Ever since we saw the first Iron Man movie, geeks have been mesmerized with Iron Man technology. One technology in particular has captured people’s attention more than most, and that is Tony Stark’s impressive J.A.R.V.I.S. voice recognition system. Mr. Stark can pretty much do anything through it. He would most likely be able to start a Spotify stream if he wanted to, as well. It has been said that such a system simply couldn’t be created with today’s technology, but as it turns out, we were all wrong.
Michael Ghandour, an innovator and voice recognition pioneer, decided there must be a way to create a real J.A.R.V.I.S. system that, with a little bit of effort, could do just about anything you told it to. The result of his vision and hard work is a voice recognition system called MAKO. When I first saw the demonstration of the system, I was blown away by its capabilities.
Imagine speaking to your computer just like you would communicate with a regular human being. Add to that a system which allows you to have the computer it’s installed onto do anything you ask it to. If you want MAKO to open up a browser and go to your Facebook page, all you need to do is say, “open Facebook” and voila!
MAKO reminds us a lot of Siri, no doubt, but it has its own unique approach which you will see in the video presented down below. In order to further develop MAKO, Michael is looking to raise a total of $75,000, which in itself isn’t a lot of money when you consider the impact this feature will most likely have on any computer setup.
Michael is looking to raise the $75,000 through a Kickstarter campaign, and so far people are seemingly super excited about the project. With 56 days to go, the campaign has been able to raise almost $33,000. It’s a significant chunk of the goal amount, which tells us this project is most likely going to be successful at the end of its run.
Personally, I can’t wait to couple this with a Leap Motion device (if possible) to see if I can create my own voice and gesture controlled setup in the office. I am going to keep an eye on this project with excitement. The list of things MAKO can currently do is nothing less than impressive, and this is before the “real” implementations have begun.
The MAKO system can currently recognize 5 different languages (soon to be 30!), and it can open any website or program. Furthermore it can:
- Type anything you say
- Retrieve any online image
- Google search anything
- Read anything you highlight
- Call and text by voice over IP
- Print this page
- Help you with Powerpoint (new slide, starting slideshows and more)
- Save documents
- Create new documents
- Screenshot anything
- Close any program
- Restore last tab/session
- 2 different voice options: British male, American female
- Recognize date/time/year is
- Recognize weather forecast (today-7day forecast)
- Switch windows to other programs
- Empty recycle bin/delete any file/words
- Full volume control
- Open disc tray/close disc tray
- Play/pause/volume music on Itunes
- Play/pause/volume controls on videos (with youtube/netflix/spotify/pandora and all online video capabilities)
- It is able to do math equations of all kinds
- It is able to write a report on any subject
- Able to define any word
- Has a login screen connecting it to dedicated servers
- MAKO is functional on both PCs and Mac
With a system that can do pretty much everything you ask it to by just utilizing voice recognition technology, it’s going to be a whole lot easier to use a computer in the future. Usually voice recognition systems are slow and awkward to use, but the MAKO system is lighting fast. With a little bit of optimization, it could become the backbone of how we use a computer. I know it’s asking a lot of a system like this at this current state, but the potential is definitely there.
Michael Ghandour’s Innovative Voice Recognition System
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