Over a year and a half ago I was beyond excited with Siri and the possibilities Apple could explore with it. I wrote this article and argued that Siri took a more personal approach to digital personal assistants and thus could engage and learn more about the user than ever before.
I even risked saying that the search game could be changed with a service like Siri, as Siri would learn about you in a unique way and then start to anticipate results that were more relevant to you.
I clearly remember one night when Siri surprised me in an unprecedented way. I was used to asking her to wake me up in the morning. I believe it just felt better, psychologically, to ask “wake me up at 7am” than setting up the alarm app manually.
One night I was going to bed unusually late and asked her the same question. To my surprise she added to the default message “don’t worry, I won’t forget it”. Isn’t this the reassuring message that you want to hear when you fear that the alarm might not work and then you might sleep-in due to the short night of sleep? I thought that was an amazing touch, a sign that some layer of intelligence was indeed being added to Siri.
Unfortunately though, that was the only moment of bliss in my relationship with Siri.
I still use the service on occasion, but for the most part, I get annoyed with the Siri’s delay in simply understanding what I am saying. A recording of my voice needs to hit the cloud in order to be translated to text back to me before Siri replies. Also, my accent still sometimes gets in the way, and she didn’t learn even a single thing about me or my personality. Generally, it appears that her abilities only grow in incremental bits whenever Apple decides to do so.
One night in New York I was packing for a trip to Brazil and asked Siri what the weather was like in São Paulo. To my dismay she replied, “Here’s the weather for Brasilia, Brazil, through Wednesday next week.” Well, Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, is 500 miles away from São Paulo, and its weather so distinctive, we could say it’s a different country.
“OK Google, what’s the weather like in São Paulo?” — and I see the words being interpreted by Google as I say them, which is great. An instant later, I hear back:Source : VentureBeat
“Here’s the weather forecast for São Paulo, Brazil, for Sunday night.” Oh, wait, do you know that I am traveling on the morning flight and getting there at night? Also impressive, Google used a web service to correct what it had understood initially from my question to something that made complete sense. Siri usually apologizes for not getting what I said.
Every iPhone user out there is transfixed by this Artificial Intelligence whom they have grown to love. Siri, a helper and a companion for every new-age iPhone owner is the residential interface that acts as your intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator by sourcing information from the internet. While many have debated over who has been the voice behind this virtual companion for iPhone users, with various ladies coming forth and claiming the throne, the true Siri has finally stepped out in the sun and accepted her true identity!
So Who Is Siri?
Siri, known to dole out some downright witty comebacks and some whacky suggestions time and again is voiced by Susan Bennett, a voiceover artist from Atlanta, USA. Prior to this, Susan was known for being the voice for ATM machines in the 1970's. She also went on to do various other voiceover projects including announcements for airport terminals, GPS systems, as well as phone systems.
In 2005, a software company finally hired Bennett to be the voice for a new and upcoming project involving interactive speech for future gadgets. She was required to recite various phrases and sentences that are implemented in Siri today. The task took more than four hours of her daily time for a month to finish the project while she was completely oblivious of where it might be used. It finally occurred to Susan that her voice was used for Siri when, after being launched in 2011, she was notified about it by her friend. Opting to keep her identity a secret, she finally revealed it after various imposters tried to falsely claim recognition. Apple has refused to comment on the claims so far and have chosen to stay mum although various tests have proven that she is the voice behind Siri.
Other Siri-s Of The World
The Siri for United Kingdom is actually a male voice who goes by the name of "Daniel". Voiced by Jon Briggs, "Daniel" was recorded in 2005 while Briggs was unaware of what the voice might be used for during that time. Known for being the voice behind BBC Radio's quiz shows, Jon Briggs with his British accent was the perfect fit for the English iPhone users.
Siri Of Australia - The Australian counterpart of Siri who goes by the name of Karen is voiced by a famous singer, songwriter and voiceover artist, Karen Jacobsen. A local celebrity of sorts, her voice was chosen for its familiarity and the Australian accent it held. She is also known for lending her voice to various commercials and radio shows, and for Australian units of Garmin, TomTom, and Navman's GPS devices.
Source : mensxp.com
The personal assistant app and service Cue has been bought up, and while Apple hasn't offered an official confirmation it's the company that dropped between US$40 million and $60 million on the deal, word on the street is that's exactly what happened. If so, Cue's assets will give Apple a strong boost in the digital assistant game and give Google's Now technology a run for its money.
Cue is known for its social search and personal assistant features. It could sift through content on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and fold in information from Gmail email messages along with documents stored on Dropbox. With the information Cue gathered it could build lists of relevant and timely information on the fly tailored for each user.
If that sounds a lot like Google Now, that's because in many ways it is. Google Now tries to anticipate your schedule and routine, and then displays information based on what you're doing, where you are, or where you're going.
The purchase means Cue users don't have access to the service any more, and the company is offering refunds to its subscribers. Little consolation for Cue subscribers, but better than finding they lost the service along with the money they paid for a subscription.
Assuming Apple is the company that snapped up Cue, it's a safe bet we'll see its features show up at some point in Siri. Apple has been actively working on improving the feature set for its voice-based control system for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and adding in features that better anticipate user's actions and react accordingly would be a great way to help draw new users away from Google Now.
Spinning together all of Apple's recent acquisitions builds a tapestry where Cue could be a core part, bringing together all kinds of information that's parsed and presented in a useful way -- and all through Siri.
Apple hasn't officially confirmed that it purchased the company, and the Cue website only said that "the Cue service is no longer available." What the site doesn't say is that we'll most likely see Cue's features surface again in Siri.
Source : The Mac Observer
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