Listening since Windows 10: Cortana

Shortly before the end of the free distribution and the release of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update on August 2, many users are taking stock after around a year. On the plus side for many of them is Cortana, the operating system's voice input software.

From an AI character to a voice assistant

The name already has a history: "Cortana" is a reminiscence of the Halo" first-person shooter serieswhich was also published by Microsoft. In it, Cortana is a character with artificial intelligence that is supposed to support the user in gaming. In her new job as a voice assistant at Windows 10 Cortana uses a similar cloud technology to its colleague Siri from Apple: the user's voice input is not answered locally, but transmitted as an audio stream to an MS voice server to be analyzed there. Cortana's "answers" are then sent back to the PC, tablet or smartphone. When answering the user's questions, various databases are consulted, which are essential for the capabilities of the service; an online connection is therefore permanently required to use the service.

Cortana can now also speak German

After Cortana was initially only able to translate in the source languages English and Mandarin Chinese, French, Italian, Spanish and German have since been added. Around 50 translation options are now possible with target and source languages, which can be entered either by voice or by keyboard. Cortana is thus entering a field that was previously dominated by translation services such as dict.cc and Google voice tools and thus shows another facet of his versatility.

Learning assistant

What makes Cortana special as a voice assistant is its ability to learn. Similar to "Google Now", it learns about the user's interests and habits based on their input - and is therefore increasingly able to automatically alert them to appointments, information and news of interest to them over time. However, Microsoft has to collect and evaluate a lot of personal user data for this purpose, which many view critically from a data protection point of view - similar to other services of this kind. As a user, you should therefore be aware that the system is constantly saving and evaluating user data. Under certain circumstances, meaningful user profiles can be extracted from this data, including on the basis of saved locations.

On request: The single-user mode

Cortana is activated by voice with the call "Hey Cortana". If this Hey Cortana call function is active, you can specify in the selection field below whether the voice function responds to any person or only to one user. Simply click on "Learn my voice" and then read out a few sentences - and Cortana has already created your own voice profile under Windows 10. This way, you can be sure that no third party can use the voice input software on your device without being asked.
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