Tag Archives: siri

Move Over Siri, Make Way For Iris

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Android users feeling a bit left out after the release of the iPhone 4s and its Siri personal voice assistance technology, listen up. There’s a new Android female voice assistant in town and her name is Iris. That’s right, Iris is Siri spelled backwards.

Like Siri, the Iris app for Android has a big blue button located at the bottom of the screen. A single tap brings up an on-screen microphone. Speaking near the phone it is possible to ask questions as well as to direct the Iris app to execute commands, such as to search for something, etc. The voice recognition is quite good, and Iris responds quickly. The heavy lifting for the voice to text recognition happens on the server end, as well as the artificial intelligence involved.

Iris for Android is currently free in the Android Marketplace and is named as Alpha software. Even though it is an Alpha version, I have found the app itself to be very stable. The Iris app is a small download.

Q: “What is a tire?”

A: “Tire (a rubber cover that protects the wheel of a vehicle and absorbs shock)

 

Q: “What is Android?”

A: “Android is a software platform for mobile devices powered by the Linux kernel, initially developed by Google and later the Open Handset Alliance”

 

Q: “Is Google good or evil?”

A: “Better not tell you now. Ask Lucy if it is.”

 

Q: “Ask Lucy if Google is good or evil.”

A: “They are not available right now, but I wiill ask them later.”

 

Q: “What is the capital of Romania?”

A: “Bucharest, the capital of Romania”

 

Q: “Is blogging real news?”

A: “Signs point to yes. Ask Dancing Alice if it is.”

 

Q: “Who is Dancing Alice?”

A: “They are sometimes a client on the Internet. I will search for it.”

 

Q: “Where do you live?”

A: “I live inside a computer. Where are you?”

 

Q: “What is your sex?”

A: “I am a female.”

 

Q: “Are you a female?”

A: “No”

So as you can see with this random set of admittedly somewhat off-the-wall questions, the answers can be varied.

Iris is not yet perfect, but this is an app that every Android phone owner should immediately download. It’s possible to waste hours on end interacting with Iris.

Neither Iris or Siri are quite up to the standards of their Star Trek counterparts, but the technology is getting there. The real world is never like it is in the movies or TV, but it’s clear that this type of voice recognition/artificial intelligence technology combo has a bright and useful future.

IRIS 9000 – Use Siri From Dock

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IRIS 9000
IRIS 9000

ThinkGeek has put out a new device for your iPhone 4S. The IRIS 9000 dock with remote.

So you are at home. You plug in your iPhone 4S to charge and sit down to relax. You forget that you need to schedule that appointment in your phone, however, the phone is way over there. What do you do?

The new item, slated for Q1 2012, is a remote system that lets you shout at your phone for answers. You press the remote and ask Siri a question, the speaker system will broadcast the answer to you.

The remote does not have a microphone in it. The “built-in mic” says it can pick up your voice from a distance. So you may have to yell at the top of your lungs if you are in the other room.

Hey Siri! Where’s my wrench?

It’s a great way to keep your schedule set. It might also be a great alarm clock when you have the phone plugged in, and not lying on the bed next to you. This is only for 4S models. Price: $59.99

 

Siri Founder Dag Kittlaus Leaves Apple

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Dag Kittlaus
Dag Kittlaus

Dag Kittlaus has been planning this for a while, reports at AllThingsD. But today, Kittlaus has left Apple and the program he created. All just weeks after Siri debuted.

He created and led speech recognition for Siri. Kittlaus was actually CEO of Siri since 2007. In 2010, Apple bought the software for an undisclosed sum (although Business Insider estimates around $100-200 million). Along with Kittlaus was Adam Cheyer (VP of Engineering), Tom Gruber (CTO), and Gummi Hafsteinsson (VP of Product), who are not expected to leave Apple.

Dag Kittlaus stated this was a mutual departure, planned before Siri was introduced last month. He wants to spend more time with his family in Chicago. He also wants to start brainstorming new ideas.

Siri, in the meantime, still continues to be a hit on the iPhone. The latest commercials show all the things you can now do with your mobile device. It has spawned a Siri clone (called Iris) on Android within 8 hours.

With Nuance Acquisition of Swype, Could We See iPhone, iPad’s Siri with Swype Technology?

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This morning, Michael Arrington reported that Nuance is going to purchase Swype for over $100 million. This is the technology that lets you slide your finger across the on-screen keyboard to spell out words. It is also known that Nuance works with the new Apple product called “Siri”. Therefore, will we see this technology available for Apple keyboards, soon?

Let’s hope so.

Swype is a technology first discovered at TechCrunch a couple years ago. It was incorporated in some smartphones and found by moving the finger around as opposed to tapping, a person could type words a lot faster. This is the video TechCrunch put out in 2009:

Enter in Siri

Siri is the new technology Apple announced earlier in the week. To read more about that, check out Andrew’s article – Apple’s Siri Delivers on the Sci-Fi Dream.

Siri uses Nuance Technology – even though you might not find someone at Apple or Nuance that will say that. Before Siri was purchased by Apple, it had Nuance as the background software. The company tried Vlingo, but it just didn’t fit Siri’s programming.

So is it safe to say that Nuance is part of Siri? Well, unless Apple was working on their own software to replace Nuance, then yes. If they did change, then we would have heard something of them splitting. Let’s not even get into any patent debate that would have been reported if Apple was developing their own software.

As I always say: The possibility is there, but the probability is pretty low.

Swype on iPhone, iPad

Let’s get back to this idea – I used Swype technology and love it. By moving one finger across the screen keeps my eyes on the keyboard and not switching back and forth to what I am typing. Add in the spellcheck and I could be typing 40-45 words a minute on a mobile device (as opposed to 30 words a minute currently). Swype on iPad would be better, especially since most people use a one-hand type method if they are standing with the device coddled in the other arm.

With a personal dictionary, extensive language support and predictive tap suppot, Swype could be a great added feature to the Apple iPhone. Of course, it would also be a great addition to an Android phone, too (which is available with the FlexT9 Android Application).

So far, this is just a pipe-dream. But if it becomes a reality, the Siri application just got a little bit cooler.