I don't know about you but I have been waiting for more and more devices to become voice-controlled, especially those appliances around the house that would normally require pressing some buttons in order to work. And this is exactly the type of product we'll talk about as follows, namely the Mini VC Alarm Clock from Moshi Lifestyle, a timepiece that can be very easily controlled with nothing more than the user's own voice.

The voice-activated commands are extremely easy to understand, since, for example, one will have to speak out the words “time” in order to get the current time, “set time” to set time by voice, “alarm” (to set the alarm) or “alarm sound” to choose one of the three available alarms. Moreover, saying “Turn off the Alarm” will do just that and give current time, date, & temperature, while “Play Sleep Sound” will result in playing three minutes of sleep sound.

Furthermore, asking for “Today's date” and “Temperature” will return the corresponding values, while calling for “Help” will offer a help menu of assistance.

All of the aforementioned features are possible due to the fact that Moshi’s Technology that Listens or Voice Control (VC) Technology utilizes a unique blend of two separate models, Neural Net and Hidden Markov Modeling (HMM) Phonetic Speaker Independent (SI) Recognition Software, which allows anyone to be able to control their electronics using their voice alone.

The HMM recognition is a statistical model that requires zero training, zero setup, and is incredibly simple and easy to use. The combination of the HMM and Neural Net model is supported and trained to recognize over 1,000 different recorded voices.

The Moshi Mini VC Alarm Clock can be placed pretty much anywhere around the house, since it measures 4 x 3.25 x 4 inches and is battery powered (3 x AAA batteries required for normal operation). Plus, it's affordable, since it sells for around 25 US dollars, which is not that high a sum, all things considered.


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