CES: Apple's Siri prompts competitors to push their own voice controls
Though Apple is not present at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the company's influence is felt on many of the products there, particularly with respect to new voice control functionality found in smartphones and televisions.
Apple's Siri personal assistant feature found in the iPhone 4S sent competitors scrambling to unveil new voice control features at CES this week, according to Reuters. Spurred by consumer interest in Siri, electronics companies are making voice control an integral feature of computers, smartphones, and even television sets.
The consensus is competing voice control technology demonstrated at CES does not yet outperform Apple's Siri, but the expectation is companies will continue to invest in the technology and result in great improvements in the years to come. Nuance, which licenses its voice recognition technology to Apple for Siri, said competing smartphones with improved speech technology will arrive in the fall of 2012, or one year after Apple launched the iPhone 4S.
While voice control in smartphones is not new, one less common use of voice recognition is with television sets. New HDTVs coming this year from companies like Samsung and LG will feature voice control, aiming to simplify the living room experience.
And Nuance this week also announced Dragon TV, its new platform for voice-controlled television sets. With it, HDTVs could allow users to speak a task, such as "Watch 'Boardwalk Empire,'" to initiate playback.
The product unveilings come as Apple is rumored to be working on a full-fledged television set that will feature Siri, allowing users to control their TV with just their voice. Last year, it was also said that current HDTV makers were scrambling to compete with Apple's rumored television set, even though no concrete information is yet available.
The response is similar to 2010, when rumors of an Apple tablet were swirling, but the iPad had not yet been announced. At that year's CES keynote, Microsoft introduced the HP Slate running Windows 7, a device that failed to see any real success. Apple's iPad, of course, went on to define the tablet market, and still controls the lion's share of sales.
Samsung's 2012 lineup will fend off rumors of an Apple television with "smart interaction" features, allowing users to launch and use applications on their HDTV through voice control, motion control and face recognition. Apple's rival also introduced its "Smart Evolution" concept, allowing select 2012 Samsung TVs to be "reborn" each year by installing kits and upgrading their TV set, rather than buying an entirely new model.
"In this era of smart entertainment, consumers are changing the way they want to be entertained and how they choose to access this content,” said Hyun-suk Kim, executive vice president, Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. "Samsung is redefining what a TV can do so people can use more intuitive ways to control their entertainment experiences, maintain closer contact to people that are important to them, and easily manage and share content across multiple screens."
New 2012 television sets from LG Electronics will be powered by the LG Dual Core chipset, allowing faster loading speeds, as well as voice recognition technology built in to the new 4-mode "Magic Remote." With LG's new remote, users will be able to speak, gesture, or even point at their TV set to control it.
"LG continues to innovate in the TV space, bringing to market sleek new designs with technological advances such as 3D and Smart TV," said Tim Alessi, Director of New Product Development, Home Electronics, LG Electronics USA. "This is just the beginning of another exciting year for LG as we look to deliver new products that meet the needs of consumers’ growing appetite for theater-quality products in the home."
Comments
Even with regards the iPhone 4S, Siri is a secondary UI, and this is on a device designed to be talked into.
We all know the real issue facing iTV, it's Apple securing a subscription TV show deal. Make no mistake about it, this is what's holding up iTV. Without all of the best TV shows at a decent subscription price, Apple may as well be designing the world's coolest pool without the water to fill it.
Microsoft announced Windows Tablet PC in back in 2001. Apple only released iPad in 2010, or 9 years after its competitors.
I think Apple will only introduce a TV when it found a way to unify the user interface of various content sources.
Talking to your TV won't go mainstream for another 25 years or more.
And by the time anything like that remotely happens, the concept of "TV" will be utterly different than that of today.
And by the time anything like that remotely happens, the concept of "TV" will be utterly different than that of today.
Utterly different? I submit that in 25 years TVs will still primarily be used to watch TV Shows. How the videos get onto that big screen is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
Utterly different? I submit that in 25 years TVs will still primarily be used to watch TV Shows.
What we think of as the TV ecosystem will be different. There won't be cable or satellite providers pushing their nonsensical packages.
And the landscape of shows will change when people don't have to pay for stuff they don't like.
What we think of as the TV ecosystem will be different. There won't be cable or satellite providers pushing their nonsensical packages.
And the landscape of shows will change when people don't have to pay for stuff they don't like.
Well yeah, that'll happen. It'll still be TV though.
Utterly different? I submit that in 25 years TVs will still primarily be used to watch TV Shows. How the videos get onto that big screen is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
Technology moves so fast, I don't know that it would take so long as 25 years to make this realistic, though I'd want a real demo to see how well it works now. If the TV can work nearly as well as what they show in that video, with no seeming interference from the TV's own speakers, etc., and the motion control works well, this will be quite impressive. If Apple can come up with something that shines beyond that - so much the better.
Why didn't Apple buy Nuance? Apple knew that after they launched Siri all their competitors would start using Nuance to compete with them.
Most likely, Nuance didn't want to sell.
Also the motion sensing for fine control of clicking on a button or other interactive items on the screen are going to be troublesome. It definitely neat but is laden with problem once moved into a real world home and real world issue, yeah probably work nice in a remove isolated from you family but then what happen when they all walk in and start talking and moving their arms and hands around.
Why didn't Apple buy Nuance? Apple knew that after they launched Siri all their competitors would start using Nuance to compete with them.
