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The voice-activated and speaking alarm clock -- an idea whose time has come...
One problem with the current model of MOSHI is that while it issues its wake-up alarm, if one speaks a command or touches the panel and says a command, that command is ignored. What's worse, MOSHI then proceeds to go through a loud soliloquy to announce a menu of things which its victim is obviously loathe to hear at that time. This, I'm sure this would be an easy software fix -- to make MOSHI stop doing that, after it has been touched -- and to then process a new voice command.
|
While
setting MOSHI's alarm, it talks back loudly. |
MOSHI often alarms when I'm positive that I had told it to "Turn off the
alarm". Furthermore, MOSHI's alarm often activates at times that I never
told it!
A serious problem with the current (2009) version of
MOSHI is that it has no volume control! In my house,
MOSHI is in the living
room, but it awakens others who sleep in a bedroom down the hall when I ask it for the
time or for the temperature or when I try to set its alarm. It seems that a verbal
volume command could
easily be incorporated;
an old-fashioned physical potentiometer knob (not a digital gizmo) would be welcomed. Or both!
One quirky thing that happens is that occasionally MOSHI is activated
by some sound on TV. This is queer -- I know for a fact that when this
happens, nobody on TV said "Hello Moshi" or anything similar to that
phrase :). After that happens, MOSHI may sound the alarm at
random times of the day.
Of course adding an "atomic" (WWV) automatic time-setting
feature would be welcomed by many.
My first MOSHI broke after six monthes, flashing its colored backlight LEDs non-uniformly and intermittently, but it was replaced because I had bought it from Hammacher Schlemmer.
I had started to give this some thought in the early 80's -- how to make a voice-activated alarm clock. My thought, using the Apple-II computer to simulate its workings was to use a limited-vocabulary -- a small subset of verbs and nouns that when spoken in a grammatical sequence, would cause some action. MOSHI 's approach is different and it's a good trade-off, I think.