Siri is a UI game changer

[Janx]

It is new, yes. It is different. Even clever.

But that doesn't mean folks are actually going to use it so much the game actually changes. The basic issue I think, oddly enough, is not of the interface, but of power.

Siri, as I understand it, it *not* hands-free. You have to touch the phone to activate the program, which defeats about half the purpose. And this is understandable, because having your phone *always* awake, always listening, will kill your battery in short order.

So, you're saved some typing and some mucking about choosing apps, which is nice. But game-changing? I'm not sure.

If you bring the phone to your face, Siri activates. If you hold the button on your headphones or bluetooth it also activates. Bear in mind, when I said hands free, pressing a button to activate it is not the same entanglement as having to hold a phone up to my ear to keep talking to you or holding it so FaceTime can see me and I can see it.

I can have the phone in my pocket and my headset on an generally have my hands free to drive or work on something.

As to game changer, my xbox has voice recognition. It's like playing an old text adventure with 2 word commands. Siri has natural language recognition which alone makes it easier to use.

Right now Siri is coded to connect to specific apps. So it is obviously limited in what it can do. Apple coded it to handle food, movies, appointments, and just about everything else is routed as a search to bing or wolfram alpha.

In theory, Apple could provide an API so Siri can connect to any registered app's command structure. So that bar can be minimal. though I think Morrus's point about which app to use muddies that up.

coding-wise, it's basically voice recognition wired up to natural speech parsing (so this technology could be wired up as a search engine). From that, it can recognize whats a command and what's a question. Questions go to a search engine, commands go to its command matrix.

In the command matrix, it's not as simple as performing a simple action like "Call Mom" which requires no memory, just recognition of the action "Call" and the subject "mom". Whereas, "Make an appointment for tomorrow" gets recognized and it knows it has missing fields (subject and time) so it will propmpt for them. The next part (which I'm not sure if it works as I don't get to play with Siri) is "Make a grocery list" followed by your reciting the items for the list which go into Notes. Then you could tell it "remind me the list when I get to the store". This requires context memory that you've been workng with the List the entire team.

In a way, lunquistically, pronouns are variables. Short term buckets for the topic of current discussion. While software likes variables, coding a parsing system to "remember" things is the big deal. All of this being wired to a command structure gives it the oomp it needs.

In any event, I think it's cool and a good many steps more powerful than Dragon, Xbox's kinect, or the usual voice commands on cell phones to launch a call.

I haven't kept up on voice recognition or natural speech technology. Dragon had long been considered the king, and it languished for a decade or so. Its still mostly a dictation software, not a natural speech processor.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Android phones have had Voice Commands for a while which are useful as a tool, and with voice commands being out there it hasn't been much of a game changer, and neither will Siri be.

It's useful to getting stuff in when you don't want to use the keyboard, there's less ability for it to understand natural language as you often have to begin sentences with "Navigate", "Call", "Watch" and it's most definitely linked to various Google Services, which some people are fine with and others not so much when you use those functions. Though for many things you still have to use your hands often to select things from a dropdown after speaking to it.

I've also read that Google's engineers have certainly been putting some effort into getting voice commands to understand certain accents and languages better, as I imagine anyone from Glasgow might have more problems with the phone even if they sort of speak English.

That last point though is probably going to be something that anyone who makes voice input devices is going to have to work on.

 

[Morrus]

Android phones have had Voice Commands for a while which are useful as a tool, and with voice commands being out there it hasn't been much of a game changer, and neither will Siri be.

Yes, we all know Android does voice commands. The iPhone's had it for a while, too. Siri isn't the same as voice commands; the voice recognition tech isn't the clever bit. It's the way the user interacts with it plus the natural speech syntax interpretation and interaction that's the clever bit, not the fact that it can take voice commands. Voice commands (either the old iPhone version or the current Android version) isn't the same as Siri. It shares an element - voice recognition - but we're talking different things; it's a step up from voice commands. Android devs will be following suit, of course. Apple just has a bit of a head start.

