REDMOND, Washington - What was to be a triumph for Microsoft ended in defeat when a demonstration of the powers of its forthcoming operating system Vista failed to pick up due to a glitch in voice recognition software.
Redmond-based Microsoft was left blushing when its much-touted voice recognition software failed to perform up to the mark. The trouble began when Shanen Boettcher, the presenter asked the computer to type out "Dear mom." Vista decided that it had heard "Dear aunt." As the audience composed of financial analysts began tittering, Boettcher attempted to revive the situation by saying "Fix aunt," but the words, "let's set" appeared on the screen.
Thereafter it was all downhill. Boettcher commanded "Delete that," three times, but the system failed to respond. Finally he asked the computer to "select all" when it responded by typing out "Dear Aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all." Boettcher put on a brave face and said, "I'm glad you had some fun with that at the end. I sure did."
Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, said that the goof-up should not affect the reception of Vista. "I think they took a risk by demo-ing that on stage," he said. "Voice recognition is historically fraught with danger. It's really difficult to get right." Moreover this is not the only feature that will encourage people to upgrade to Vista.
Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox said that the only thing he was concerned about was the release date of Vista. He said he was worried since Kevin Johnson, co-president of the Microsoft Windows division said that although Redmond appears to be on track for releasing Vista in November and January for consumers, he would delay it again if problems occurred.
