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Posts tagged with "siri"

Siri Example Phrases→

Siri Example Phrases

Erica Sadun at TUAW says they’ve tracked down a series of example phrases for the iPhone 4S’ voice assistant, Siri. The list of “Apple-supplied examples” includes categories like Alarms, Friends, Messages, and Notes. The “Email” commands are the ones that intrigued me the most:

- Email Lisa about the trip

- Email Jennifer about the change in plans

- New email to Susan Park

- Mail Dad about the rent check

- Email Dr. Manning and say I got the forms, thanks

- Mail Lisa and Jason about the party and say I had a great time

In the first two examples, I assume Siri will start composing a new email message with “trip” and “change in plans” in the Subject field. That’s also assuming Siri interprets “about” as the subject of “email” – which would make sense. But the last phrase is where I think Siri will really prove its potential – chaining different fields and multiple strings of text together. You see, the last phrase contains a command (mail), two Address Book contacts (Lisa and Jason), a subject (about the party) and the message (I had a great time). The examples Apple ran yesterday on stage were rather simple, albeit still impressive, and provided some context into Siri’s artificial intelligence.

What I’m really curious about at this point is the chaining of multiple commands – if I had an assistant in real life, I imagine I’d ask her to “schedule a meeting with Jason then call Chris and check on my schedule for Friday”. Will Siri be able to go back and forth between multiple commands from a single question? Perhaps something a little simpler than my example above? Will it support basic if/then operations? I guess we’ll have to wait for a real hands-on to find out.

In the meantime, check out the full list of examples over at TUAW.

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Apple Officially Unveils Siri Voice Assistant - Supports English, French and German

Following the iPhone 4S official announcement at its media event in Cupertino, Apple has formally taken the wraps off Siri, the new voice-based assistant Apple has been rumored to be building for quite some time. Phil Schiller kicked off the Siri demo saying he wished modern devices would understand the things we’re asking them. Natural language, normal questions like “Should I take an umbrella today?” or “Will it rain tomorrow in Cupertino’”. Siri will be able to respond to a user’s questions, and provide information and data in real-time in brand interface. The design looks largely similar to a mockup posted last week.

Siri will be able to check the weather, stocks information, find nearby restaurants and places, set alarms and even give you directions. Siri will also be able to send text messages and read them, which can be particularly useful if you have an iPhone in your pocket and using a Bluetooth headset.

Siri knows, and always remembers. For example, Apple gave a demo in which, upon receiving a text message, the user had to know whether he was busy on a specific day. From a single Assistant interface, which was brought up following the new text message, Scott Forstall had a “conversation” with Siri, asking it if he could schedule a meeting on Friday. Siri checked on the upcoming Calendar events, found a free spot, and “replied” a meeting at the previously specified time would indeed be possible. Siri then transcribed a text message, and sent it back in the original SMS conversation.

[images via]

Siri can look up words, currency conversions, email people, set reminders and calendar events, find addresses – it also integrated with Wolfram Alpha to check on information available on the popular online service. The interface uses a mix of linen – judging from some early screenshots – conversation bubbles, and textured paper objects. As previously rumored, systemwide dictation is also available through Siri.

Siri is a new feature of the iPhone 4S. The first “beta” period will support English (US, UK, and Australia), French, and German.

Here’s what Apple says about Siri in the official press release:

iPhone 4S also introduces Siri, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. Siri understands context allowing you to speak naturally when you ask it questions, for example, if you ask “Will I need an umbrella this weekend?” it understands you are looking for a weather forecast. Siri is also smart about using the personal information you allow it to access, for example, if you tell Siri “Remind me to call Mom when I get home” it can find “Mom” in your address book, or ask Siri “What’s the traffic like around here?” and it can figure out where “here” is based on your current location. Siri helps you make calls, send text messages or email, schedule meetings and reminders, make notes, search the Internet, find local businesses, get directions and more. You can also get answers, find facts and even perform complex calculations just by asking.

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Nuance Releases Dragon Remote Microphone for iOS

With Nuance technology possibly sprinkled in iOS, why not show off with a brand new app that’s free in the App Store? Dragon Remote Microphone was announced by Nuance today as a sort of “wireless microphone” for Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Windows-only speech recognition software for the desktop. The best part is that all you need is a WiFi connection to the PC - you don’t need to crawl under your desk or visit staples to buy an accessory.

In conjunction with the launch of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5, Nuance introduced the Dragon Remote Mic App, a free application on the Apple iOS app store which makes it possible to use an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad as a wireless microphone for Dragon via a Wi-Fi network connection. Many customers have requested to use their smartphones and other mobile devices with Dragon to have more flexibility with how and where they dictate with Dragon. The new Dragon Remote Mic App takes advantage of the nearly 200 million iOS devices in use today, and transforms the device into a wireless microphone that easily captures dictation and controls applications on your PC.

