Voice

Voice is one of the key forms of input. It allows you to directly command without having to use hand gestures. Voice input can be a natural way to communicate your intent. Voice is especially good at traversing complex interfaces, because it lets users cut through nested menus with one command.

Best practices

Below are some practices that will aid in smooth speech recognition.

• Use concise commands - When possible, choose keywords of two or more syllables. One-syllable words tend to use different vowel sounds when spoken by persons of different accents. Example: "Play video" is better than "Play the currently selected video"

• Use simple vocabulary - Example: "Show note" is better than "Show placard"

• Make sure commands are non destructive - Make sure any action that can be taken by a speech command is non destructive and can easily be undone in case another person speaking near the user accidentally triggers a command.

• Avoid similar sounding commands - Avoid registering multiple speech commands that sound very similar. Example: "Show more" and "Show store" can be very similar sounding.

• Unregister your app when not it use - When your app is not in a state in which a particular speech command is valid, consider unregistering it so that other commands are not confused for that one.

• Test with different accents - Test your app with users of different accents.

• Maintain voice command consistency - If "Go back" goes to the previous page, maintain this behavior in your applications.

• Avoid using system commands - The following voice commands are reserved for the system. These should not be used by applications.

  • "Hey Cortana"

  • "Select"

  • "Go to start"

Top things users should know about "speech" in mixed reality

• Say "Select" while targeting a button (you can use this anywhere to click a button).

• You can say the label name of an app bar button in some apps to take an action. For example, while looking at an app, a user can say the command "Remove" to remove the app from the world (this saves time from having to click it with your hand).

Voice feedback states

When Voice is applied properly, the user understands what they can say and get clear feedback the system heard them correctly. These two signals make the user feel confident in using Voice as a primary input. Below is a diagram showing what happens to the cursor when voice input is recognized and how it communicates that to the user.

Jio Mixed Reality Voice Interaction Guidelines

Dos	Don’ts
Concise commands Simple Vocabulary Consistency	Single syllable commands System commands Similar sounds

Pros

Cons

Reduces time and effort- Imagine just telling the computer what to do instead of having to do tasks manually. Hella time-saving. Socially acceptable- People around us all talk on their smartphones, so it is not something that would be seen as weird. (Unless of course, you do it in a public setting with a high tone). Routine- Done well, this form of interaction can become routine quickly, as it is intuitive and feels natural.

Accent- What if the MR does not understand your accent? If it does understand, what about the context? Quantify- Supposedly you tell the MR computer to reduce the volume, or increase it, what is it supposed to do? How much louder do you want it? Think about checking your e-mail and you say “zoom in”; well, how much?