SIRI story from the BBC 8th June

[welcome2macintosh]

This is a bit of a strange story on the BBC website in the UK today (8/6/16)

I will post the link below so the story can be read in full and in context but basically it tells the story of how a baby's life was saved by SIRI as it called the Emergency Services for the mother.

To summarise, mother hears child is unwell, grabbed her phone and ran into her child's bedroom but dropped the phone and couldn't find it however she was able to use SIRI functionality to get the phone to call Emergency Services on speakerphone.

Now I am confused here as I thought that SIRI functionality only worked when plugged in "Hey SIRI" or when you summon SIRI using the home button and as the phone could not be located and had been moved from the mothers bedroom it cannot have been plugged in nor the home button pressed. Am i missing something, not discounting the story as I think SIRI is a very clever and useful innovation but not sure that this is quite right.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36471180

 

[mds1256]

She has a 6s which has Hey Siri functionally when not plugged in:

Quote from article: "The function doesn't work on all iPhone models but Ms Gleeson has an iPhone 6S."

 

[welcome2macintosh]

Ahh thanks for that I have a 6 and often think would like SIRI to play a different track in iTunes but phone is not plugged in and I am plastered in mess from cooking, paint etc. I didn't realise 6S offered that and it explains the story so thanks for clarification.

 

[bufffilm]

The 6s being my very first smartphone, I was eager to try out Siri.

Alas, the limited functionality of Siri plus Siri's inability to understand what I told it many times meant I gave up after about 2 weeks.

Siri needs to be improved. Android has a much better implementation.

 

[HEK]

The 6s being my very first smartphone, I was eager to try out Siri.

Alas, the limited functionality of Siri plus Siri's inability to understand what I told it many times meant I gave up after about 2 weeks.

Siri needs to be improved. Android has a much better implementation.

Understands me just fine. Seems certain voices don't work well, others do. I use it a lot to set timers.

 

[off_piste]

It's pretty frustrating. It doesn't respond half the time to "Hey, Siri." It responds 100% of the time when I respond to my daughter with "Yes, Zoë."

 

[HEK]

It's pretty frustrating. It doesn't respond half the time to "Hey, Siri." It responds 100% of the time when I respond to my daughter with "Yes, Zoë."

Try re recording the greeting. Perhaps with no background noise. What can it hurt, takes just as long as complaining or retrying.

 

[LCPepper]

I've always wondered how much extra battery this takes on the 6S.

I have got it turned off, but never really thought to pay attention to see if there is a difference in the battery life.

 

[bufffilm]

Understands me just fine. Seems certain voices don't work well, others do. I use it a lot to set timers.

Don't think the problem is with my voice. My voice commands work pretty well w/an android device when I tried it.

 

[HEK]

Don't think the problem is with my voice. My voice commands work pretty well w/an android device when I tried it.

Well let's look at what is different. Siri same on various phones, pretty safe bet microphone is same. Software should be same from one iPhone to another. Sorta leaves the most significant difference between one person, who doesn't seem to have a problem, and one that does, the voice difference between the two individuals.

Perhaps other voice recognition software, on other platforms is better, maybe not. Maybe one voice type tends to be recognized better on one software/manufacturer than another. That's really neither here nor there. As to why some people have difficulties with Siri, while others don't. Seems to me at least, boil down to differences in voice tone, frequencies, accents etc.

Would be interesting to have someone with difficulties swap iPhones with someone that does not have issues with Siri. And see if the problem follows a particular phone, or follows a particular person. Voice recognition is still developing. I for one have found that both Siri, and text speak to words works very accurately for me. However clear enunciation, and not running words together seems to be important in reducing errors.

I will note that on occasion my son's iPhone Siri has responded to my voice. Thinking it is my son. So our voices must be close. Only happened a few times but found it interesting.

 

[bransoj]

I've always wondered how much extra battery this takes on the 6S.

I have got it turned off, but never really thought to pay attention to see if there is a difference in the battery life.

I've had it turned on since i got the 6S and never noticed it causing an issue with battery. Have a read of the link below which says how there is an integrated low power processor that does it and its not actually always listening.

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2015/10/...ing-for-the-hey-siri-command-most-of-the-time

 

[Newtons Apple]

The 6s being my very first smartphone, I was eager to try out Siri.

Alas, the limited functionality of Siri plus Siri's inability to understand what I told it many times meant I gave up after about 2 weeks.

Siri needs to be improved. Android has a much better implementation.

Siri does great for me. Can not believe how well it understands what I am saying.
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I've always wondered how much extra battery this takes on the 6S.

I have got it turned off, but never really thought to pay attention to see if there is a difference in the battery life.

Do not even notice a battery usage increase. Try it, won't hurt a bit.

 

[pmau]

If you are not speaking English and you are not asking about US centric topics, Siri is horrible.
The kick-off of the European Soccer Championship will be this afternoon.
Try to ask Siri about that.