Aug 02
Over at The Atlantic, Robert Rosenberger has a fascinating and smart piece about technologies like Siri, which take voice dictation and turn it into text, and what kinds of effects they may have on how we write. More »
Jul 31
Siri, Google Now and other digital personal assistants have a new rival in the shape of Saga, a mobile app that uses learns from users to provide contextual help, suggestions and more. A free app, currently iPhone-only, Saga pulls in data from Facebook, Twitter and other apps to build an understanding of the individual user, and then crunches that with schedules and preferences to produce suggestions as to nearby restaurants, when would be a good time in the day to run, where friends are (and who users might actually like to hang out with), and other recommendations. However, Saga’s future is most definitely in wearables like Google’s Glass.
That will see Saga provide its own contextual suggestions in a far more intuitive and non-distracting way: popping dialogs into the corner of your eye rather than demanding that you pull out your phone. Context – or the lack of it – in the mobile world has been a running theme for several years but still something manufacturers and developers have struggled to implement, but as the number of sensors and data sources with shared personal information grow, apps like Saga promise to pull them altogether.
Initial partnerships for Saga include Runkeeper, which can provide fitness exercise patterns to the assistant app. For instance, if Saga knows from Runkeeper that a user normally runs each Tuesday, but that they haven’t so far today, it will automatically look for a suitable timeslot in the agenda and ping up a prompt to encourage them.
Future iterations of the app will allow users to share recommendations back and forth within a sub-group of their social networks, and increase the number of notifications. Currently, Saga requires users to open the app itself to see suggestions, but as the algorithms improve the company plans to push out personalized prompts. App developers will also be able to use Saga’s APIs to feed their data into the service.
Robert Scoble sat down with CEO Andy Hickl to talk Saga and mobile context, as well as what implications the app might have for wearable devices and augmented reality. “If you sign in with Facebook we understand a little bit about you, we can understand your birthday, the name of your spouse … the other cool thing is what can we tell if we understand a little about your patterns, where you go” Hickl says.
“So f I see you at a bar at 11:30 on a Tuesday night maybe a mile and a half away from your house, what can I tell about you? Well, I can tell maybe you’ve got no children waiting for you at home … the fun thing is that we use that, not to profile you, but to be able to anticipate the queries you might have.”
The app is currently iPhone-only, though with an Android version expected in August, and is a free download. As for how Saga will make money, right now there’s no monetization but possibilities include paid app functionality or sponsored results.
Saga takes on Siri and Google Now in mobile context is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 30
It appears that Apple is not safe from the continual downpour of patent cases as this week the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan is readied and filed an infringement case against Apple’s use of Siri on the iPhone and iPad. The patents in question here have to do with speech recognition which the plaintiffs suggest was filed by them in 2005 as a “Method and system for matching speech data.” This patent is available under patent number 7,707,032 in the United States.
This patent appears to cover a method and system used to connect actual speech with recognized patterns and samples, to put it simply. The assignee here is the National Cheng Kung University and the patent was granted in 2010 on the 27th of April. The filing took place back in the fourth quarter of 2005, and the University now notes that the patent specifically refers to devices such as smartphones or tablets which use said technology.
This group also has a patent granted in 2007 which covers simply a “Speech recognition system” that works to divide speech processing into 4 modules. These modules you may recognize: system control, autocorrelation and linear predictive coefficient, cepstrum, and DTW recognition. Each of these modules have also formed an IP component on their own, and the University is coming full force at Apple for what they feel they’re owed because of them.
The second patent in question here has the University noting that, “The ’496 Patent is generally directed to a complete speech recognition system having a training button and a recognition button.” It’s likely that Apple will contend that their technology was developed outside of the devices they’re now tied to, but we’re sure there’ll be a bit of contention on whether or not the iPhone and iPad actually fit within the bounds of the patents since they’re not made primarily for speech recognition.
We shall see! Check out the timeline below for more patent wars in the Apple universe and prepare yourself for more hot action as the Samsung case ramps up here in the USA!
[via Patently Apple]
Apple sued for Siri tech by Taiwan University is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 25
Nuance isn’t content to let Apple’s Siri and Jelly Bean’s Google Now grab the voice interface spotlight; the company has a voice-controlled personal assistant of its own in the pipeline, Nina. Billed as having the potential to “change the face of mobile customer service forever,” Nina isn’t targeted at harried users wanting to set calendar appointments and call their spouses, but at companies hoping to put a more friendly, intuitive face on their product support.
“She’s smart, intuitive, flexible” Nuance promises, “Nina just gets you.” Both iPhone and Android devices are shown, suggesting Nina will be cross-platform, and the enterprise focus is clear: ”She’s all business” Nuance insists, “Your business.”
Nuance may not be a household name – though their Dragon range of dictation software for PC and Mac is a mainstay of voice recognition systems – but the company’s technology is far-reaching. Apple’s Siri uses Nuance’s speech recognition, as does the new Dictation feature in OS X Mountain Lion, though of course heavily rebranded. Meanwhile, Google Now is based on a homegrown speech database initially helmed by Nuance co-founder Mike Cohen (and dressed up with various speech-centric acquisitions along the way).
Though the target markets are different, then, Nina is likely to be met with some degree of familiarity or recognition when it arrives this summer. Full details are in short supply, but we’re guessing Nuance will offer a white-label natural speech recognition system for companies looking to automate their customer services.