Because Siri isn't voice recognition, or even voice control. It's a natural language processing system. So, even if competitors license the same voice recognition system, they won't have "Siri". What Nuance provides is the easy part.
voice command of a TV will not work, how do you separated the voices on TV over your own voice when trying to give it a command. ...
This is likely a trivial problem, easily solved by a) microphone design and/or b) canceling out the input that matches the output.
This is likely a trivial problem, easily solved by a) microphone design and/or b) canceling out the input that matches the output.
You are right - this is an easy problem to overcome. Additionally, you need a begin command so that the television will start to process what you say next. This will seperate commands from general conversation in the room.
voice command of a TV will not work, how do you separated the voices on TV over your own voice when trying to give it a command. The only way to do this is lots of training of the system. The problem with most voice systems for them to work really well you have to go through long training periods.
Also the motion sensing for fine control of clicking on a button or other interactive items on the screen are going to be troublesome. It definitely neat but is laden with problem once moved into a real world home and real world issue, yeah probably work nice in a remove isolated from you family but then what happen when they all walk in and start talking and moving their arms and hands around.
It would depend on how they choose to do voice source isolation - if they tie it into a mic on a remote that would allow greater isolation, or it could be isolated via iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch based Siri controls, or simply directional mic - to name a few. You can also do engagement acknowedgement eg: you - "Siri" Siri - "yes?" you - "switch channel to HG network" Siri - "switching channel to HG network".
Most current voice system are different than Siri (as anonymouse noted) as they are voice recognition/control systems which rely on keywording, not (as Siri is) a natural language intelligent agent system. As systems themselves become more sophisticated (vis a vis CPU processing speed and capacity and storage, as well as more fast network based resources) more intelligent agency is possible, and resolution of ambiguious or partially masked communication is possible. Remember, natural language has contextual drivers as well, not just keywords, and intelligent agents build logical mechanisms around context among other things.
Previous posts and threads correctly identified the challenge to intelligent agent operations - data, data and more data. The increasing sophistication of our processors allow better approaches to making this real and fully functional, because they are better equipped to handle that much data.
As for motion sensing, Microsoft has already breached that barrier with the consumer-driven Kinnect system. It's a bit kludgey but it is starting down the right path of gesture recognition. Further refinements are possible, especially as our various devices take on a higher level of interaction. But human device interaction requires increasing level of integration of input diversity: touch+voice+gesture+context, etc.
This is likely a trivial problem, easily solved by a) microphone design and/or b) canceling out the input that matches the output.
How would they do this in a family setting? Everyone talking at once and you want to change the channel? If you have to hold a microphone/remote to do this it will fail..... I am not sure voice control/recognition is mature enough to handle all the background/TV noise that happens in a normal family setting....kids....other adults....pets....normal chatter....
How would they do this in a family setting? Everyone talking at once and you want to change the channel? If you have to hold a microphone/remote to do this it will fail..... I am not sure voice control/recognition is mature enough to handle all the background/TV noise that happens in a normal family setting....kids....other adults....pets....normal chatter....
That's a different and more complex problem than the issue I was responding to.
You are right - this is an easy problem to overcome. Additionally, you need a begin command so that the television will start to process what you say next. This will seperate commands from general conversation in the room.
Maybe...but what about when you say "Siri" to start the commands then your dog starts barking or the TV program you are watching has dialog similar to what you would normally say? What if your 4 year old starts talking to you or your other older kids are having a conversation right next to you? How would it differeniate their voices from yours?
This site makes me laugh some times, the way everything is spun to be a positive for Apple, even if the story is nothing to do with Apple.
Do you not think maybe the whole integrated TV voice control is more related to Microsoft Kinect than Siri? You know, that thing that got released 8 months before Siri and allowed you to control your Xbox and play content using your voice. It does hold the record for the 'fastest selling consumer electronics device', so a lot of people might see a future in it. But I guess you may not have heard of this device, as it's not made by Apple.
Also it's funny how it's stated that the smart TVs are a response to Apples rumoured proper TV. Yes those working devices that are being demoed and will be released soon are a response to some vapour ware that is only at prototype stage. You don't think maybe Samsung, Google etc were thinking about it BEFORE Apple? Seeing as Google is getting itself integrated into other manufactures TVs already says to me that they are ahead of the game and Apple may be left behind if it doesn't get in quick.
Oh, before anyone says I'm a Troll or a hater I'd like to point out that I own almost exclusively apple products, other than a laptop I need for work. Also I will be the first in the queue to get an Apple TV (box, not TV proper) once an A5 powered 1080p version is released.
Do you not think maybe the whole integrated TV voice control is more related to Microsoft Kinect than Siri? You know, that thing that got released 8 months before Siri and allowed you to control your Xbox and play content using your voice. It does hold the record for the 'fastest selling consumer electronics device', so a lot of people might see a future in it. But I guess you may not have heard of this device, as it's not made by Apple.
Don't patronize us. Siri has absolutely nothing to do with Kinect.
You don't think maybe Samsung, Google etc were thinking about it BEFORE Apple?
Since you can't prove that and since no one can prove that Apple is even making an HDTV, I think this argument is moot.
Oh, before anyone says I'm a Troll or a hater I'd like to point out that I own almost exclusively apple?
And only the trolls and haters have to qualify their posts by saying that.