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How Apple’s Siri Became One Autistic Boy's B.F.F

nytimes.com

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Re: How Apple’s Siri Became One Autistic Boy's B.F.F

#21

Post by wyager »

aaronem wrote: post #15
melling wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're definitely getting close. I wish Apple would take Siri to the next level. It should be easier to make corrections, for example. I bought Dragon Dictate for my Mac a couple days ago just so I could try to do a little more with voice recognition. It'll be great to be able to program mainly with voice like in this video: http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html At the moment, I can simply say "open term…

I gather Yosemite brings Siri to OS X, which I expect will be an interesting evolution, especially once people start figuring out how to add new capabilities and integrations. I saw Rudd's demo and have been tantalized by its possibilities ever since. More than the specific technologies in use, what really fascinated me was the way he invented what could almost be described as a shorthand language optimized for effic…

>I gather Yosemite brings Siri to OS X,

It's been around for a few versions.

Re: How Apple’s Siri Became One Autistic Boy's B.F.F

#22

Post by LeoPanthera »

MBCook wrote: post #13

Can anyone get the "Are there any flights me?" query to work? It just keeps doing a Bing search showing pages talking about the fact that Siri can do it. Wolfram Alpha can answer the question if I got to the site, so the data is definitely there.

It used to work, but right now it's not, for some reason.

If you start any query with "Wolfram" it will send the rest to Wolfram Alpha verbatim, but "wolfram flights overhead" isn't working either.

It works directly on WA though: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=flights+overhead

Re: How Apple’s Siri Became One Autistic Boy's B.F.F

#23

Post by melling »

MBCook wrote: post #11
melling wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're definitely getting close. I wish Apple would take Siri to the next level. It should be easier to make corrections, for example. I bought Dragon Dictate for my Mac a couple days ago just so I could try to do a little more with voice recognition. It'll be great to be able to program mainly with voice like in this video: http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html At the moment, I can simply say "open term…

How do you like it? I've been very interested (dictation in Mavericks leaves a lot to be desired) but the reviews on Amazon seem to savage it pretty good as buggy and not up to the standards of the Windows version.

I believe the Windows version is better. Integrates with Python so it's easier to customize, and I think it's easier to define your own "words". e.g. "Slap" could mean "new line". I got it on sale for $99. Now I've gotta get a good microphone.

David Pogue's review: https://www.yahoo.com/tech/hello-computer-speak-your-text-wi...

And the fact that John Siracusa writes articles like these with it, convinced me that I could make it useful with a little effort.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/23/

Re: How Apple’s Siri Became One Autistic Boy's B.F.F

#24

Post by tree_of_item »

wyager wrote: post #21
aaronem wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gather Yosemite brings Siri to OS X, which I expect will be an interesting evolution, especially once people start figuring out how to add new capabilities and integrations. I saw Rudd's demo and have been tantalized by its possibilities ever since. More than the specific technologies in use, what really fascinated me was the way he invented what could almost be described as a shorthand language optimized for effic…

>I gather Yosemite brings Siri to OS X, It's been around for a few versions.

Uh, what? Siri is not available on OS X at all.

Re: How Apple’s Siri Became One Autistic Boy's B.F.F

#26

Post by zyxley »

aaronem wrote: post #15
melling wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're definitely getting close. I wish Apple would take Siri to the next level. It should be easier to make corrections, for example. I bought Dragon Dictate for my Mac a couple days ago just so I could try to do a little more with voice recognition. It'll be great to be able to program mainly with voice like in this video: http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html At the moment, I can simply say "open term…

I gather Yosemite brings Siri to OS X, which I expect will be an interesting evolution, especially once people start figuring out how to add new capabilities and integrations. I saw Rudd's demo and have been tantalized by its possibilities ever since. More than the specific technologies in use, what really fascinated me was the way he invented what could almost be described as a shorthand language optimized for effic…

> I gather Yosemite brings Siri to OS X

No. OS X has had voice-to-text for a while, actually, but that's all it is.

Re: How Apple’s Siri Became One Autistic Boy's B.F.F

#27

Post by aroman »

Fascinatingly, I tried asking Siri "Siri, will you mary me?" and her response was:

"I sure have received a lot of marriage proposals recently!"

For the first time, I was genuinely impressed with Siri's pseudo-intelligence/wit.

(Can we assume someone on the Siri team at Apple read this article?)

Re: How Apple’s Siri Became One Autistic Boy's B.F.F

#30

Post by [deleted] »

saryant wrote: post #19
cbhl wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost certainly they special-case some inputs -- have you ever recited the Konami Code to Siri? What amazes me is sheer variety of questions that people ask Siri that s/he can now answer humorously. It wouldn't surprise me if they watch the number of queries (from actual users) that don't get an answer and/or fall back to Wolfram Alpha to see if there are any new ones that need special treatment. That said, most of…

The flight information is powered by Wolfram Alpha which appears to source it from ADS-B data via (I assume) the FAA, so that actually is entirely automated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillanc...

[deleted]
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