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Siri Envy? Iris Brings Some Voice-Assistant Features to Android
Of all the upgrades that distinguish the new iPhone 4S from its predecessors, probably the feature that's gotten the most attention is the voice-based personal assistant app called Siri, which allows a user to accomplish certain tasks almost entirely by voice. A few days ago, as reported by TechCrunch, a team of Android developers came up with an Android equivalent to Siri called Iris (spell that backwards). It took them only 8 hours to have a working, if imperfect, app to play with and submit to the Android Market. This quick video review of Iris says the app is unpolished, but shows promise. For now, it generates some accurate results, and some amusing ones.
You asked "How is Iris like Siri?" ... I don't know."
"One moment
"How is Iris different from Siri?" ... Iris is backwards."
You asked "How is Iris different from Siri?"
"One moment
"Should this have been posted on slashdot?" ... That is what idle.slashdot.org is for."
You asked "Should this have been posted on slashdot?"
"One moment
"Do I look lame talking to my phone when nobody's there?"
You asked "Do I look lame talking to my phone when nobody's there?"
"As opposed to the rest of the time?"
This reminds me of when the Chinese tried to copy a 747. They made it out of wood, and got the center of gravity wrong. Is it a plane?
In the youtube demo, it missed every question.
I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.
Does Android do anything original?
Because Siri is original? And so is a black rectangle with rounded edges?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Siri was developed from technology created at the SRI in Palo Alto. It was a company which used technology spun of from CALO and PAL, two major (and intertwined) research initiatives funded partially by public funds. Siri spun off and began developing for iOs, Android and the Blackberry.
Apple simply bought Siri and shut down development for Android and the Blackberry. The core technologies remain available at https://pal.sri.com/Plone - it is not a matter of Apple having developed anything original at all.
mmmmk.
The real Siri grew out of one of the largest artificial intelligence Darpa funded projects ever. Then SRI raised 24 million to continue development. Then Apple bought the company and threw a lot of man hours refining it further.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siri_(software)
And they successfully copied it in a few hours? Should fit right in on the Android app store.
Siri is much more than voice recognition. However, it was not developed by Apple. It was a 3rd party application created out of a bigger AI product, and was originally going to target all the smartphone platforms. Apple simply bought the firm and the technology, and shut down development for other platforms.
It's close enough for spec-sheet comparisons, which is pretty much what many Android manufacturers (and more than a few fans of the platform) fall back on.
Butbubut, it's got Super-Ultra-XVSAMOLED, 4+MEGA LTE-MAX and 2TB of flash. As soon as Fruitcake or Peach Flan comes out, it'll totally crush iOS!! Well, yeah, right now it might be a little buggy, and yeah, the interface hangs on occasion, and perhaps it's limited to 3G until the manufacturer releases an update that your carrier might not actually support, but the potential is there! Honest!
Disclosure: I have, and really like, my BlackBerry 9900; I've no skin in this game per se, but Apple really does present a cohesive, usable platform with most of the rough edges filed off. Maybe, maybe ICS will have closed the gap, but this kind of relentless focus on user experience isn't really Android's forte any more than Ubuntu comes even remotely close to Mac OS X.
Disclosure 2: I own both a PlayBook, iPad and LG Optimus Pad. The first and last, despite having box specs that more or less than meet Apple's unit, don't best the daily experience. For example, the PlayBook can play back 1080p; the iPad can maybe manage 720p, but the PlayBook's browser stutters and it's a bastard to type on and it lacks native e-mail. The LG has an even more broken browser (yes, you can get alternatives; they're not much better than stock) and a marginally-better keyboard, and the home screen stutters. How, in this day and age, can you ship a tablet with a subpar browser and mail client, when the 800lb Gorilla in the market nails all the basics perfectly. So they can both play back 1080p and both support Flash? So what?
Half-assed chasing of Siri is the same kind of thing. Apple doesn't own a big chunk of the market (and a bigger chunk of it's profits) because they have the most powerful, first out of the blocks and/or most open. They're doing it because their stuff doesn't exceed consumers' fiddle tolerance.
--srj/mmv
Apple didn't shout "Me too!". They quietly demonstrated how well it worked.
There are people who are going to think Apple did it first, just like they do with GUIs, smartphones and tablets. The onus is on the whole rest of the industry to start delivering products and services that work as well as Apple's do so that Apple can't keep using that strategy. Currently, the whole rest of the industry seems content to look like chumps and, yes, "Me-too"-ists.
--srj/mmv
I'm still forced to have BB for work, but my wife has android. She has had a few voice apps and not sure which one she is currently using, but I think it may be called something like vlingo (or at least one of them was). She now does just about everything by voice. When she is in the car she turns on a setting and whenever she receives a text the phone announces who sent the text and reads it to her, etc, etc, etc.
Haven't seen Siri, but seems Android has "had some apps for that" for some time.
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
Some sample queries I fed Iris:
Q: Where can I get a cheeseburger?
A: The bank.
Q: What's the weather like in (my town) tomorrow?
