Siri is born. It is a beta. It is quite impressive out of the gate. This is serious Sci Fi stuff.

We are one year from full on conversations with our iPhones.

In 1996, Pepsi boy introduced the newton. The commercials for it are what we are finally seeing.

I talk, and my iPhone does what I ask. This will become pervasive. We are but in beta.

This is the single differentiator for the iPhone. It is the future.

All future smartphones will be judged on voice input.

Android has had this in it’s nascent stage, and 4S puts it to shame.

We are one evolution away from an entire voice operated OS.

Thanks Steve…

Unique - 11 October 2011 10:16 PM

In one year we will look back and reflect on the productivity improvements that Siri has enhanced in our lives. This is only the beginning of the new era.

The future is bright.

This is what I was trying to convey with thoughts on a voice controlled Apple television, or an Apple developed credit card/payment system at check out counters.  Oh geez, I just had a thought about that.  Instead of putting something like a credit card reader at check out stands, give sales staff an iPod Touch equipped with SIRI and the Store’s invoicing system.  Customer is “rung up” on the iPod Touch, payment is made via customer’s iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad via voice command (no swiping), invoice is emailed to customer’s email account.  Store gets paid from Apple’s “credit card” services (less 1% of gross sale).  Apple is re-imbursed from an ACH transaction with the customer’s bank.

hmm, I wonder what Ron Johnson is preparing JC Penney for.

What’s 1% of JC Penney’s annual gross revenue (plus sales tax)?  Now add Federated Stores, K-Mart/Sears, Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Costco, Home Depot, (you get the idea).  Now do the same thing in Great Britain, China, Germany, France, Canada, Japan, Australia, and on, and on, and on.

We are one iteration away from any keyboard impact. Voice.

Everything else is noise.

The communicator is here.

As much as I look forward to filling my ticket reports by voice alone, I’m not sure were at at age yet, even when Siri comes out if Beta. There are so many factors in getting a voice recognition system to work reliably, ambient noise being a biggie. Carp microphones another.

Given the quality of voice streams on internet games (where voice communication is key) people still sound like they’re eating their mics. Poor quality, poor positioning, poor calaibration, take your pick.

In a pesonak use example I was in change of the computer/hardware end of demoing a English Languange Leaner program for kids a few years back. It worked fairly well save the biggest issue, which was the poor quality if the MacBook bult-in microphones. No one belived me and just told the kids to speak close to the mic *roll eyes*. It wasnt until I brought 3 different mics I had at home (one blue tooth, on Logitech cheap stand mic, and my prized 60 dollar voice dictation mic with noise cancellation tech, that I was able to make the point.

Two of the kids had really thick accents that the program wasnt getting at all (despite the fact that we could understand them quite clearly). Neither the bluetooth or Logitech mics helped. It was the fancey and specialized dictation mic that was needed. The program never got out of the trail due to lack of funding ultimately.

Just round about making the anecdotal point. I’ll believe it when I see/hear it off the stage an working I the wild.

Dorje Sylas - 12 October 2011 10:42 AM

As much as I look forward to filling my ticket reports by voice alone, I’m not sure were at at age yet, even when Siri comes out if Beta. There are so many factors in getting a voice recognition system to work reliably, ambient noise being a biggie. Carp microphones another.

There is a fundamental difference between speech recognition on a computer and on a phone. In the case of the iPhone, two factors make that difference: proximity (you hold your phone up to your ear when you talk into it) and noise cancellation technology.

Speech recognition in the iPhone is optimised for the level and quality of audio coming from a source that is at a very predictable distance from the microphone. Apple in fact encourages user to hold the phone the way they usually do (Siri is turned on automatically if you put a phone up to your ear without making a phone call).

The noise cancellation technology (both hardware and software) works extremely well, which can be easily confirmed by those whose friends use iPhone 4 (and now 4S). There is in fact a demo on YouTube of Siri, where the user talks to his iPhone in a very fast way, mangling syllables and swallowing consonants (ordinary person would need to listen carefully in order to understand it) and this is in an environment with a lot of background noise. Siri transcribed each phrase flawlessly.

Speech recognition has come a long way, and on a phone, it has distinct advantages over a desktop computer.

I posted this in a different thread in regard to why no SIRI yet in the iPad but it is worth repeating.

The video is a demonstration of the voice cancellation features in iPhone 4.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdUtsAA1y2k&feature=player_embedded#!

Ifixit has a detailed teardown.

Thank you for the detail info about SIRI.

I really need to see some usage data. In my Software Specification and Design class tonight we discussed this issue.  Two people had actually used a voice interface, one with Siri, one with VUI.  Both gave it up after a relatively short time.

I’m still waiting for an iphone4s but I have dragon dictation on my iphone4 and always wondered why it wasn’t integrated into the os.  Just the speech recognition is useful as why can’t type on an iPhone as quickly as they can talk.  To put it in perspective consider the app swipe.  It’s universally loved for increasing typing speed maybe 25% after much practice.  How much does Siri increase input speed by?

Combine the ai features of Siri and you really have another game changer.  Let’s hope apple can expand its data centers quickly enough to handle all the Siri demand across future devices.