Siri

= Siri = toc In October of 2011, the beta version of Siri was introduced as Apple’s voice controlled “virtual intelligent assistant” as the key feature of the iPhone 4s. Siri was acquired by Apple in 2008, where it was originally apart of “Stanford Research Institute where it was part of a DARPA-financed artificial intelligence project called CALO, or Cognitive Agent that Learns and Organizes. Apple has introduced voice recognition as a new user interface (UI) for their products. Voice control is nothing new Apple “innovates” with Siri since she can recognize natural voice instruction. Siri “allows you to use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more”. To access Siri you can either put the phone to your head or hold down the home button. Then you speak your query and Siri processes this information in the cloud through apples servers. Apple’s innovation lies in Siri’s artificial intelligence roots and the relatively accurate natural voice recognition.

 Voice control, before Siri, required a strictly controlled vocabulary to function. Siri can handle instructions such as, “I want a burger” and then understands the context of the statement to find a restaurant that sells hamburgers near your location. This is accomplished by combining several different technologies. On the frontend there is “Siri” that is given personality by its artificial intelligence and gives the user a sense that there is actual communication. When Siri is asked, “tell me a joke.” Siri answers, “I can’t. I always forget the punchline.”. This exchange gives Siri a personality and simulates an interaction with another being, notice the self-referential sentence structure. Behind the pretty face Siri is essentially a cloud based service that uses established voice recognition software of Nuance. The combination of these two technologies makes Siri a uniquely Apple experience. Siri’s AI also gives Siri the ability to adapt and learn the idioms of an individuals voice pattern. Apple has not really created something new with Siri but has refined voice controlled interface to be an attractive, viable, and a fun UI.

What Siri Has to Offer
Siri is integrated into many of the key features of the iOS 5, but only on the iPhone 4s. With Siri you can set appointments and alarms with a simple phrase such as, “Wake me up at 8 in the morning”. Siri has the ability to set location aware reminders. Just say, “remind me to pick up may cleaning when I leave work” and Siri uses the phones GPS to remind you based off your location. Siri can also read text messages through voice command and then allows you to dictate a response to text message without ever physically touching the device. Siri’s searches by voice command. She is able to make quick searches using either Wolfram|Alpha, Wikipedia, and when all else fails she will Google for you. The simplification everyday tasks are the strength of Siri. But there are limitations. Siri is in beta so she is not fully integrated into all functions of the phone. When you present a query Siri will decided what search function to utilize to answer a question. You cannot tell Siri to search Google. Siri also only operates in 3 dialects of English, with support of French, and German.

 Dictation is another useful feature of Siri. You can dictate emails, text messages, and tweets by holding down the microphone icon on the keyboard. Siri is very accurate but requires the user to command changes in paragraphs, and punctuation. Dictation is a welcome addition to Siri’s repertoire but is not any more robust than Nuance’s Dragon Dictation. Yet again, Siri is not a completely new technology but the integration at the system level makes it easier to utilize these features organically. Siri’s beta status retains some limitations but her capabilities are still head of most other voice controlled options on other platforms.

 Apple defined Integration of Siri:  ‍‍‍‍  Siri can also assist you with these apps and services in the U.S. in English:  ‍‍  Maps and local search support will be available in additional countries in 2012.  ‍‍
 * Phone
 * FaceTime
 * Music
 * Mail
 * Messages
 * Calendar
 * Reminders
 * Notes
 * Contacts
 * Alarms
 * World Clock
 * Timer
 * Weather
 * Stocks
 * Web search
 * Wikipedia search
 * Wolfram|Alpha (English only)
 * Find My Friends
 * Maps
 * Local search with Yelp!
 * Maps and local search support will be available in additional countries in 2012.

Siri vs Zypr vs Voice Commands for Android
The current crop of voice command apps are very similar pieces of technology. In the end neither is superior to the other and the choice is depends on the users preferences. Each piece of software performer the same functions. Voice Actions has turn- by-turn navigation natively but Siri that does not have this ability. Siri can use Google maps but can not do turn-by-turn dictation. This may change as Apple when Siri is opened up to third party applications. Voice actions also can call any number from the web where Siri is limited to contacts in the iPhone’s phonebook. With the launch of Android Ice Cream Sandwich users can now active Voice Actions through voice command instead of having to use a physical button to launch the service. Siri's advantage lies in its artificial intelligence and natural language recognition. Apples implementation allows the user to interact with phone naturally and positions it as a an intelligent assistant. Not having to use a control vocabulary really opens up the usability of the program. Zypr can be seen as a combination of both Siri and Voice Actions for Android. It offers the openness of Android with the conversational voice command of Siri. On the other hand, Siri offers an experience that has a personality backed by artificial intelligence and is in many ways aesthetics, Siri simulates the feeling of having an “intelligent assistant”. The simulated personality could provide the impetus to use the service. No matter which voice command UI the user chooses it seem that new side of UI has been opened up to an exciting future.

Voice Command and Information Centers
Voice command is likely to be further implemented beyond smartphones and It is good for information professional to be aware of technology trends. This allows the information professionals to know how to best implement the technology in their intuitions. It could be building apps to integrate with smartphone’s voice command to locate books or even librarians in the information carter. To extend the idea to the extreme libraries could see automated systems that answer patrons quarries through voice command structure first developed for smart phones. Zypr can be seen as a potential way to implement natural language voice command on a large scale and potential inside of information centers.

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**References**
<span style="font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px;">Apple. (2011). iPhone 4s: About Siri. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> Cheng, J. (2011). iPhone 4S: A Siri-ously slick, speedy smartphone. //Arstechnica//. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> Milian, M. (2011). Apples Siri will need to learn some new tricks. //CNN.com//. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> Morgenthaler. G. (2011). Dear Apple: Go Big with Siri and Nuance in iOS 5. //Xconomy.// []

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> Nagappan, R. (2011). Siri wants to be your personal assistant. //Macworld.// <span style="font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> []

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> Paul, I. (2011). Apple's Siri vs. Android's Voice Actions: Feature Showdown. PCworld. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> Ross, R. (2011). Switched on: As Siri Gets Serious. //Engadget//. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> Siegler, M.G. (2011). Siri, Do You Use Nuance Technology? Siri: I’m Sorry, I Can’t Answer That. //Techcrunch//. Retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> The Verg. (2011). Siri says some weird things. Retrived from [|http://www.theverge.com/2011/10/12/2486624/siri-says-some-weird-things#2419559]

<span style="font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> Wopin, S. (2011). Getting serious with Siri. //Tech Goes Strong//. Retrieved from []