Leading up to WWDC 2011, the Internet was lit with rumors about Apple possibly integrating Nuance technology into iOS 5. Later leaked screenshots reveal Nuance dictation to be embedded, which may offer speech-to-text input thanks to a microphone button on your keyboard (not dissimilar from Android). Remember when Apple acquired Siri? Much of Siri’s technology was based on Nuance - TechCrunch speculated that Apple may already be running Nuance’s translation software in the Apple data center. That deal was rumored to be dismissed, however, as a partnership would reduce costs, yet it’s unknown whether a partnership could reveal itself by the time iOS 5 is released in the fall. As Nuance continues to release apps on iOS, including the previously released Dragon Dictation for iPhone and iPad (free in the App Store), they convey that iOS seems to be a prime candidate future integration.

[Nuance via MacRumors]

OS X Lion Includes Nuance Voices, Samples Available Online

[image via 9to5mac]

A number of reports from multiple sources over the past months pointed at Apple willing to ink a deal with speech recognition company Nuance over the implementation of text-to-speech and mobile speech recognition technologies in iOS devices, with a preview of the new functionalities scheduled for the WWDC, where the company is rumored to show off iOS 5 with deep Siri integration – Siri is a “personal assistant” app which used Nuance’s tech, among other things, that Apple bought last year. As noted by Netputing, however, it looks like the Apple / Nuance licensing deal might extend to a broader level, with voices from a Nuance product (Vocalizer, nèe RealSpeak) being embedded in Lion since Developer Preview 1. The voices were included in the first beta of Lion seeded to developers in February, but only last week the website noticed the names and settings in the Text Speech preference panel were strikingly similar to Nuance’s offerings.

The new voices in Lion still can’t be utilized as they return an error upon installation, but the samples can be demoed for free following the direct links below, courtesy of OS X Daily.

Mac OS X Lion is set to include a wide variety of new high quality text-to-speech voices in a multitude of languages, thanks to a long suspected partnership between Apple and Nuance, a speech technology company. The new voices are of surprisingly good quality and speak in major world languages including English, Mandarin, German, Japanese, French, Spanish, Thai, Bahasa, Portuguese, Hindi, Russian, and many more.

While the rumors indicated Apple was working closely with Nuance over speech implementation in iOS devices, Nuance might have licensed its full portfolio of international digital voices to Apple for usage in iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion. A demo of these new features will likely happen at the WWDC, which is less than a month away. [via MacRumors]

Apple Already Running Nuance Tech in New Data Center, WWDC Announcement?

Following last week’s speculation of Apple negotiating a deal with voice-recognition company Nuance for future integration in iOS devices, TechCrunch reports today more details on the rumored collaboration between Apple and Nuance, which should be a major announcement at next month’s WWDC in San Francisco. According to the website, the partnership between the two companies goes as far as to allow Siri – previously purchased by Apple – to be integrated into iOS 5, using Nuance’s voice recognition technology in the backend. Siri, in fact, was based on Nuance’s tech while providing more information of its own, and since the acquisition last year Apple had to make sure Nuance would still license the software (they even hold multiple patents for it) to use in the future version of Siri – likely a native feature in iOS 5.

For this reason, TechCrunch speculates Apple may be already running Nuance’s tech on its servers in North Carolina, through the massive data center that should begin operations this Spring. With deals likely already inked ahead of the WWDC, Apple might want to pass information through their own cloud to make voice recognition faster for all users, scalable, and more secure.

In digging into the information about the relationship between the two companies, we had heard that Apple might actually already be using Nuance technology in their new (but yet to be officially opened) massive data center in North Carolina. Since then, we’ve gotten multiple independent confirmations that this is indeed the case. And yes, this is said to be the keystone of a partnership that Apple is likely to announce with Nuance at WWDC next month.

More specifically, we’re hearing that Apple is running Nuance software — and possibly some of their hardware — in this new data center. Why? A few reasons. First, Apple will be able to process this voice information for iOS users faster. Second, it will prevent this data from going through third-party servers. And third, by running it on their own stack, Apple can build on top of the technology, and improve upon it as they see fit.

Valued at over $6 billion, an acquisition of Nuance was quickly dismissed last week as an expense Apple wasn’t ready to consider, suggesting a partnership would make more sense in order to keep things running (in Siri and the future iOS integration) at a lower cost. The fact that Apple may be running Nuance’s tech on its own backend, however, seems to suggest that Apple has at least negotiated a way to get direct control of the service, which, again, should power the next version of Siri for iOS 5. TechCrunch speculates voice recognition will be one of the WWDC’s big announcements, although it’s unclear whether third-party developers will get immediate access through a series of APIs or not.

The WWDC kicks off on June 6, and Apple has already formally announced that they’ll unveil the future of iOS and OS X at the developer-oriented event. Voice recognition has long been in the rumors as a major new functionality of iOS 5 – alongside a new notification system, maps, and social services – which should be previewed next month and released this Fall at Apple’s usual September media event.

Apple Negotiating With Nuance Over Voice Recognition Technology?

A TechCrunch post from late yesterday suggests that Apple and voice recognition company Nuance have been negotiating a deal for months following Apple’s acquisition of Siri. Siri, which Apple acquired last April, developed an iPhone app that was marketed as a “virtual personal assistant” and would listen to audible questions from a user (such as “where can I find parking around here”), and would respond with an answer.

