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Google Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana – The Great Knowledge Box Showdown

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Re: Google Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana – The Great Knowledge Box Showdown

#161

Post by mikeash »

IshKebab wrote: post #150
melling wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, these are two different problems to solve. Voice recognition and deep learning are different fields. Is training really the issue for voice recognition? It has been a problem that has almost been solved for over a decade. Last year I saw this impressive use of Dragon Naturally Speaking for the PC, running in a VM on a Mac, that pretty much worked to code by voice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SkdfdXWYaI Th…

I've tried to use sphinx, but the problem was lack of training data (you have to supply it yourself pretty much!). It did have some data that was supposed to recognise numbers, but it didn't work (I mean, it ran, but the recognition was awful even when it only had to pick between 10 options). Training is a huge issue for voice recognition. It's the only way Google and Apple have managed to take voice recognition from…

I think there may be some confusion as to what "training" means. When it comes to voice recognition, it makes me (and I suspect others) think of the older software which required a user to read a bunch of text to it to train the software to your specific voice before it could do any kind of decent job understanding you. Now, everything is speaker-agnostic and works out of the box for anybody. Different kind of training.

Re: Google Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana – The Great Knowledge Box Showdown

#162

Post by boyaka »

In regards to understanding voice input, I have been thoroughly impressed with Google's ability to do this ever since I started using their 1-800-GOOG-411 service. I didn't get my first smartphone with data until 2009 (Droid), so the service was really handy for me before that. I'm sure it also gave Google a ton of data to help them improve their capabilities (even mentions that in the Wikipedia article [1]).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOOG-411

Re: Google Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana – The Great Knowledge Box Showdown

#163

Post by wutbrodo »

mikeash wrote: post #159
b2themax wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haave used Google Now briefly with the Moto X. It is definitely faster than Siri in my experience. Speed is so important when it comes to these virtual assistants. I sincerely believe Siri is the worst of the bunch, which really stinks because I expected a lot more from a 900$ iPhone.

Siri is entirely in The Cloud™ so your phone doesn't matter much, aside from the speed of its internet connection. Have you tried it on iOS 8 since it came out? They finally added streaming voice recognition, which speeds it up a lot in my experience. Previously, it waited until you were done speaking to initiate the upload, which added a pretty big delay to any response.

Holy cow, they JUST added streaming voice recognition? I haven't really followed Siri's progress since the early days but I thought that was table stakes, sheesh. I can't even imagine a voice service being usable in 2014 without it. Am I might just be completely out-of-touch with the current landscape for voice services, but Cortana isn't similarly hobbled, right?

Re: Google Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana – The Great Knowledge Box Showdown

#164

Post by escapologybb »

mikeash wrote: post #157
toxican wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really like the "Hey Siri!" feature, although why it's only usable while the phone is charging is beyond me. I thought maybe battery concerns since it has to be constantly listening, but I wouldn't think it would be that taxing on the battery. How do you handle typos in iOS as a quadriplegic? They're a pain in the ass to fix by hand and I didn't even know you could do it by voice.

You can do voice activation for very little power if you have dedicated hardware for it. The iPhone doesn't have such dedicated hardware (presumably they decided to add that feature after most of the current hardware shipped) so the constant listening has to run on the main CPU. That in turn means that the main CPU never gets to idle for more than a few milliseconds while the feature is active, so it'll suck up a lot…

Thanks for the detailed answer, I did wonder what the exact reason was. Do you think there would be much overhead - financially speaking - speaking to adding the dedicated hardware? I ask because I can only see them doing it if it's financially viable, as in, will enough disabled people or those interested in voice recognition by the iPhone to make it worth our while.

Also, does the CPU get hot whilst it's plugged in and constantly listening every few milliseconds?

Re: Google Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana – The Great Knowledge Box Showdown

#165

Post by escapologybb »

nobody_nowhere wrote: post #153
escapologybb wrote: post #94

Having used both of them, I really couldn't live without Siri to be honest. I'm quadriplegic, and whilst obviously I wouldn't die without Siri my life is immeasurably better with her. Some of the killer features of Siri for me are being able to to write emails, send messages and get quick answers to general questions throughout the day. She is much better at the first two than she is at the last one though, but even…

Hey, thanks for pointing out the impact of this technology from the perspective of a quadriplegic. It's always eye opening when a technology I really like turns out to be a lifesaver (hopefully not putting words in your mouth) for people with disabilities. Had a similar revelation re amazon home delivery recently. Great to see these technologies making meaningful improvements in peoples' lives.

I am not afraid of a little hyperbole where technology is concerned, iOS 7-8 really were a lifesaver. It enabled me to carry on and intellectual life with the outside world, in a way that wasn't possible before. So again, not dead without it, but really fing bored!

