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Apr 12, 2001
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In addition to its main office in Cupertino, Apple maintains a number of satellite offices in different cities in the United States. One such office is located in Boston, and according to industry sources that spoke to Xconomy (via 9to5Mac) Apple's Boston team specializes in speech technology and may be working on Siri improvements.
Based on their online job profiles, we can say that members of the Apple speech team here are working on Siri, the company's voice-activated virtual assistant. Details beyond that are hard to come by, however, even for others in the field.

"They won't tell us what they're doing," says Jim Glass, who heads MIT's Spoken Language Systems Group. "We can only guess."
Apple's Boston team is said to be made up of employees that formerly worked at VoiceSignal Technologies, a speech software company that was purchased in 2007 by Apple partner Nuance.
iphone_4s_siri.jpg
Multiple members of the team worked at Nuance before moving onto Apple, including Gunnar Evermann, Larry Gillick, and Don McAllaster. Gillick, a former vice president of research at Nuance, lists his job as "Chief Speech Scientist, Siri at Apple," while McAllaster calls himself a "Senior Research Scientist" at the company.

While it is unclear just what the Boston Siri team is working on, Xconomy speculates that Apple could potentially be working on a Siri solution that moves away from Nuance, the technology that currently powers the personal assistant.

It would not be out of the question for Apple to aim for improved Siri software using its own in-house technology. The company has made moves to be more autonomous over the past few years, most recently switching to in-house mapping with iOS 6 rather than continuing to rely on Google Maps. Both former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and current Apple CEO Tim Cook have emphasized the importance of owning technology. "In the business we're in, own the technology," said Cook in an interview. "Steve was laser focused on that and that's ingrained in us."

Though it is possible that Apple is working on its own in-house voice recognition solution, the team could also be seeking to improve the integration of Nuance's technology into Siri. Apple could also be working on new developer APIs to better integrate Siri with existing iOS apps.

Apple has been working hard to improve Siri since the software's debut in 2011. With iOS 6, Siri gained the ability to provide sports scores, make reservations, launch apps, and locate movie listings. In iOS 7, Siri will see further improvements, including speed enhancements, better pronunciation, and new voices.

Article Link: Apple's Boston Team Working on Siri Enhancements
 

Kwill

macrumors 68000
Mar 10, 2003
1,595
1
Nothing said

So the news is that members of the Apple speech team aren't talking.
 

AngerDanger

Graphics
Staff member
Dec 9, 2008
5,452
29,002
I'm still waiting for Apple to allow a few key functions to work offline; I should be able to ask Siri to play music without relying on servers to respond. We had this with voice control.

siri is just a gimmick. apple used it to sell the 4s.

I use it all the time, and it's extremely helpful… when it works.
 
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Shrink

macrumors G3
Feb 26, 2011
8,929
1,727
New England, USA
Please, Boston team, do not give her a Boston accent! :rolleyes:

Actually, there is no single Boston accent. The accent in Brighton is different from the Dorchester accent, which is different from the Southie accent...if one can hear the differences.

And the Brahmins have an accent all their own.

Watch what you wish for....they could go totally postal and just out of spite give it a Bronx accent!:D
 

iSteve-O

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2011
233
57
Yes, it's important to own the technology.

So they purchased Siri, while Google created the better performing Google Now.
 

pirg

macrumors 6502a
Apr 18, 2013
618
0
Actually, there is no single Boston accent. The accent in Brighton is different from the Dorchester accent, which is different from the Southie accent...if one can hear the differences.

And the Brahmins have an accent all their own.

Watch what you wish for....they could go totally postal and just out of spite give it a Bronx accent!:D

A Bronx accent would be tenfold better than a Boston one :D
 

irDigital0l

Guest
Dec 7, 2010
2,901
0
That's good but Google Now is still ways ahead.

And why did Apple replace Google search with Bing search?

lol
 

pirg

macrumors 6502a
Apr 18, 2013
618
0
Yes, it's important to own the technology.

So they purchased Siri, while Google created the better performing Google Now.


I think it's safe to assume that Google utilized one or multiple companies that they purchased to help them with Google Now

What are you talking about basesloaded? I Steve o is right, Google had zero help with Google now....

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Google

Oh darn...i hate facts! :rolleyes:
 

zioxide

macrumors 603
Dec 11, 2006
5,737
3,726
siri is just a gimmick. apple used it to sell the 4s.


It's more than just a gimmick, there are legitimate uses.

I use it all the time to change songs in my car. Hell of a lot safer to just press the button and call out what song I want to hear than to be fiddling with a touch screen while driving.
 

wizard

macrumors 68040
May 29, 2003
3,854
571
Siri will come into its own when processed locally.

Obviously trips to a server will be needed for some queries but right now far to much traffic is generated by Siri. So what we need is a combination of AI improvements and processor performance improvements to allow for the majority of Siri speech recognition and AI processing to be done locally on a device.

I'd be shocked if this want the goal of their development work. Wandering the net to fulfill a query is one thing but much of what people want out of Siri doesn't require a trip to an Apple server. Of course you need improvements to the base voice recognition.
 

Todd B.

macrumors 6502
May 1, 2013
434
1
siri is just a gimmick. apple used it to sell the 4s.

Voice search is a gimmick, period.

Whether it's Apple, Google, or whoever else. Doesn't mean it's not nice to have but to think there's actual, widespread usage of it is just being naive.
 

wizard

macrumors 68040
May 29, 2003
3,854
571
Or you could turn on the radio and let the DJ change the records for you.

It's more than just a gimmick, there are legitimate uses.

I use it all the time to change songs in my car. Hell of a lot safer to just press the button and call out what song I want to hear than to be fiddling with a touch screen while driving.
 
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