“Let’s Talk iPhone” part 2: Siri Makes Voice Recognition Serious

At Apple’s “Let’s talk iPhone” event, Tim Cook and the gang made numerous announcements – some new, some confirmations of old rumors. While the announcement of the iPhone 4S disappointed those hoping for an iPhone 5, the 4S will have some cool new features – a new dual-core processor, a better camera and the latest iOS. But perhaps the most innovative feature will be Siri voice command, which will give busy users a sophisticated level of hands-free control of their iPhones, allowing them to perform both mundane and complex tasks that previous voice command systems found too taxing.

Set to release the Siri iPhone app last year, Siri was a promising, stealthy part of the iPhone app development world until its acquisition by Apple in April 2010 to the (alleged) tune of more than $200 million. The company, spun off from SRI and its work on the CALO artificial intelligence project for DARPA, had been operating since 2007, attempting to bring the AI advancements made in the project to the masses. Created to be a personal assistant to soldiers, CALO was built to comprehend everyday human speech and provide meaningful feedback, getting increasingly better at serving its user the more it’s used.

Siri uses this framework to provide a digital personal assistant to its user while integrating with several online services and databases to help its users perform their desired actions. This merging of advanced voice recognition, basic artificial intelligence and access to a variety of online services allows Siri to perform many duties on command that were previously performed manually.

On the surface, Siri looks like nearly any voice recognition software previously available. Users give voice commands such as “Call Mom” and Siri will carry them out. Where Siri outstrips its competition, however, is in the depth and breadth of commands available. Users aren’t forced to memorize exact command wording, because Siri can understand and contextualize human language, meaning you can say, “What’s the weather like?”, “Is it raining?” or “Should I bring an umbrella to work?” and Siri will know that you want to know the current weather conditions and the day’s forecast and provide it for you.

Because it has access to your phone’s contacts, you can tell Siri to schedule a meeting with Michael Bolton at 4 p.m. on Friday and it will check your calendar for any conflicts, schedule the meeting and send an invite to Michael. Siri has access to services like Yelp, OpenTable, MovieTickets, Bing Answers, Wolfram Alpha and Google, allowing it to assist users with finding restaurants, making reservations, getting directions, finding descriptions for menu items and calculating the tip purely through voice commands. Because the software learns from its user over time, the more it’s used, the more useful it will be, particularly through multiple query interactions.

The release of the iPhone 4S will give users a faster, more useful smartphone. Siri probably won’t be the crown jewel of the native iOS 5 device, but it will likely become the hub of users’ digital lives, allowing them to perform many tasks purely by voice command, often without even taking the phone out of their pockets if they’re using Bluetooth headsets. Siri’s ability to learn about its user will make it a valuable addition to every iPhone and will help it keep its place as the unassuming linchpin of the iPhone user experience.