Why doesn’t my keyboard have voice-to-text?

Voice-to-text technology, also known as speech recognition, speech-to-text (STT), or automatic speech recognition (ASR), converts spoken words into machine-readable input. This technology allows users to dictate text instead of typing it manually using a keyboard. Voice-to-text has become a standard feature in smartphones, allowing users to compose messages, notes, emails, and other text quickly and hands-free by speaking into their devices. However, voice-to-text capability has not become commonplace in computer keyboards as an integrated feature.

This article will examine the historical challenges, costs, privacy concerns, and other factors that help explain why voice-to-text technology has not been incorporated into most keyboards despite its usefulness. We’ll look at the barriers that have prevented keyboards from adopting speech recognition and also explore some possibilities for the future.

Voice Recognition Challenges

Voice recognition software has improved greatly in accuracy over the years, but it still faces some key challenges when transcribing speech. One issue is accuracy in understanding natural speech patterns, accents, dialects and ambient background noise (Source). The intricate variability of human voices makes it difficult for algorithms to interpret speech flawlessly.

In particular, voice recognition software struggles with unfamiliar accents and non-native pronunciations. The systems are typically trained on standard dialects, so they lack exposure to understand regional accents or languages. Background noises like car traffic, crowds, or loud HVAC systems also disrupt accuracy (Source). Filtering out these ambient sounds remains an obstacle.

Furthermore, voice recognition capabilities are limited by vocabulary size and language databases. The technology relies on phonetic and lexical models to match pronounced words. But these databases have gaps in technical vocabularies like medicine, law, science etc. Expanding the vocabulary breadth poses challenges.

Cost and Complexity

Voice recognition technologies impose significant costs and complexity for keyboard manufacturers. Integrating voice to text capabilities into a keyboard requires additional hardware like microphones, audio processing chips, and memory. This increases production costs above the typical costs of a simple input keyboard. Voice recognition software also requires additional computing power for processing the speech and training to recognize words and accents. This would negatively impact keyboard performance and responsiveness for the primary goal of text entry. The added hardware, software, and processing overhead adds undue complexity for a peripheral keyboard device where simplicity and reliability are valued.

Use Cases

Voice recognition technology has developed over the years to become quite useful in some key areas. Two examples where voice-to-text can be extremely valuable include emails and documents.

For typing out emails or word processing documents such as letters, reports, or notes, speaking naturally to generate text can save significant time and effort. It enables the user to get their thoughts and words down rapidly without typing. It’s especially useful for longer emails or documents, or where quick communication turnaround is needed. This technology is now advanced enough that modern voice-to-text engines can often recognize speech with high accuracy in these contexts.

However, voice recognition does still have some limitations. For software development, coding, or specialized word processing, voice input may lack precision or the ability to recognize technical terms. In these cases, traditional typing can be faster and allow for more exact inputs. So while voice recognition shines for general text entry, it does have its use case boundaries.

As per the guidelines, I have cited the source URL sparingly below:

[1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-morich-68992a181

Text Entry Remains Dominant

Despite recent advances in speech recognition, typing on a keyboard remains the dominant method of text input for most people. Some key reasons why typing remains more popular include:

• Familiarity and efficiency of typing – For many people, especially those who work frequently on computers, typing has become an ingrained skill developed over years of practice. Most people can type quickly and efficiently without much conscious thought. Switching to speech input would require learning a new method.
• Ability to edit and format – With keyboard entry, it’s easy to go back, edit and format text. This kind of editing and formatting with speech input remains more time consuming. Speech recognition accuracy, though improved, can still result in errors that need correction.
• Precision in technical writing – For technical, legal, scientific or other writing that requires precision, keyboard entry provides better control. Speech input works better for conversational or casual writing.

While speech recognition will likely continue improving, typing input allows generations of computer users to leverage years of experience typing quickly, accurately and efficiently. The familiarity and advantages around editing and formatting text ensure keyboards remain a top option for text entry for the foreseeable future.

Privacy Concerns

Having a keyboard with voice-to-text capabilities raises valid privacy concerns. Constantly having a microphone listening and recording audio in order to transcribe speech into text is problematic from a privacy standpoint. As one expert points out, “There are many consumer privacy issues with voice recognition equipped electronics” (source). The worry is that private conversations could be unintentionally recorded and transmitted without consent.

Another issue is potential transcription mistakes. If the voice-to-text software transcribes something incorrectly, it might inadvertently share unwanted personal information. As another analysis finds, “How Voice-Enabled Smart Devices Invade Your Privacy” (source). With voice-to-text on keyboards, mistakes in transcription could lead to oversharing of private details.

Market Demand

There has been a lack of strong consumer demand for voice-to-text keyboards. According to Canziani (2021), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563221000364, most consumers still prefer typing text instead of using voice input, especially for productivity tasks like email and document creation. Typing generally offers faster input and better accuracy. Patil (2019) notes the voice recognition market was valued at $9.11 billion in 2018, showing adoption exists but has limits, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/voice-recognition-market-size-share-trends-growth-insight-meera-patil-xwmpf. Consumers view voice-to-text as supplemental to text entry rather than a full replacement.

Alternatives Emerged

As keyboard limitations became apparent, viable alternatives emerged in the form of smart speakers and virtual assistants. Devices like Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple’s HomePod enabled hands-free voice control through spoken commands. These smart speakers featured built-in virtual assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri capable of sophisticated voice-to-text transcription. While early iterations focused largely on playing music, setting alarms, controlling smart home devices etc., capabilities grew rapidly.

Alongside smart speakers, voice-to-text was also widely adopted in smartphones. Modern mobile devices integrate virtual assistants with voice recognition that can transcribe spoken words into text in messaging apps, notes, and more. Voice is becoming an increasingly popular alternative text input method beyond traditional typing on screens.

These advances enabled many hands-free use cases to emerge as feasible keyboard alternatives for text input and control. With smart devices now in millions of homes globally, voice-based interfaces make information and services more accessible to people where typing on a keyboard may present challenges.

Future Possibilities

While voice technology and speech recognition still has ways to improve, there is a possibility that we will see greater integration and adoption in the future.

As speech recognition capabilities advance, the accuracy of these systems are improving across the board (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/keyboard-typing-replaced-voice-near-future-miley-chen). This will make voice interfaces more reliable and easier to integrate into existing devices or software.

It is still possible that keyboards and traditional typing may remain dominant, but be augmented with speech recognition features in a hybrid model. As users get more comfortable using voice, they may opt to use it more frequently (https://www.senstone.io/voice-is-our-future-or-why-voice-will-replace-typing-by-2030/).

While there is no guarantee that voice will completely replace typing, there are use cases where speech interfaces provide value today and adoption stands to increase as the underlying technology matures.

Conclusion

In summary, voice-to-text has seen some key challenges that have prevented mainstream adoption on keyboards. The technical complexity of high-accuracy speech recognition adds cost and power requirements that are prohibitive for the keyboard form factor. While voice input offers benefits for specialized use cases, physical text entry remains dominant for most keyboard needs.

Privacy issues around always-listening devices have also dampened demand. And the emergence of alternative voice interfaces like smart speakers has drawn focus away from adding speech input on keyboards. While future advancements may someday make voice-to-text capabilities practical for more keyboards, physical keys continue serving the majority of users’ text entry needs.

Keyboards likely won’t universally adopt voice-to-text anytime soon. But for specific applications where hands-free operation provides substantial workflow or accessibility advantages, speech interfaces will remain an area of innovation on select keyboard products.