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  • Author Author: Catwell
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Siri, Say Hello to your New Competitor, Microsoft's Cortana

Catwell

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Cortana in action (via WPC)


One of the biggest features of Apple's mobile OS is its voice recognition tool, Siri. Siri allows users to ask questions such as “are there any taco restaurants around” and will process the question and give the user an appropriate answer - we know the deal. Most impressively, Siri is good at understanding people's everyday language. Users can speak how they normally would to another person and Siri can interpret the meaning correctly or will ask questions to get a better understanding of what was asked. This is a demonstration of the recent technological advances in the area of speech recognition.

 

Since Siri has been so successful it is only natural for Apple's competitors to come with their own versions of personal assistants for their mobile products. The latest versions of Android software now comes equipped with Google Now, Google's very own intelligent personal assistant. Google Now comes as part of the Google Search application and can learn and adapt over time to a user's search habits. Now, Microsoft is set to soon join the voice recognition competition by releasing its  own personal assistant, currently known as Cortana.

 

The name Cortana stems from the popular Halo series on Microsoft's Xbox consoles. Cortana is a fictional AI character who feeds information to the main character. With Window's newest phone update Cortana will take the form of an animated circular icon which will change shape when speaking or processing information. Additionally, much like Google Now, Cortana will be capable of keeping track of user's previous search requests and use this information to better process requests in the future. Cortana will also attempt to learn a user's schedule and goals. Using this information it will then find and offer useful information to the user.

 

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  • in reply to johnbeetem

    Hi John,

     

    A great description as to why context is always so important when asking questions.

    Now if you asked for Uma Thurman and it showed you poison ivy, then you have to question the decision tree being used to parse your information.

     

    DAB

  • I once saw a full-page advert for Siri in the New Yorker.  The human had asked: "What does poison oak look like?"  Siri replied: "This may answer your question", with a photograph of... poison ivy.

     

    I guess their East Coast advertising agency thinks all trifoliates look the same image  Either that, or they first tried asking Siri what poison ivy looks like and got Uma Thurman.

  • I think the oral interface is a great way to make technology more accessible to people.

     

    Talking and asking questions is a normal part of social interaction.  Advancing technology to engage in dialog is a great way to "Humanize" the acceptance and control the amount of information transferred to the user.  Some people are completely overwhelmed by the amount of data on their smart phones and computers.  Having voice control can reduce the information to just the requested data.  Keeping things simple enhances the experience.

     

    DAB