Apple's 'Hey Siri' helps mom call ambulance, saves life of baby

AppleInsider

Siri is expected to gain volumes of new skills if and when Apple releases a rumored software development kit, but it was the virtual assistant's existing abilities that recently proved critical in preserving the life of a baby girl.

Stacey Gleeson will never turn Siri off again. In March, Apple's voice-recognizing assistant called an ambulance on Gleeson's behalf, affording the Cairns, Australia, mother critical seconds that helped save the life of her daughter, reports Australia's 7 News.

Recalling the incident, Gleeson said she checked in on her one-year-old, Giana, after noticing the child had turned blue on the baby monitor. Giana had stopped breathing. In a panic to clear Giana's airways, Gleeson dropped her iPhone on the floor. Luckily, Apple's "Hey Siri" feature was activated, meaning iPhone was listening for the trigger phrase, ready to accept commands.

By the time the ambulance arrived, Giana was breathing again. But the clutch voice-activated call to first responders freed Stacey's hands for those precious seconds in which Giana was brought back from the brink.

The Gleesons encourage everyone to learn about their smartphone's capabilities, especially iPhone owners who have access to always-on "Hey Siri." Powered by Apple's M9 motion coprocessor, the functionality is currently limited to iPhone 6s and 6s Plus handsets. Those interested can switch "Hey Siri" on by visiting Settings > General > Siri and activating Allow "Hey Siri".

In a somewhat amusing testament to the feature's effectiveness, the 7 News report that originally aired on TV censored "Hey Siri" references to avoid triggering the feature on iPhones of viewers at home.

Apple is anticipated to announce an SDK for Siri at the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday. In addition, there are rumblings that the company will finally bring the digital assistant to Mac with OS X 10.12, also slated to debut at WWDC next week.

charles1

In a somewhat amusing testament to the feature's effectiveness, the 7 News report that originally aired on TV censored "Hey Siri" references to avoid triggering the feature on iPhones of viewers at home.

Ha... I think I recall Phil Schiller in a keynote speech, he said that when they talked about Hey Siri he learned to say "Hey... ...  ..Siri" and the pause between words prevented Siri from being triggered on his own phone.

dunks

How long until we have television advertisements trolling us by including phrases like "Hey Siri, remind me to buy X tomorrow"?

cali

THIS is why AI is important, improvement is welcome. Imagine if Siri responded with. "I can't find anything on the web for "hey Siri call an ambulance"'. If people are going to rely more on Siri it would be nice if Apple improved it soon.

charles1 said:

In a somewhat amusing testament to the feature's effectiveness, the 7 News report that originally aired on TV censored "Hey Siri" references to avoid triggering the feature on iPhones of viewers at home.

Ha... I think I recall Phil Schiller in a keynote speech, he said that when they talked about Hey Siri he learned to say "Hey... ...  ..Siri" and the pause between words prevented Siri from being triggered on his own phone.

""TV censored Hey Siri to avoid triggering iPhones"

Imagine all the promotion Apple is losing and will lose until they fix this issue. It's pathetic. You can bet a large amount of viewers couldn't tell the iPhone from a Samsung knockoff on TV.

Yes I remember Phil saying that on stage and if I remember correctly he did it to avoid triggering the entire audience's iPhones.
Apple could fix this with voice recognition so Siri learns YOUR voice. Again pathetic.

arthurba

This feature is available on iPhone SE as well as iPhone 6s/iPhone 6s Plus.

Rayz2016

I think at least some credit is due to the baby monitor. 

iqatedo

charles1 said:

In a somewhat amusing testament to the feature's effectiveness, the 7 News report that originally aired on TV censored "Hey Siri" references to avoid triggering the feature on iPhones of viewers at home.

Ha... I think I recall Phil Schiller in a keynote speech, he said that when they talked about Hey Siri he learned to say "Hey... ...  ..Siri" and the pause between words prevented Siri from being triggered on his own phone.

My iPhone was activated a couple of times during the Siri talk at a recent keynote. I used to lecture at a couple of universities and if I still were, I kid myself that I'd walk into class and say "hey Siri, how do I look?" or "hey Siri, call my girlfriend" and see what happens (apart from being suspended).   

seanie248

Siri vs Netflix http://digg.com/video/when-siri-battles-netflix-no-one-wins

dsd

With Siri's sense of humor I can see the class action negligence lawsuit already.



"Hey Siri, call me an ambulance."

"Okay, you're an ambulance."

ihatescreennames

cali said:

Apple could fix this with voice recognition so Siri learns YOUR voice. Again pathetic.

I remember setting up Siri on my 6s so that it would only respond to my voice. When my wife says "Hey, Siri..." my iPhone does not respond.

Also, Siri only works when unplugged on a 6s/6s+ (and I'm assuming SE), so if her iPhone had been dropped on the floor and still worked with "Hey, Siri" then it most be a more recent model. 

ireland

But doesn't Siri need to hear the specific command in your own voice now the way it's design?

redgeminipa

ihatescreennames said:

cali said:

Apple could fix this with voice recognition so Siri learns YOUR voice. Again pathetic.