Re: Google Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana – The Great Knowledge Box Showdown

#166

Post by escapologybb »

Nicholas_C wrote: post #146
escapologybb wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then that deserves an honest answer! I'm using a device called a TrackerPro[0] which tracks a small reflective dot on my glasses, this translates my head movements into cursor movements. To initiate a left mouse click I use a [buddy button[1] under my right index finger, this means that using just my head and right index finger I can control the mouse just like anybody else. To input any kind of text into the compute…

Very neat. Just out of curiosity, how long did it take you to write the above comment?

Thanks! The above comment took me probably about three minutes to write, and that includes thinking time. :-)

Re: Google Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana – The Great Knowledge Box Showdown

#167

Post by escapologybb »

mikeash wrote: post #158
escapologybb wrote: post #94

Having used both of them, I really couldn't live without Siri to be honest. I'm quadriplegic, and whilst obviously I wouldn't die without Siri my life is immeasurably better with her. Some of the killer features of Siri for me are being able to to write emails, send messages and get quick answers to general questions throughout the day. She is much better at the first two than she is at the last one though, but even…

We had a quadriplegic friend live with us when I was a kid for several years in the 80s. He spent a lot of time watching TV... there just weren't a lot of options. We had a clapper set up that he could activate by making sounds with his tongue, and a stick he could hold in his mouth to manipulate the remote control, and also do things like make phone calls. He was a smart guy and was really interested in all sorts of…

You know, if I occurred I would get down on my hands and needs and hope that lovely blue piece of ethernet coming into my laptop. Not joking

I can only imagine what I would have done to indulge my intellectual curiosity without the Internet, sure I could have waited for people to bring me books, but that just makes me shudder. I also tried the early versions of Dragon and they were great, as long as you could also use a mouse to correct little typos and similar. So yes, not much use to a quadriplegic.

Edit: I forgot the: shudder

Re: Google Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana – The Great Knowledge Box Showdown

#168

Post by mikeash »

wutbrodo wrote: post #163
mikeash wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Siri is entirely in The Cloud™ so your phone doesn't matter much, aside from the speed of its internet connection. Have you tried it on iOS 8 since it came out? They finally added streaming voice recognition, which speeds it up a lot in my experience. Previously, it waited until you were done speaking to initiate the upload, which added a pretty big delay to any response.

Holy cow, they JUST added streaming voice recognition? I haven't really followed Siri's progress since the early days but I thought that was table stakes, sheesh. I can't even imagine a voice service being usable in 2014 without it. Am I might just be completely out-of-touch with the current landscape for voice services, but Cortana isn't similarly hobbled, right?

Yeah, it was a pretty glaring omission. You'd think it would be there from the start. I don't know about the others but I can't imagine they're not streaming as well.

Re: Google Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana – The Great Knowledge Box Showdown

#169

Post by mikeash »

escapologybb wrote: post #167
mikeash wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had a quadriplegic friend live with us when I was a kid for several years in the 80s. He spent a lot of time watching TV... there just weren't a lot of options. We had a clapper set up that he could activate by making sounds with his tongue, and a stick he could hold in his mouth to manipulate the remote control, and also do things like make phone calls. He was a smart guy and was really interested in all sorts of…

You know, if I occurred I would get down on my hands and needs and hope that lovely blue piece of ethernet coming into my laptop. Not joking I can only imagine what I would have done to indulge my intellectual curiosity without the Internet, sure I could have waited for people to bring me books, but that just makes me shudder. I also tried the early versions of Dragon and they were great, as long as you could also us…

Yeah, I vaguely recall him reading a fair amount as well (I was pretty young, so details are hazy) but there are limits on that, especially when you're in rural Virginia dozens of miles from the nearest bookstore or library.

Re: Google Now vs. Siri vs. Cortana – The Great Knowledge Box Showdown

#170

Post by mikeash »

escapologybb wrote: post #164
mikeash wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do voice activation for very little power if you have dedicated hardware for it. The iPhone doesn't have such dedicated hardware (presumably they decided to add that feature after most of the current hardware shipped) so the constant listening has to run on the main CPU. That in turn means that the main CPU never gets to idle for more than a few milliseconds while the feature is active, so it'll suck up a lot…

Thanks for the detailed answer, I did wonder what the exact reason was. Do you think there would be much overhead - financially speaking - speaking to adding the dedicated hardware? I ask because I can only see them doing it if it's financially viable, as in, will enough disabled people or those interested in voice recognition by the iPhone to make it worth our while. Also, does the CPU get hot whilst it's plugged in…

I doubt the CPU gets too hot. We're talking about something like 5% utilization. There's a pretty large difference in power consumption between a constant 5% and zero, but there's also a pretty large difference between 5% and 100%. If you run an iPhone at full blast it'll last a few hours before the battery dies. If it's completely asleep then it'll last days. Constant listening would probably cut the standby time down to, fairly wild guess here, a day or two. Which when combined with normal usage over the course of a day could make the difference between making it until bed time and needing to recharge in the afternoon.

For the iPhone 6, Apple claims 10 days standby time, 50 hours audio playback time (which uses dedicated hardware for most of the work) and 10-11 hours of internet use. Which doesn't isolate the CPU, of course, what with the screen and radios, but should give some idea of what's going on.

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