Living Architecture Spring 2007 Pratt

"But of all audio channel measures, it is voice-recognition that is
most obviously called upon in constructing a computing that is
supposed to be invisible but everywhere. Voices can, of course, be
associated with specific people, and this can be highly useful in
providing for differential permissioning--liquor cabinets that unlock
in response to spoken commands issued by adults in the household,
journals that refuse access to any but their owners. Speech, too,
carries clear cues as to the speaker's emotional state; a household
system might react to these alongside whatever content is actually
expressed--yes, the volume can be turned down in response to your
command, but should the timbre of your voice indicate that stress and
not loudness is the real issue, maybe the ambient lighting is softened
as well.

We shouldn't lose sight of just how profound a proposition
voice-recognition represents when it is coupled to effectors employed
in the wider environment. For the first time, the greater mass of
humanity can be provided with a practical mechanism by which their
'perlocutionary' utterances--speech acts intended to bring about a
given state--can change the shape and texture of reality."

--Adam Greenfield, Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing
(New Riders, 2006)