"He said Apple's expertise at combining hardware and software gives the company "an incredible advantage" over companies just working on AI with software." What an arrogant tw@@. Apple buy the companies that genuinely create something innovative with h/w and software. Their only contribution is a huge $$$$-pile to spend.
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Siri Held Back by Lack of Advancements in Microphone Technology
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Hmm they bought a fingerprint company and turned it into an innovation centerpiece. At least that's how I look at that one example.
This.
I wish saying something like "never mind" or "no thanks, I'm good" could cause Siri to immediately close and re-lock the device.
I don't know if they have that kind of expertise, but I assume they don't have it at the level of the manufacturer they source their supplies. But, even assuming they do have it now (or they can have it) is it really worth for Apple to invest on this? And this is more the questions I think is left to answer.
Siri (and all these assistants) are more a selling point rather than actually something consumers want... hence putting efforts on improving something that has proved itself in fact not such a big selling point as it was meant to be seems rather contrary to the goal of most businesses... profit.
It feels that the problem is more a hardware one (technology-wise) while I really doubt (with my minimal knowledge on signal processing) that it is more about language and speech recognition and processing. Will Apple work on this? I guess they are as they say. Will they put more effort on this? If Siri (or alike) is not used as they expect it to be used I guess not and just leave it for the market to work on it and catch later on.
Personally I haven't used Siri more than 2-3 times for fun. And I don't know anyone who actually has done something different. And the common issue is not precisely getting your speech recognized and rather having a conversation in a human-like manner, which is... very hard to do still today in the realm of computer science. When that day comes, Siri will be great and also there will be many unemployed people at customer service centers as well...
They bought an element of their product. A great spot by them and full marks for integrating into their security. They didn't create the tech however. Apples power is in being a route to market for others. In todays tech world the ability to integrate is a given, they are nothing special in that regard.
LOL. But, Siri could actually be useful to me when navigating. Now, as it happens, I live in The West (West of the 100th Meridian, etc.). So what? Well, in The West it so happens that place names are pretty much a mixture of English and Spanish almost everywhere. And, in a few more northerly places, French. It sure would be nice if Siri could be programmed to listen in mixed Spanish/English pronunciation. With a little more help, English, Spanish, and French. I tried this again recently in a location where the streets were a maze of poorly marked streets, it was dark anyway, and every other street was an English or Spanish name. Totally useless. I just ended up stopping and looking at the map every 30 seconds.
I'm not sure why this is such a difficult AI problem (apparently).
Keeping in mind the finger pointing here is being done by analysts and not Apple.
Agreed, the original Echo, and the new Dot both sport 6 microphones with "far field" beam forming processing. Alexa works well in our house from over 20 feet away and around corners. We are pretty happy, especially with the open support of so many home automation systems like Insteon, Samsung Smart Things and Harmony Remotes. I don't think Apple can do this on their own, or I wouldn't use an Apple only solution.
I gave Siri a shot for the first couple years, now it's permanently off. The 'improvements' in the 5 years since launch has been quite mediocre.
Well then anybody can do what Apple does, right? Apples forte is innovation not invention. It's not a given that everyone does it right or great.
Yeahh, no. Siri is held back by Tim & Co.
As pretty clearly evidenced by the departure from Apple of the guys who founded Siri (and their reasons): http://www.wired.com/2014/08/viv/
As pretty clearly evidenced by the departure from Apple of the guys who founded Siri (and their reasons): http://www.wired.com/2014/08/viv/
Then why is Siri so inferior to Google Now and Cortana (if you're about to dispute this go pick up an Android phone first). Do they not have the will? They haven't put their mind to it? That seems pretty dumb considering how much they've hyped and marketed Siri. Maybe they're just not as good.
Apple is on a media blitz lately with lots of interviews from executives down playing issues and making excuses for performance!
It's like they are on defensive ahead of their dreaded September announcement (otherwise known as Apple's day of shame)
I was thinking the same thing I never considered the microphone to be outdated but it makes sense
No experience with the others, but Alexa messes up plenty for one of my friends who uses it. I never use Siri and I don't think I'd ever use any of those devices until it becomes more accurate and useful. Idk if at 26 I can be behind the times, but most of the new tech is not really useful for me. I still get every new iPhone because why not upgrade the thing you use more than anything else throughout the day, but I guess that's why I'm still on a 2008 MBP until Apple releases something that'll give me a reason to upgrade. *hopes and prays new MBP is awesome*
I rarely use Siri, but I definitely agree Alexa is no better. Never used the others either. I'm sure they all have their ups and downs. Easier for me just to navigate to whatever I'm looking for pretty much all the time though. I forget the phone even has Siri lol.
Perhaps the microphone companies need to get with the hearing aid companies on how they improve voice recognition and manage background noise, directional audio etc. I just tried out a new pair of Oticon OPN Hearing Aids and they are superb in managing background noise, handling the audio by scanning audio 100 times per second to distinguish speech from background noise. Oh and their iPhone compatible too so you can pair them.
I have both Siri (in an iPhone6) and Alexa. Alexa can hear me clearly from across the room with both the A/C and music going. Siri cant hear clearly from 3 inches away. Alexa seems to have figured it out, Apple hasn't, regardless of what actually causes the issue.