A: Now in (my town) the temperature varies between low points of 26C and highs of 36C (79F and 97F). The conditions are light rain showers during the day. The day after that the temperature will vary between 26C and 37C (79F and 99F) and the conditions will be sunny weather.
(It didn't rain today, and despite the impressive range of temps - way to cover your bases, Iris - it still muffed the highs for today and tomorrow.)
Q: What time is it in Hong Kong?
A: October 23rd 2011, 8:24:52 HKST
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: Probably Washington. It's a state border.
(I live on the east coast.)
Q: What's the population of Canada?
A: The population of Canada is approximately 33,100,000.
Q: How far is it from Chicago to New York?
A: 1,145.16 kilometers (711.57 miles).
Q: Where can I get a recipe for cheesecake?
A: En la esquina, con minifalda.
(Yes, it really said that in Spanish.)
So, yeah - a work in progress. It had no trouble recognizing every single question, it just fell down on many of the answers.
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
Actually, if you really want to see anything that comes close to Siri, it's speaktoit. It's available for free from the Android Market and is very similar to Siri.
Android voice recognition is equivalent to voice commands. "Open Internet Explorer... Highlight Search Box... Type 'weather, return.'"
Siri is a heck of a lot more interesting. Siri is a first grasp at understanding intent. "Is it going to rain tomorrow?" "Text my wife that I'll be there in 5 minutes." "Remind me at 6PM tomorrow to call the doctor." "How do I get home?"
Now, it's not perfect. Siri is damned slow, when it runs at all. And it works a lot better in the sorts of quiet places where you probably shouldn't be talking into a phone. And it was bought by apple, rather than being initially developed by them. But it's interesting in that it forms relational databases about the world around you, and starts to correlate bits of information. It's not just voice recognition, it's meaning recognition.
The ______ Agenda
I have an HTC Evo and an Apple iPad, so I'm well aware of the capabilities and limitations of both Android and iOS. Yes, there are some rough edges on Android, but there are rough edges on iOS as well. Copy and paste doesn't work very well, multitasking is (by design) mostly nonexistent, and there are many missing features. (For example, I would fuck a water buffalo to get Swype on iOS.) Cursor positioning is also better on Android.
This idea that Apple products are magically easy-to-use and perfectly polished is BS. They are good products, usually with fantastic industrial design, and usually very attractive to look at. But there's no magic to the user interface, and Android is really every bit as good.
I think anyone in the media talking up Siri has never actually tried to use the thing. It hardly every understands what you want the first time without clarification, it doesn't work without a constant network location, it can't read back any answers to queries (just pops stuff up on the screen)... its pretty much useless as a real voice control solution. And yes, I *DO HAVE IT* unlike some reviewers.
Considering Apple is pushing Siri but explaining away all it's faults by claiming "uh, well, it's uh. . Still in beta," I'd say your entire post is moot.
Siri is a gimick. It doesn't make the phone any more useful. Neither does Iris. Having a dick-measuring contest between the two is stupid, especially since they BOTH suck right now, and BOTH will presumably get better.
"I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."
If it responds more than 25% of the time with a useful response, then yes indeed it is nothing like Siri.
If it responds with a useful response less than 25% of the time, then yeah it is pretty much the same.
Like Apple did when they introduced Siri? ...cuz, Android had voice recognition and commands long ago. Admittedly, Siri is superior... now. But, DON'T EVEN.
Are you sure about that? Apple released Voice control with the iPhone 3GS on June 19, 2009 and demoed it on Jun 8, 2009. Google followed with Voice Commands in Froyo (2.2) about a year later but supporting only a fraction of the languages supported by the Apple feature.
Siri is more advanced than Voice Control/Voice Commands in that it understands natural language, can remember things like who your wife is, where your work is and where home is and then follow commands in the future when you mention those things. It also is able to follow the context of a conversation. So if you ask about London, England in the previous question and then ask "What's the weather like today", Siri infers that you are asking about London instead of where you currently are unless if you say "What's the weather like here?".
Siri is the off shoot of work at DARPA with SRI international on the PAL/CALO project. PAL stand for Personal Assistant that Learns. Good luck implementing AI in a couple of days.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Siri is a heck of a lot more interesting. Siri is a first grasp at understanding intent. "Is it going to rain tomorrow?" "Text my wife that I'll be there in 5 minutes." "Remind me at 6PM tomorrow to call the doctor." "How do I get home?"
We told SIri, "Eat shit" and she listed local restaurants in order from worst to best.
Yeah, the first iPhone OS was well thought-of and intuitive, but after that it just relies on the user having to know some secrets to get it to work, e.g., who would've figured out that double-tapping the Home button on the lock screen would load Siri? That to move icons, group or delete apps on the home screen you have to hold them until they wiggle, and to group them you have to drag one onto another? Intuitive my butt...
