Don't you just dread it when you phone a company and a machine answers 'Key 1 for account queries, key 2 for other options' and so on? (Tip: key nothing or just keep pressing 0, to bring an operator onto the line.) Even worse is being asked to speak to the machine, which usually doesn't recognise your question. So perhaps, like me, you have been ignoring the current blitz of publicity for voice-controlled home tech, especially voice-responsive audio systems. The recent IFA event was knee-deep in them. Actually it's not new. Apple has been building a voice control system called Siri into devices since 2011. In 2015 Microsoft caught up with Cortana for Windows. At around the same time Amazon brought out Echo, with a female voice called Alexa, while Samsung now has someone/something called Bixby.
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