In a previous report, TechCrunch said that they believed the acquisition of Siri would lead to iOS 5 having “assistance technology [that] is said to be deeply integrated into the OS for all the different services offered.” However, Apple has had to renegotiate deals with all the partners of Siri since it acquired them and apparently the one hold out is Nuance. According to TechCrunch’s sources, the negotiations between Apple could be as big as an acquisition or just a partnership.

Apparently an acquisition is unlikely at this stage, likely for a number of reasons mainly surrounding the cost; Nuance is a public company valued at over $6 billion, furthermore much of that value is because of various licensing deals that would likely be stopped if Apple bought Nuance. The other alternative is that Apple partners Nuance and licenses the voice recognition technology; and at this stage it is the more likely option according to TechCrunch’s sources. The hold up is apparently because of Nuance CEO Paul Ricci being a “really hard bargainer”, going as hard as Steve Jobs would in the negotiations and resulting in a standoff between the two companies.

Apple does have alternatives to dealing with Nuance, it could build its own service but this would be fraught with legal issues (Nuance holds many patents) and would take time (that Apple may not want to spend) or it could go with Google, but given the current smartphone battle this seems unlikely. Consequently it seems unlikely that Apple has any good alternative here, particularly given how well the Nuance voice recognition technology works.

With with WWDC rapidly approaching, and iOS 5 fairly likely to make some kind of appearance, one would presume that Apple would be at this stage rushing to finalise a deal with Nuance, particularly if it is a major cornerstone of the iOS 5 experience. One final point made by MG Siegler in the article is that;

And the truth is that Nuance needs Apple too. Not only are they also threatened by Google, but Nuance technology is simply not very meaningful without apps that utilize it like Siri. And many of those apps are appearing guess where: iOS.

[Via TechCrunch]

Rumor: Siri “A Big Part” Of iOS 5, Demo At WWDC

Following this morning’s formal announcement from Apple about the WWDC ‘11, a number of reports surfaced indicating this year’s conference will be a software-related event, with the focus on iOS and Mac OS X Lion. Several bloggers and journalists have reported there won’t be a single hardware announcement at the WWDC, meaning a new iPhone – for the first time in years – won’t be announced at the June event.

Such an announcement, of course, lead many to speculate what features of iOS 5 (Lion has already been demoed and released as a preview to developers) will exactly make their way to the WWDC stage. TechCrunch now reports Siri, the startup bought by Apple last year, will play a big role in iOS 5 and a first demo of the integration of the technology will be shown at the WWDC.

Oh, and one more thing. Following our report on iOS 5, we heard a tiny bit more about it.

A year ago, Apple bought Siri, a virtual personal assistant startup that had released a very cool iPhone app. The Siri team and technology are now said to be a big part of iOS 5.

The use of Siri’s artificial intelligence and assistance technology is said to be deeply integrated into the OS for all the different services offered. And the team is now putting the finishing touches on the elements that will be demoed at WWDC, we hear. This tech may also be opened to developers for use in third-party apps — though that information isn’t quite as concrete.

The Siri iPhone app is still available in the App Store for free, and it allows users to “speak” to their iPhones to book restaurants, movie tickets, taxis and much more. Siri is undoubtedly a great piece of technology and this rumor, combined with previous reports of Apple looking to improve speech recognition functionalities and navigation in iOS, certainly backs up the theories of Cupertino engineers building a completely new OS focused on speech, new maps and more “human” interactions.

Another report by TechCrunch yesterday pointed to iOS 5 being released this fall with new location and music services. With an iOS 5 beta (likely) to become available at the WWDC in June and the time needed for developers to update their apps, it makes sense for Apple to wait until their usual September music event to launch the new OS and cloud services. In the meantime, you can check out the old Siri demo video and product description below. Read more

Apple Job Posting Suggests More Speech Recognition Features Coming to iOS

9to5mac points to four new job listings that appeared on Apple’s website earlier this week and suggest the company is looking forward to implementing more speech recognition features in future versions of iOS. The job positions (1, 2, 3, 4) include one “iOS Speech Application Engineer”, two “Speech Recognition Engineers” and one “Senior Speech Research Scientist”.

Are you looking to contribute to a product that is redefining the smartphone? The iOS Application Frameworks team is looking for an exceptional Speech Engineer. You will work with our team on a wide variety of speech-related development activities. We need a team player - you will be working closely with engineers on the Application Frameworks team as well as other teams at Apple - and we need someone who is comfortable working in a fast paced environment with rapidly changing priorities.

The fact that Apple is looking for not one, but four Speech engineers may be a sign of the iOS team at Cupertino willing to catch up with Google, which already has powerful voice search and voice action functionalities on Android. Speech recognition features on iOS are limited to Voice Control and a few other App Store apps that come with their own speech technologies – apps like Siri Assistant, bought by Apple earlier this year.

If you think the pieces are coming together now for speech-related features to show up in a major new version of iOS next year, then I guess we’re all excited for voice actions to find their way on the iPhone and iPad.