time professional.