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Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings

machinelearning.apple.com

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Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings

#51

Post by toasterlovin »

fetus8 wrote: post #34
toasterlovin wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've been getting lots of false positives, as well, but it seems to have started happening suddenly. I wonder if it's related to a recent software update.

Have you noticed that certain queries that used to work have stopped giving you the expected response? I've started noticing more false positives since iOS 12 launched, and there's a couple requests that now don't give me the expected response. The most annoying issue happens to be requesting Siri to set an alarm. I'll ask: "Hey Siri, turn on my 6:15am alarm." to which she'll respond, "Which alarm do you want to turn…

Haven't noticed certain commands no longer working, personally.

Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings

#52

Post by rjplatte »

bigiain wrote: post #49

Does anybody else wonder how advanced audio surveillance tech is, if commercial off the shelf consumer products are _this good_ at eavesdropping? Has anyone ever tried putting a HomePod at the focus of a large parabolic (audio) reflector, and pointing it at their neighbours windows or people across the park?

The parabolic reflector might be unnecessary...

Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings

#53

Post by threeseed »

gok wrote: post #40
melling wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Siri will respond to those two questions. Did you try each then try to stop them with Siri?

Oh oh I see you're saying the requests you listed work but "hey Siri stop the timer" and "hey Siri stop the music" don't

Which absolutely does work. Not really sure what the OP means here.

Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings

#54

Post by threeseed »

kharms wrote: post #17

In my experience they over-optimized, with homepod now responding to "hey Sara" instead of Siri. Drives my partner nuts.

That's because people have accents.

My partner is Korean and I am Australian for example. Two very different approaches to speaking English.

You would hope that the HomePod would be usable by both of us.

Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings

#55

Post by threeseed »

fetus8 wrote: post #34
toasterlovin wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've been getting lots of false positives, as well, but it seems to have started happening suddenly. I wonder if it's related to a recent software update.

Have you noticed that certain queries that used to work have stopped giving you the expected response? I've started noticing more false positives since iOS 12 launched, and there's a couple requests that now don't give me the expected response. The most annoying issue happens to be requesting Siri to set an alarm. I'll ask: "Hey Siri, turn on my 6:15am alarm." to which she'll respond, "Which alarm do you want to turn…

If you think about what you asked Siri it's a sensible response.

You didn't ask her to set an alarm for 6:15am. You asked her to turn on an existing 6:15am alarm.

Which since I am assuming it didn't exist Siri asked what others you did want to turn on.

Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings

#56

Post by bigiain »

rjplatte wrote: post #52
bigiain wrote: post #49

Does anybody else wonder how advanced audio surveillance tech is, if commercial off the shelf consumer products are _this good_ at eavesdropping? Has anyone ever tried putting a HomePod at the focus of a large parabolic (audio) reflector, and pointing it at their neighbours windows or people across the park?

The parabolic reflector might be unnecessary...

When I was a kid, I had this toy that was a cardboard tube with a 12-14" plastic parabolic dish on it and a microphone at the focus with earphones. It was surprisingly effective at letting you hear conversations from long-ish distances.

Reading this page made me wonder just how good the NSA's version of that toy is these days assuming they've got multi-microphone and signal processing gear at least as good as (and probably an order or two of magnitude better than) what Apple will sell you for a few hundred bucks...

Hi gain 2.4/5GHz antennas aren't "necessary" for wardriving, but they make new things possible if you do use them...

Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings

#57

Post by neom »

tonywastaken wrote: post #47
neom wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it has to be laying flat face down on the table for this to happen - I presume it's a result of the iPhones facedown detection but not sure why it's preventing my HomePod from registering.

Does Siri on the phone respond when it is face down? You should contact Apple Care.

It doesn't, but it's not supposed to.

Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings

#58

Post by melling »

threeseed wrote: post #53
gok wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh oh I see you're saying the requests you listed work but "hey Siri stop the timer" and "hey Siri stop the music" don't

Which absolutely does work. Not really sure what the OP means here.

Well, the timer does sort of work... but NOT REALLY.

I tried it several times. It worked 4 out of 5 times on the phone. You know what it doesn't do?

It doesn't stop the timer on my Apple Watch, which keeps buzzing even after my phone stops. The Watch stops if I press the button,

I couldn't get the Music to work.

So, can we be done? I have a couple of Amazon Echos. They just work as a hands-free voice activated device.

Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings

#59

Post by ntumlin »

dkonofalski wrote: post #9
gnicholas wrote: post #7

> Directional noises generated by household appliances such as a vacuum cleaner, hairdryer, and microwave From what my friends with HomePods tell me, the HomePod is amazingly good at hearing people — even with lots of background noise. Interestingly, Apple's problem may cease being "can the HomePod hear the user?" and become "How loudly do we have the HomePod respond so that the human can hear the response while a va…

It is exceptionally good at hearing people. I tested with our HomePod and our Amazon Echo next to each other and the HomePod outperformed the Echo any time there was outside noise or any time the device itself was playing music. The fact that the Echo can't seem to hear people talking over itself seems like a big issue. The HomePod has to use some kind of audio cancellation that subtracts anything it's playing becaus…

I briefly had an Echo, and one thing my friends and I found funny was to have it play some annoying song, and then call out "Alexa, volume 10" because once it got that loud, the only way to make it stop was to go over and manually adjust the volume, as it couldn't hear anyone trying to turn it down.

Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings

#60

Post by threeseed »

melling wrote: post #58
threeseed wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which absolutely does work. Not really sure what the OP means here.

Well, the timer does sort of work... but NOT REALLY. I tried it several times. It worked 4 out of 5 times on the phone. You know what it doesn't do? It doesn't stop the timer on my Apple Watch, which keeps buzzing even after my phone stops. The Watch stops if I press the button, I couldn't get the Music to work. So, can we be done? I have a couple of Amazon Echos. They just work as a hands-free voice activated device…

I just have a HomePod but I have told Siri to start/stop the music literally every morning since I bought it.
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