A crap analogy is comparing Windows to DOS and saying "Yeah, DOS has a computer-monitor based interface which lets you move files, too - computers have been doing that for ages". OK, yeah, that's a terrible analogy and the jump isn't anywhere near that of Windows, but it's the one that sprang to mind. It's all about the slickness and integration.

But anyway, it's not like I'm trying to sell you an iPhone! Apple's approach will appeal to some people (like me) and not to others. That's cool.

I've also read that Google's engineers have certainly been putting some effort into getting voice commands to understand certain accents and languages better, as I imagine anyone from Glasgow might have more problems with the phone even if they sort of speak English.

I have a friend in Glasgow who bought a 4S. He says it's just fine. He has a fairly strong Glaswegian accent.

It apparently has big problems with Indian, Chinese, and Japanese accents. But it only supports US English, UK English, Australian English, French, and German so far, with more rolling out in 2012.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There's currently an ad for the iPhone with a gentleman of African descent using Siri. No problems (of course- its an ad).

I'll be cautiously optimistic about it...but I'm not in the market for a smart phone in the foreseeable future. I just wish they'd have loaded it on things like the new iPad2 (which I AM getting soon) or the updated iPod Touch... They probably couldn't due to technical issues, but I can still dream.

 

[Morrus]

I think the real test is this: "Am I using it?"

I've owned devices with voice commands before; I've also dabbled with speech recognition software and the like. I've never found myself using it, though.

I do use Siri. So, for me, it passes that test: they've done something that made me actually use it.

 

[falcarrion]

It will not be long before it hits the Ipad and other apple products.
Right now I can call people over my Ipad as long as I have an internet connection. Add Siri to the ipad and it opens up what I can do more.
With the Ipad, Siri, and the apple tv things are going to change.
has anyone tried the Iphone with Siri and the apple tv yet?

 

[Morrus]

It will not be long before it hits the Ipad and other apple products.
Right now I can call people over my Ipad as long as I have an internet connection. Add Siri to the ipad and it opens up what I can do more.
With the Ipad, Siri, and the apple tv things are going to change.
has anyone tried the Iphone with Siri and the apple tv yet?

I'm not really familiar with Apple TV. They've done a bad job of communicating what it is to me.

What does one do with Apple TV? And what would one do with the iPhone, Siri, and Apple TV?

 

[Kzach]

Voice commands (either the old iPhone version or the current Android version) isn't the same as Siri. It shares an element - voice recognition - but we're talking different things; it's a step up from voice commands.

Yeah, I think that's what people aren't realising here and that's up to Apple to communicate to the wider audience. Apple have had voice recognition built into their OS's for decades. The first Mac that I bought, as opposed to the first one that I owned, was a 6500/300 PowerPC with OS 7.6 and even it had Voice Recognition!

I'm not really familiar with Apple TV. They've done a bad job of communicating what it is to me.

What does one do with Apple TV? And what would one do with the iPhone, Siri, and Apple TV?

Honestly I don't think even Apple know what the heck they're doing with it. It's been a bit of a failure but they keep updating it and pushing it out. I think you can pick one up for under a $100 USD now... just don't ask me what it does

 

[falcarrion]

Apple tv is a small box that you connect to your tv. With it you can access your itunes account. You can download movies, play music, etc. Now with the IOS5 you can do air display or play that will mirror you ipad 2. thus you can run your apps on the big screen through the apple tv. You can run you tube, netflix, or any app you have.

 

[falcarrion]

You where talking about using Siri to put you emails up on the tv.
Imagine you just saying " Siri mirror ipad, show emails"
OR" Siri mirror ipad, run facetime, call Niel"
and have it all showing up on your large screen tv.

Now if they add a few things to the apple tv such as a mike and
siri. You could just say "Siri turn on tv, mirror ipad, display emails"