Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings
machinelearning.apple.com
Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings
1–10 of 73 posts
Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings
#2"Unlike Siri on iPhone, which operates close to the user’s mouth,"
I wish they wouldn't make this assumption. Siri would be much more useful sitting on my kitchen counter or coffee table. I now use the Echo for timers, music, weather, movie times, random questions, ...
Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings
#3"Unlike Siri on iPhone, which operates close to the user’s mouth," I wish they wouldn't make this assumption. Siri would be much more useful sitting on my kitchen counter or coffee table. I now use the Echo for timers, music, weather, movie times, random questions, ...
iPhones are not optimized for far-field use, though (which typically requires a mic array different than what's on iPhone). Echo has seven highly directional mics pointed in all different directions, and software which detects and isolates the source of speech. iPhone has two omnidirectional mics[1], on the bottom of the phone optimized for how you hold it in your hand.
[1]I am ignoring the other two mics on iPhone, which are not relevant: one on the back for video recording, and one in the earpiece for noise cancellation
Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings
#4"Unlike Siri on iPhone, which operates close to the user’s mouth," I wish they wouldn't make this assumption. Siri would be much more useful sitting on my kitchen counter or coffee table. I now use the Echo for timers, music, weather, movie times, random questions, ...
On an iOS device, Siri will still do its best to work from a distance but there are limits to what can be done with a tiny phone-sized microphone.
Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings
#5"Unlike Siri on iPhone, which operates close to the user’s mouth," I wish they wouldn't make this assumption. Siri would be much more useful sitting on my kitchen counter or coffee table. I now use the Echo for timers, music, weather, movie times, random questions, ...
The article is literally about Apple's Echo competitor.
Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings
#6"Unlike Siri on iPhone, which operates close to the user’s mouth," I wish they wouldn't make this assumption. Siri would be much more useful sitting on my kitchen counter or coffee table. I now use the Echo for timers, music, weather, movie times, random questions, ...
The article is literally about Apple's Echo competitor.
That's a little reductionist - it's a paper in Apple's Machine Learning journal that has a lot of actual technical details, rather than an ad / marketing material.
Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings
#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 vaccum cleaner is running?".
This is a novel problem because people generally can't have conversations with vaccums running, for example.
Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings
#8"Unlike Siri on iPhone, which operates close to the user’s mouth," I wish they wouldn't make this assumption. Siri would be much more useful sitting on my kitchen counter or coffee table. I now use the Echo for timers, music, weather, movie times, random questions, ...
I find that my iPhone is responsive to Siri requests if I'm within 8-10 feet. It's possible that training "Hey Siri" at this distance could help.
But at the end of the day, Apple won't optimize too much for this use case, since they want you to buy a HomePod, Apple Watch, or AirPods.
Also, there's power consumption to think about. The HomePod is plugged 24/7, whereas you want your iPhone battery to last a long time.
Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings
#9> 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 because it was able to hear me from a room away at normal speaking volume at 80%+ playback volume.
Re: Optimizing Siri on HomePod in Far‑Field Settings
#10"Unlike Siri on iPhone, which operates close to the user’s mouth," I wish they wouldn't make this assumption. Siri would be much more useful sitting on my kitchen counter or coffee table. I now use the Echo for timers, music, weather, movie times, random questions, ...
iPhones are not optimized for far-field use, though (which typically requires a mic array different than what's on iPhone). Echo has seven highly directional mics pointed in all different directions, and software which detects and isolates the source of speech. iPhone has two omnidirectional mics[1], on the bottom of the phone optimized for how you hold it in your hand. [1]I am ignoring the other two mics on iPhone,…
Yes, I am aware of all this, and that's why I bought a couple of Echo Dots.
My point is that I wish Apple didn't assume I would be holding my iPhone in my hand. I have Xs, for example. It doesn't need to operate from a different room but unless I'm holding my phone, I just don't bother.
Adding an additional microphone, etc would make Siri more useful while it's nearby.
I'm really looking forward to yelling into my kitchen to start my Apple Music on my Echo in a few weeks.