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Apple's Siri May Soon Process Voice Locally On a Device, No Cloud Required (appleinsider.com)
Proudrooster writes: "Apple wants Siri to become more useful to users when not connected to the internet, including the possibility of an offline mode that does not rely on a backend server to assist with voice recognition or performing the required task, one that would be entirely performed on the user's device," reports Apple Insider. Just give it 10 years and everything old is new again. Siri will join the ranks of Ford/Microsoft Sync and Intel Edison. Do any other phones/cars/speakers have this option right now? The new capabilities are outlined in a recently-published patent application that describes an "Offline personal assistant."
"Rather than connected to Apple's servers, the filing suggests the speech-to-text processing and validation could happen on the device itself," reports Apple Insider. "On hearing the user make a request, the device in question will be capable of determining the task via onboard natural language processing, working out if the requested task as it hears it is useful, then performing it. "
"Rather than connected to Apple's servers, the filing suggests the speech-to-text processing and validation could happen on the device itself," reports Apple Insider. "On hearing the user make a request, the device in question will be capable of determining the task via onboard natural language processing, working out if the requested task as it hears it is useful, then performing it. "
Sorry, I didn't get that...
20 years from desktop to pocket sounds pretty impressive to me!!
And frankly it will probably work better than the old desktop stuff did which moistly did not take off (though Dragon seems to have done well with desktop software).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This really shouldn't be patentable. We had the ability to control computers with voice a quarter-century ago. Not only would there have been patents back then, but those patents would have expired long ago.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
... can perform some tasks offline. I can send an email, navigate, and change phone settings (adjust volume, etc), probably more. I've tested these in aeroplane mode and they worked fine.
... "I'm having trouble with the connection"
That drives me insane. Siri should at least handle voice calls when not connected.
The desktop computers doing it were 16MHz Macintosh LCII models with 4MB RAM
Let me check... nope still cool to have desktop software moved into mobile, even I the mobile processor is more advanced.
I have to think the stuff moving into mobile is a lot more accurate and can handle way more accents/languages than that ancient software though, so it's not like there has been no advancement that makes use of improved hardware.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I discovered an open source project at https://snips.gitbook.io/docum... that already does this. This is not a turnkey device like Siri, but it seems to suggest the the cloud is not required to implement speech recognition.
My Garmin nüvi 3597LMTHD GPS has done this since I bought it in 2013. It's not connected to anything, not wifi, not cellular, and not bluetooth. Where I live (the boonies) the traffic features and even the map updates are pretty pointless, so there's never been a need to connect it to anything. Yet it understands me just fine. And unlike Alexa and others, it allowed me to rename it — it only responds to "yo, bitch", which is just how I like it. :)
Is the unit's understanding of language in general up to par with todays systems? No. But does it work for what it needs to understand? Yes. Very well.
For the home, when and if MyCroft gains a local speech understanding capability, that's the way I'm going. Everything I want to do is local, and the unit can be customized to run just about anything you put together (of course, commercial products aren't that easy to figure out, but that can be done in many cases as well.) Everything that depends on the "cloud" has failures, comm losses, and security concerns. Local is definitely the way to go.
Otherwise, everything you say ends up sent to Google, Amazon, Apple or whoever. And whoever they partner with / roll over for / get hacked by.
I trust Apple a little bit more as they've been pretty clear about being privacy focused, but that door is open for them to do "whatever" with your data, and it is best to keep that in mind. If they go local, that'd be nice. But inasmuch as it's a closed system, whereas MyCroft is an open system... yup, still going MyCroft if they can pull this off.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
iOS already processes voice locally on the device. Cloud is only required for the Siri stuff. As proof, set an iOS device into flight mode, and open anything with an on-screen keyboard: edit a note, draft an email, etc. Tap the microphone icon, and talk. You'll see your speech transcribed with no resort to the cloud. (Misleading Headline is Misleading -- Film at 11.)