[via Stefan Constantine]
Nuance borrows Siri tech for mobile helpdesk assistant is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 24
LG’s voice recognition app studies English, aims to pass the test next year
Posted in: Today's Chili 
LG’s Quick Voice app’s monolingual status shouldn’t last long. After a quick restyle — it’s now Q Voice — the app is gearing up to launch internationally with an English language version ready for the first half of next year. LG also adds a bit more detail on its voice recognition offering, which can pick out a single female voice in a noisy room full of men and have the ability to make settings adjustments to Bluetooth, sound and vibration by speech. Perhaps only slightly less important than real functionality, the Q Voice interface will also include some “witty emotional responses” — ask what the device had for lunch and it will say it chowed down on 220 volts. LG Korea reiterates that the functionality is still limited to its domestic models of the Optimus Vu and incoming Optimus LTE II at the moment, but will feature on additional phones in the future. While voice recognition from bigger mobile rivals hasn’t revolutionized how we use our phones just yet, LG’s hoping the sheen of the newish tech won’t have worn off by 2013.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software
LG’s voice recognition app studies English, aims to pass the test next year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Jul 23
After years of believing that it didn’t need to follow in the footsteps of the iPhone or Android (because people obviously prefer mobile operating systems based on a 20-year-old platform), it looks like RIM is now going after the most talked-about feature of the iPhone – Siri. The new alpha version of BlackBerry 10 contains a similar voice-controlled assistant.
To be clear, we (and countless other online sources) aren’t referring to it as a Siri-esque platform just because it’s a mobile voice recognition system. It functions almost identically, and in fact even the voice sounds like it came from the iPhone 4S. But will having a service that tries to rival Siri be enough to keep RIM afloat? We don’t really need to answer that, do we?
Obviously, the future doesn’t look good for BlackBerry. And even though RIM has finally, after years and years and years, realized that it needs to change its strategy, it’s still showing immense weakness. Case in point – BlackBerry 10 was supposed to launch in the first half of 2012. Guess what? We’re in the second half of the year, and there’s still no confirmed release date.
[via Technorati]
RIM’s BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha adds Siri-like voice command is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 23
Jul 05
Apple is usually on the opposite end of receiving lawsuits, but here’s another case where it isn’t. According to reports online, the Cupertino company is now under fire from a Chinese company, Zhizhen Network Technology, for copying its Xiaoi bot voice assistant. Zhizhen claims that its patented voice assistant (applied in mid 2004 and granted in 2006) has been blatantly copied by Apple. While Zhizhen didn’t take any action in the past, it was Siri’s description on the Apple site that ticked them off.
No word on what the outcome of this lawsuit will be, but we can imagine Apple paying Zhizhen a hefty fine and the possibility of Siri going under a major redesign so that it isn’t like Xiaoi bot anymore. Check out a video of Xiaoi bot in action above and see how similar it is to Siri.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: This iPhone concept comes with a self-destruct feature, Apple’s Siri faced with another lawsuit over false advertising,
Jul 05
Apple sued by Shanghai firm for allegedly treading on patent with Siri, may say ‘ni hao’ in court
Posted in: Today's Chili 
For all the heat it dishes out elsewhere in the world, Apple has had a hard time catching a break in China — between having to settle with Proview over the iPad trademark and a recent, smaller dispute over Snow Leopard, it’s been primarily on the defensive. The latest rear-guard action is in Shanghai, where Zhi Zhen Internet Technology claims that Siri’s voice command charms infringe on a patent used for the Xiao i Robot voice system on phones and the web. We’re just hearing about the lawsuit now, but Zhi Zhen insists that it’s been long in the making with accusations filed in June and a patent application dating all the way back to 2004. Apple is characteristically silent on how it will tackle the case. We suspect it’ll be more than a little eager to fight back in court: in addition to the lawsuit presenting a very conspicuous roadblock to bringing Siri to China with iOS 6, it comes from a company that hasn’t been shy about plastering the Siri icon all over its home page.
Apple sued by Shanghai firm for allegedly treading on patent with Siri, may say ‘ni hao’ in court originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Jul 05
Apple’s legal troubles in China continue. This time Cupertino is being sued by a company called Zhi Zhen Internet Technology over voice recognition patents. Zhi Zhen claims it holds patents for a Chinese voice language assistant used for its Xiao i Robot service, and that Siri infringes those patents. There’s quite a big gap between Siri’s introduction in October and the lawsuit that’s just been filed, although the company says it reached out to Apple back in May and heard no response.
Zhi Zhen reportedly filed the patent back in 2004, and is going ahead with the case as a result of Apple’s Siri language expansion in June to include Mandarin and Cantonese. A spokesperson for the company has said that it wants Apple to stop infringing on its technology and bear the cost of any legal fees.
Apple settled a case with Chinese company Proview not too long ago, paying out $60 million over an iPad trademark dispute in mainland China. Apple has also recently been sued by another Chinese company, Jiangsu Xuebao, over a Snow Leopard trademark. That company claims to have filed a trademark for the word “Xuebao”, which translate to “Snow Leopard.” The company is seeking CNY 500,000 (~$78,700) in damages and an official apology.
[via The Next Web]
Apple sued in China over voice recognition patents is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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