The role of smartphones in the life of each of us becomes much more noticeable. We spend most of our time with portable mobile devices, and therefore, we can say that we are constantly in touch both on the mobile network and on various social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
But what is remarkable: smartphones managed to become our assistants, who organize the working day, help to set goals and achieve them, control our behavior (to some extent). One tool that makes life easier for the user is Siri. How to enable this “assistant” on your phone, what it is, and how it works, we will describe in this article.
Siri Technology
So, let's start with the fact that the technology by which the Siri system operates is, in fact, the experience of many years of development by a huge group of scientists. According to official information, about 40 years ago, developers worked to create a prototype of artificial intelligence that could collect, analyze and respond to information coming from the environment. Siri, based on these technologies, in fact, incorporates these developments. And Apple, which introduced the platform on the market as an addition to its product, has become one of the pioneers in the era of artificial intelligence in smartphones. And, in fact, thanks to the work of many scientists, today the user can work with Siri. What is it - we will tell in more detail further.
Siri on iPhone
On Apple's smartphone, the iPhone (from the 4S to the last iPhone 6) , Siri is presented as a simple application. It can be installed from the program catalog for devices running the iOS operating system and launched with a simple click of a button.
In addition to the possibility of additional download Siri, iPhone has this program as one of the basic. Thus, even if the user is not aware of the existence of the Appstore, after purchasing the phone, he can use this “assistant”.
Despite the fact that Siri works on the principle of determining voice requests, this does not limit users from most countries in terms of language integration. This is achieved by the development company due to the fact that the program has up to 20 versions working with different languages. Of course, Siri in Russian is also available, which is available in the Russian Federation.
Siri Features
A user who has not yet encountered this application has a logical question: what exactly is included in the Siri functions? Actually, how can this program help the owner of the phone, and why is it needed?
The answer is simple: the application acts as a personal assistant. His “duties” (if such a word is correctly used in relation to the application) includes recognition of user commands, their processing and, of course, the proper reaction. This is how the main function of the application can be characterized.
As for the specific tasks that Siri works with, these are, in fact, the same tasks that your smartphone performs. Given what Siri is on the iPhone, we can say that this application allows you to contact the phone with various requests and wait for it to complete the task.
Program features
Of course, technologies that would allow your iPhone to absolutely “understand” you solely by voice do not yet exist. Siri is just an attempt to create such a universal and working solution, but it is not ideal either. Therefore, you need to know how to use Siri on the iPhone 5 (as, indeed, on any other model). In particular, you should try to make the most correct requests (for example, “Call Mom”, “Open Card”, and so on). It is not worth making calls to the smartphone in any form (especially if it is not about the English language in which Siri recognizes best).
Another feature, of course, is the clarity of speech and, in particular, those words that you pronounce for Siri. What kind of phrases these will be, and how clearly you pronounce them, is up to you. But remember that the degree to which your program recognizes your voice depends on it. For example, if you give a command in a noisy environment, the “assistant” will most likely “not understand” you.
Available languages
You may ask, what languages are available in Siri? We answer: these are English, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Italian, French, Spanish, Cantonese, Danish, Chinese, Korean, German, Thai, Turkish and Japanese. The presence of a language in this list means that people can make a request to the program on it, and it will "understand" what the user wants.
It should be noted this feature: each of these languages is not available on all versions of iOS. About half have been added relatively recently, starting with version 8.3.
How to work with Siri?
In this part of the article, we describe the procedure for what is needed to start working with Siri (how to enable the application, in fact). So, we are considering two possible options: if you have a preinstalled program (which comes immediately with a new device), then in this case you do not need to take any special actions. The program starts, as already mentioned above, by a long press on the Home button. If you do not use this function and do not want to call the "assistant" in this way - you can disable it in the settings.
Another option is when you, for some reason, do not have Siri, and you would like to install it from scratch. This is not difficult: just go to the Appstore and install it, like other programs. Next, you can enter Siri from the desktop, starting it in normal mode.
The program does not require any activation or additional registration. This is the charm of this development - for all the breadth of its capabilities, Apple presented it in the most simplified form. The interface in the end turned out to be simple and straightforward.
How to use?
And using Siri (what it is and how it works, in general, I think, figured out) is very simple. Starting the application, you will see a new window showing the line of sound recording (as in voice recorders). In addition, the launch of Siri is also accompanied by a characteristic sound (a specific “double” signal), after which the phrase “Hello, how can i help you?” in English (or "How can I help?" in Russian). After that, you can pronounce the phrase indicating the command you need: "Siri, show me the nearest restaurants," for example.
After your speech is recorded, the program will give another signal, immediately followed by a response.
Prospects and opportunities
In fact, all information about this application is shared. We know how Siri helps. That this is a product that in the future is capable of "learning" to fulfill all our requirements without exception (and then it will become really convenient).
I wonder if it is possible to somehow apply this development in other areas.
Experts say that behind software solutions such as Siri, the future of mankind. Perhaps, sometime, artificial intelligence will be able to solve the most complex problems for us, do incredible calculations, answer those questions, which we people could not find answers to.
There is also a theory that Siri is just a useless “twist” of Apple, which, moreover, does not recognize speech at the right level.
Be that as it may, but in English (in the USA, in particular), people really use this application more actively than in all other countries. Here Siri is integrated into many other user online services released by Yahoo, Google, Yandex, Facebook and many others. The task of each of them is to make it possible for a user working with his iPhone to perform any “hands-free” action by simply giving out verbally commands. Perhaps such developments will really lead to something interesting in the market.
Analogs on other platforms
It should also be noted that Siri technology is not original or new in the mobile device market. In order to understand this, just take some advanced Samsung and find the voice input function there . Yes, on the devices of the Korean company, such applications work less accurately than on smartphones with iOS; however, it is possible that at one point, Apple will give up its leadership position as a technologically advanced company.
In addition, there are a number of lesser-known developments that exist in the form of small startups and also work on voice recognition. So far, of course, there have not been any “high-profile” breakthroughs in this area, but it cannot be said that it is standing still. With the help of voice, for example, it is already possible to control the multimedia system in the car, which helps to reduce the level of danger on the roads. A similar mechanism can be applied in many different fields - and it can really help improve our lives.
In the meantime, even the fact that your iPhone has its own “assistant” is pleasing. After all, two words are enough to call a loved one. And maybe Siri was even able to save someone's life ?!