In an attempt to catch up with Apple and Google, Microsoft has created voice command technology that seems to far surpass its competitors. Cortana, named after the omniscient program from Microsoft’s Halo, seems to impress more beta testers each day. With the new windows 8.1 operating system update, Cortana’s intelligence has increased tenfold from previous versions. The biggest improvement is her new age restriction settings.
With Cortana’s highly advanced voice recognition software she can identify age and will disable all usage for children under the age of 13. If Cortana identifies the user as 12 years old or younger, she will emit an error message stating that the user is not old enough to utilize the new software. This new child-lock security has been put in place in order to comply with COPPA, or the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. COPPA was created in order to regulate how much a person under 13 years old can share online without parental consent.
Since embarking on this new project, Microsoft’s stock has far surpassed both Google and Apple by rising 5.5 percent. In the past 4 months, Apple has only risen 1.2 percent and unfortunately, Google declined 4.2 percent.
(Image Source: iCLIPART)