Not that Android apps are any better. On some apps, hitting back actually means "go to the previous screen", even if that means leaving that app. But on my music player, if I load it, it goes to the "Now Playing" screen, which is the least useful screen since I can pause or skip songs on that screen, but I can do that from outside the app as well, so why would it show me that screen? Ok this is just nitpicking, it can't read my mind. But usually I open up the music app because I want to load up a different song. So I press the music app icon, I see the "Now playing" screen. Let's see, how do I see all songs? I press the menu button. No such option. I hit back. Ah, there it is. Real fucking intuitive..!
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
And so is the equivalent that Google Voice Actions provides, apart from not being able to set appointments, I don't see anything that Siri can do that Google Voice Actions can't. The only major difference I see is natural language support with Siri, but it's still limited to the same basic list of tasks and comes with the downside of having to figure out what's being said and match that up to a particular command rather than just identifying the command.
Looking at the list of Siri features, I'm not seeing anything that makes me want Siri.
Siri is a gimick. It doesn't make the phone any more useful.
I used to think this about voice control, then Apple made it work in the iPhone 4 and now I use it a lot. Everything is a gimmick until someone does it well enough.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
It doesn't matter if you're the first to do it, what matters is if you're the first to do it well and are successful at it. Ford wasn't the first to make cars, and yet he's remembered as the father of the modern car industry. The dustbin of history is filled with failures who were there first ( and Apple nearly went in that dustbin once.)
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
I have been using an app called voice actions on my Android phone for several months. It does text messaging and email quite well. It seems they recently renamed it to Jeannie. Check it out instead of this useless app. Market link
I Don't Work Here
Exactly. Might as well say "The GUI is a gimmick. It doesn't make the phone any more useful." because you can do things via the command line instead. The command line is in many ways more flexible and more powerful, but for a lot of everyday tasks a GUI is just plain simpler and faster.
I use Siri all the time, even when I'm not driving/hiding the phone in my jacket. Earlier today, I told Siri, "Remind me when I leave the house in the morning, or by noon, that I need to stop by Mom's house and fix her router." 5 seconds to say + 5 seconds for Siri to process and confirm, and my reminder was set up. I certainly could have done this manually, but Find Reminders app -> Open Reminders app -> Add new reminder -> Add "when I leave the house" geofence criterion -> Add "At noon tomorrow" criterion -> Type "Stop by Mom's house and fix her router" into description field -> Save is unquestionably going to take longer.
Voice control is far more than just a gimmick.
Good question about younger generations. Just accept that the younger generation can never full grasp history because they will only ever learn about the products that either made it or that became legendary despite failing. That's why living it firsthand is such an awesome thing. That said, I'm tired of people with that Tourette Syndrome-like need to point out that Apple didn't invent X or Y. Apple is constantly the first to deliver new technologies as stock as opposed to a third-party tacked on upgrade. Regarding Siri, I truly don't give a damn if Apple didn't create the technology behind it. From all I've read, Apple hasn't attempted to conceal the fact that the tech comes from elsewhere, and I know of no Apple fanatics who are declaring that Apple invented it. What I have seen are Apple haters claim that Apple lovers are constantly making such statements. Apple merely has masterfully integrated that technology with a good product, and then shipped that product out to customers at a price that makes the product very accessible. And because Apple excels at doing this, Apple creates new markets and reduces the risks for the guys who follow. That is pure genius. And I say this as I look a Moto Xoom and wonder to myself: $800? How the hell did Motorola expect to sell any? Now, I don't know if I can ever use Siri. For me, there's something eerie about talking to a computer device and having it talk back. No thanks. I'd stick to good old Virtual Girlfriend Teri!
That remaining 67% is pretty important, it turns out. Google's voice-search app has been available for a long time on the iPhone as well, but it doesn't know what to do with Remind me to pick up lettuce at the grocery store or Wake me in two hours. (Also, and sadly typical of Google these days, its usability has degraded over time due to Google apparently hiring a team of monkeys on meth to maintain it, but that's neither here nor there.)
I could point to several posts I made when the 4S was announced (on other forums with other account names) mocking the idea behind Siri and speech recognition in general. I got my phone a couple of days ago, and I am singing a different tune now. Siri is unquestionably more useful than a simple voice-search app.
Siri is not "awesome" by any means... but, because it has a ridiculously good speech recognizer, and because its back end runs on a central server with every single instance of attempted usage available to the developers for refinement and curation, I believe it will indeed reach the "awesome" level eventually. Search is nowhere near the most important part of a system like this.
I had a good laugh all week at a few people trying to use the FAIL that is Siri at work, it seems apple forgot that the majority of the world doesn't talk with an american accent. It is less accurate than the voice activation on phones from 4 or 5 years ago.
Really? Then you probably haven't used it in any practical way. Yesterday I asked "what's the circumference of a circle of diameter 3cm?". Try it. Now think about the practical applications, particularly when it moves out of Beta and it supports a decent hands-free way of addressing (cue Scottie "Computerrrr..."). I already use Google and Wolfram Alpha for practically any query when I'm at a computer, having an effective interface to do the same thing when I'm doing a practical task is amazing. I realise Apple didn't invent it, but as usual they've made it practical and widely available.