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Rumors suggesting Siri will make its way into OS X have been circulating for years, but the personal assistant has yet to debut on the Mac. A new patent application published by the U.S. patent and Trademark Office and spotted by AppleInsider revives these rumors with the description of an intelligent assistant for the desktop that provides features far beyond the current dictation available in OS X.

siri_mac_patent_help.jpg
The patent application, which was filed in February of this year and based on a provisional application from a year earlier, describes a system that in one iteration can sit in the dock, waiting for touch input or voice commands to activate a personal assistant in a manner similar to Siri in iOS. The assistant would then perform tasks based on input by the user. The same system can function as a third hand, allowing users to interact physically with a mouse and keyboard while simultaneously performing a secondary task using their voice.
Methods and systems related to interfaces for interacting with a digital assistant in a desktop environment are disclosed. In some embodiments, a digital assistant is invoked on a user device by a gesture following a predetermined motion pattern on a touch-sensitive surface of the user device. In some embodiments, a user device selectively invokes a dictation mode or a command mode to process a speech input depending on whether an input focus of the user device is within a text input area displayed on the user device. In some embodiments, a digital assistant performs various operations in response to one or more objects being dragged and dropped onto an iconic representation of the digital assistant displayed on a graphical user interface. In some embodiments, a digital assistant is invoked to cooperate with the user to complete a task that the user has already started on a user device.
siri_mac_patent_globe.jpg
Though Apple is bringing some aspects of iOS to OS X such as Reminders, Apple has yet to integrate Siri into its desktop platform. The feature was not mentioned when Apple unveiled OS X Yosemite, and there is no known evidence in the current beta version of Yosemite that suggests Apple may integrate its personal assistant into future versions of the desktop OS. Still, it is clear Apple is thinking about ways to bring Siri-like features to OS X.

Article Link: 'Siri for Mac' Virtual Assistant Described in New Apple Patent Application
 

Dilster3k

macrumors 6502a
Jul 20, 2014
790
3,206
Obviously we all knew this was coming eventually. :rolleyes:

I think that touch screen feature depicted in the first image is more interesting.
 
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Czicks

macrumors member
Jan 28, 2009
69
0
Virtual assistants on your PC will be the next big thing. Imagine if your computer could accurately parse human speech to get you what you want. All of those tedious computer tasks would be a quick, spoken, sentence away.

Siri, find the email from my boss sent last week that had a PDF attached and referenced 'third quarter.'

or

Okay Google. Show me all excel files opened within the past week that have been modified within the past two weeks.

or

Siri, take a screenshot of the current window and save it as a .png file on the desktop
 

2457282

Suspended
Dec 6, 2012
3,327
3,015
The patten says touch screen? Are we talking Mac or iPad?

If Mac, that will be a change in direction...

VERY interesting....
 

v654321

macrumors member
Aug 6, 2011
78
23
Vilvoorde, Belgium
Interesting discussion introduced in the patent application.

I bet we will never see a patent filing for people/companies claiming to own global warming!
 

zedsdead

macrumors 68040
Jun 20, 2007
3,401
1,148
This will be in 10.11. Long overdue, but somewhat glad it is happening. Siri is great when it works, but sadly it's fail percentage is too high.
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,101
19,603
Great for home, but I doubt I'd use this much at work unless I close my door. Would be great if Siri worked locally on the Mac to process dictation. I'd also like to see that capability extend to the iPhone 6, especially with the rumored beefy A8 chip.
 

mainstreetmark

macrumors 68020
May 7, 2003
2,228
293
Saint Augustine, FL
Why don't we save some development energy and just make siri default to a google search, no matter what you say. Here's some pseudocode:

- Get Human's statement
- Print "Hmm... let me think about that..."
- Sleep 5
- Goto "google.com"
 

anubis

macrumors 6502a
Feb 7, 2003
937
50
I like how they still have to refer to a hard drive as a "C Disk:" so the non-apple-fan 60 year old patent examiner will understand what it is
 
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