Apple's iOS 5 rumored to have 'deep' voice command integration
A new rumor claims Apple plans to vastly improve voice commands on devices like the iPhone and iPad with the anticipated release of iOS 5 later this year.
Apple's "deeply integrated" voice control feature in iOS 5 is expected to be demoed at this year's Worldwide Developer's Conference, according to TechCrunch. The voice control will reportedly be a combination of artificial intelligence and assistance technology, and Apple's team is said to be putting the "finishing touches" on elements that will be demonstrated at WWDC.
The new features are said to stem from technology and personnel Apple obtained through its acquisition of Siri in 2010. Siri is the developer of a personal assistant application for the iPhone, and it allows users to speak to the device in plain conversational English to find information and automatically accomplish tasks, like booking a reservation at a restaurant.
The advanced voice control technology owned by Apple and said to be coming in iOS 5 may even be opened up to developers for use in third-party applications. However, author MG Siegler cautioned that information "isn't quite as concrete."
The latest rumor corroborates a report filed earlier this year by The Wall Street Journal, which claimed that Apple is working on "voice navigation" features in iOS 5. In addition, The New York Times claimed in February that Apple hopes to improve operation of the iPhone through voice commands because some users dislike using a virtual keyboard.
Earlier this month, AppleInsider exclusively reported that Apple is looking to expand its iOS development team with voice control experts. Apple put out three new job listings seeking employees to fill the role of "iOS Speech Operations Engineer."
TechCrunch was first to report this past weekend that Apple may not release iOS 5 until this fall. In years past, major releases of Apple's mobile operating system have arrived alongside a new iPhone in June.
Though Siegler initially speculated that the iPhone 5 could be released as usual in June, simply running a version of iOS 4, numerous reports emerged on Monday that Apple is not expected to release new iPhone hardware at this year's WWDC. A report from overseas claims that Apple has not yet begun ordering components for its fifth-generation iPhone, and the device is not expected to contribute to the company's 2011 fiscal year, placing it on track for a late September or early October launch at the earliest.
Apple announced on Monday that WWDC will kick off on June 6 at San Francisco's Moscone West, where the company plans to "unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS." The annual developers conference sold out in a record 10 hours.
Apple's "deeply integrated" voice control feature in iOS 5 is expected to be demoed at this year's Worldwide Developer's Conference, according to TechCrunch. The voice control will reportedly be a combination of artificial intelligence and assistance technology, and Apple's team is said to be putting the "finishing touches" on elements that will be demonstrated at WWDC.
The new features are said to stem from technology and personnel Apple obtained through its acquisition of Siri in 2010. Siri is the developer of a personal assistant application for the iPhone, and it allows users to speak to the device in plain conversational English to find information and automatically accomplish tasks, like booking a reservation at a restaurant.
The advanced voice control technology owned by Apple and said to be coming in iOS 5 may even be opened up to developers for use in third-party applications. However, author MG Siegler cautioned that information "isn't quite as concrete."
The latest rumor corroborates a report filed earlier this year by The Wall Street Journal, which claimed that Apple is working on "voice navigation" features in iOS 5. In addition, The New York Times claimed in February that Apple hopes to improve operation of the iPhone through voice commands because some users dislike using a virtual keyboard.
Earlier this month, AppleInsider exclusively reported that Apple is looking to expand its iOS development team with voice control experts. Apple put out three new job listings seeking employees to fill the role of "iOS Speech Operations Engineer."
TechCrunch was first to report this past weekend that Apple may not release iOS 5 until this fall. In years past, major releases of Apple's mobile operating system have arrived alongside a new iPhone in June.
Though Siegler initially speculated that the iPhone 5 could be released as usual in June, simply running a version of iOS 4, numerous reports emerged on Monday that Apple is not expected to release new iPhone hardware at this year's WWDC. A report from overseas claims that Apple has not yet begun ordering components for its fifth-generation iPhone, and the device is not expected to contribute to the company's 2011 fiscal year, placing it on track for a late September or early October launch at the earliest.
Apple announced on Monday that WWDC will kick off on June 6 at San Francisco's Moscone West, where the company plans to "unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS." The annual developers conference sold out in a record 10 hours.