I remember setting up Siri on my 6s so that it would only respond to my voice. When my wife says "Hey, Siri..." my iPhone does not respond.

Also, Siri only works when unplugged on a 6s/6s+ (and I'm assuming SE), so if her iPhone had been dropped on the floor and still worked with "Hey, Siri" then it most be a more recent model. 

There is no option under Siri settings to only respond to the user's voice. There is a step during setup that trains Siri to better understand the user's pronunciation and dialect, but not specifically the user's voice.

mike1

charles1 said:

In a somewhat amusing testament to the feature's effectiveness, the 7 News report that originally aired on TV censored "Hey Siri" references to avoid triggering the feature on iPhones of viewers at home.

Ha... I think I recall Phil Schiller in a keynote speech, he said that when they talked about Hey Siri he learned to say "Hey... ...  ..Siri" and the pause between words prevented Siri from being triggered on his own phone.

My iPad responded to the cookie monster every time that commercial aired and set the timer.

mike1

ireland said:

But doesn't Siri need to hear the specific command in your own voice now the way it's design?

It's "trained" when you set up Siri the first time.

yodaq

redgeminipa said:

ihatescreennames said:

I remember setting up Siri on my 6s so that it would only respond to my voice. When my wife says "Hey, Siri..." my iPhone does not respond.

Also, Siri only works when unplugged on a 6s/6s+ (and I'm assuming SE), so if her iPhone had been dropped on the floor and still worked with "Hey, Siri" then it most be a more recent model. 

There is no option under Siri settings to only respond to the user's voice. There is a step during setup that trains Siri to better understand the user's pronunciation and dialect, but not specifically the user's voice.

There was as of iOS 9.1:  http://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/11/apples-hey-siri-feature-voice/

My wife and I both have "Hey, Siri" activated.  Her phone will not respond to me and mine will not respond to her.

macxpress

cali said:

THIS is why AI is important, improvement is welcome. Imagine if Siri responded with. "I can't find anything on the web for "hey Siri call an ambulance"'. If people are going to rely more on Siri it would be nice if Apple improved it soon.

charles1 said:

Ha... I think I recall Phil Schiller in a keynote speech, he said that when they talked about Hey Siri he learned to say "Hey... ...  ..Siri" and the pause between words prevented Siri from being triggered on his own phone.

""TV censored Hey Siri to avoid triggering iPhones"

Imagine all the promotion Apple is losing and will lose until they fix this issue. It's pathetic. You can bet a large amount of viewers couldn't tell the iPhone from a Samsung knockoff on TV.

Yes I remember Phil saying that on stage and if I remember correctly he did it to avoid triggering the entire audience's iPhones.
Apple could fix this with voice recognition so Siri learns YOUR voice. Again pathetic.

What's actually pathetic is the fact that people like you take heartwarming stories (and stories of Apple technology actually doing good for society) and spinning it around to something negative. I think some people need to think before they post or don't post at all. Some things are best kept to yourself. 

sirdir

If only it would work reliably. I use siri to open my main gate. Somtimes it works like a charm, but sometimes i have to repeat the command 10 times and one can only laugh about what siri understands in the 9 first tries. Given that it's almost the only time when I use siri, it could really act with a little more awareness. But I'll grant it works better in English than in German.

macxpress

I think Siri will be a major part of the WWDC Keynote across all platforms. One would assume they've put in a lot of work to make it better than it is currently. 

ktappe

While stories such as this are heartwarming, Siri still has multiple drawbacks. Yesterday I asked Siri for the nearest post office. As I drove to the one it suggested I happened upon another one it hadn't told me about. I pulled into that post office's parking lot and again asked Siri for the nearest post office. It continued to claim the nearest one was 2 more miles away. 

This was an actual, official, USPS post office, not some 3rd party "Mailbox" shop offering postal services. Somehow Siri was blissfully ignorant of it, even though it appeared to have been there for decades. 

Rely on Siri at your own peril.

mac_dog

dunks said:

How long until we have television advertisements trolling us by including phrases like "Hey Siri, remind me to buy X tomorrow"?

not long. they're already starting to have disk space to hold apps — and god knows what else. i'd recommend buying a television without it or simply disable the offending technology (hack it).

brucemc

cali said:

THIS is why AI is important, improvement is welcome. Imagine if Siri responded with. "I can't find anything on the web for "hey Siri call an ambulance"'. If people are going to rely more on Siri it would be nice if Apple improved it soon.

charles1 said:

Ha... I think I recall Phil Schiller in a keynote speech, he said that when they talked about Hey Siri he learned to say "Hey... ...  ..Siri" and the pause between words prevented Siri from being triggered on his own phone.

""TV censored Hey Siri to avoid triggering iPhones"

Imagine all the promotion Apple is losing and will lose until they fix this issue. It's pathetic. You can bet a large amount of viewers couldn't tell the iPhone from a Samsung knockoff on TV.

Yes I remember Phil saying that on stage and if I remember correctly he did it to avoid triggering the entire audience's iPhones.
Apple could fix this with voice recognition so Siri learns YOUR voice. Again pathetic.

I think your comment is pathetic.