News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)
Date: 24, March 2001

Let there be 'lights!'

VOS Systems wants to know if we've ever dropped an armful of groceries while fumbling for the light switch in a dark room.

Not really -- we trip over the kid's tennis shoes first.  But VOS is hawking an intriguing gadget called IntelaVoice, which it calls the world's first voice-activated light switch.

We're talking way beyond the Clapper, folks.  IntelaVoice uses speech recognition technology that lets you turn on any electrical appliance with a one-word command (such as "lights," or, we presume, "Georgeforemangrill," if you say it fast enough) from as far away as 20 feet.

It's $29.95 and is available at True Value stores.  For more info go to www.vossystems.com.