Comments
So, new iOS 5 devices will be able to "wreck a nice beach"?
Ding, Did you say "peck a nice peach"
Seriously, they need to think about having the two "professors" on FaceTime on iPads for WWDC.
Just how are they going to achieve this marvel when MacOSX has absolutely rubbish voice recognition?
By improving it?
.....because some users dislike using a virtual keyboard.
Don't get an iPhone then. Go get yourself a droid with that horrid slide out keyboard.
They should update the Mac voice recognition too, it's shocking. Only works with american accents.
Given computer recognition currently falls way short of the human brain and most people can't understand them, it will certainly be the pinacle of computing science when a computer can understand all the English accents!
I have no idea how to spell this but here is an example form one part of England ... "Why mon, I divn't nah what yar talkin' aboot, and diven't hoy yor proddle on the doggy mat in mah hoos."
Just how are they going to achieve this marvel when MacOSX has absolutely rubbish voice recognition?
By throwing the compute power of one of the largest data centres at it?
Apple's new cloud service is not about streaming music (although that may be a part) it is IMHO going to be a slew of services including voice recognition, Siri based artificial intelligence and search, a Apple mapping services linked to all of this and probably language translation services amongst many other things. I predict the end of Apple's use of anything Google although that will be the user's decision.
yup. Siri was remote server based speech recognition, not local CPU.
Just how are they going to achieve this marvel when MacOSX has absolutely rubbish voice recognition?
By using a server based system with far greater computing power as Google does now.
By improving it?
They'll probably work extra hard at getting the App Store app to recognise dialectal variants of "Buy", "Purchase" and "More".
Every couple of months I will test it, and it has never once worked correctly. Tell me, how in the world does "Play, Green Day" sound anything close to "Call, Ray Ramirez"? I mean the first clue should be it telling the difference between, "Call" and "Play". Why is this so difficult? It's useless.
I can't speak for VR on a Mac as I have never tried it...but the voice recognition on my iPhone is awful.
Every couple of months I will test it, and it has never once worked correctly. Tell me, how in the world does "Play, Green Day" sound anything close to "Call, Ray Ramirez"? I mean the first clue should be it telling the difference between, "Call" and "Play". Why is this so difficult? It's useless.
Not sure what app you are referring to but I am staggered at how good the Google App is on the iPhone. It rarely makes a mistake on things I ask for it to search on. I am hopeful the server based system I hope Apple will be launching will be as good. I have an English / American accent too!
I can't speak for VR on a Mac as I have never tried it...but the voice recognition on my iPhone is awful.
Every couple of months I will test it, and it has never once worked correctly. Tell me, how in the world does "Play, Green Day" sound anything close to "Call, Ray Ramirez"? I mean the first clue should be it telling the difference between, "Call" and "Play". Why is this so difficult? It's useless.
That's funny... when I say "Play Green Day", it responds back with "No, Green Day sucks". Then it deactivates itself as punishment to me for even asking.
By using a server based system with far greater computing power as Google does now.
yeah, if it's anything like Googles recognition it will be amazing. 2 days ago I was speaking a text message on an android phone, I started speaking and then my friend standing next to me cut me off and started talking but it managed to perfectly recognize both his and my sentence....thats the only thing I like about Android...though I have the Google app on my iPad and it works just as well as it does on the Android phone.
Apple hopes to improve operation of the iPhone through voice commands because some users dislike using a virtual keyboard.
Yeah, because if you hate typing an e-mail on the keyboard then you'll just LOVE dictating an e-mail.
I've had the Vlingo voice app on my iPhone for about a year now. It's handy for some things like a quick text message but it's a huge PITA when you try to do something more involved like compose an e-mail. Unless you're a professional speaker, chances are you won't do a very good job of dictating an e-mail, and unless the app is 100% accurate (and none are) then you're just going to have to use the keyboard to edit your message anyway. And editing a bunch of mis-recognized text is so much easier than just typing it out to begin with.
Great! now people are going to be walking around talking to their phones....oh wait...err, nevermind.
Having said that, no doubt there will be those that have to walk around talking LOUDLY to there phones as if this impresses everyone around them. How often sitting in airports have I had day dreams of owning a ray-gun that vaporizes such people!