Apple Siri. The Butlers are coming

Siri

Web2.0 democritised e-publishing and data creation in a friendly way for the masses and low and behold there are 182 million websites available on the net in 2011. Some of these websites have the lions share of the content (Facebook, Flickr, Google, Amazon etc) but collectively it's a grand publish of human thoughts, artefacts, wishes and desires.  What a wonder!

Creating content is one thing but leveraging insights across the content is more difficult. In truth there is still too much information for humans to effectively use and we find ourselves to be a gear in the machine rather than the driver - connecting systems together, cutting, pasting and rekeying.

I want to ask simple questions of my computers and have powerful background processing bring me the answer. Questions like "Which famous guitarists endorse products but don't use them in their live shows?" A query like this would require text analysis of the question to understand the meaning, scouring the net for famous guitarists,  checking which brands they claim to use in endorsements, checking their live 'kit' on websites, picture recognition of what guitars they are using, comparison of statements versus reality and then provide a weighted response based on the volume of data processed. Not easy and lots of key tapping.

Voice Control on the Bat Computer

It won't always be this way.

Batmans computer has been serving him for years (in the fictional world of DC Comics) controlled by his voice helping him fight crime. He simply asks the computer a question while he is driving or smashing heads of supervillans together and his Batcomputer gets back to him with the summary. Questions like  "Cross reference the known toxins that the Joker uses with chemical factories in the vicinity of Posion Ivy's locations over the past three months" are answered with ease. If a clarification is needed then it asks Batman. All achieved using natural language as the interface.

Digital buddies, assistants and advisors are here already for consumers albeit in the form mostly of recommendations engines and advertising systems. Last.fm helps reduce the millions of bands down to something I might like based on my previous listening while Amazon  advises me of books and products I might enjoy based on my previous activity.

These systems help us save time and slash the options and possibilities down to something we can handle. The volume of data falls below our eye and we can concentrate on the richer questions and answers.

For me the biggest aspect of the new iPhone 4S release was Siri - the virtual assistant. I think that as innocuous as it might appear on the surface (fixing calendars, looking up the weather, setting reminders) it is one of the first believable assistants that interact with consumers in a rich way.

Over time this service will grow to understand your accent, tone of voice and mood. It might voluntarily ask you what's wrong or question your commands if it thinks you are acting irrationally. It will potentially develop it's own personality and it will be answering more and more complex queries. Multiple Siris may even communicate and negotiate with one another to save their 'owners' from corresponding back and forth needlessly. Young children that can't type and older people may begin interacting with computers in richer ways. Siri may begin to find it's way into robots and other household devices outside of mobiles.

It's exciting and this is only the beginning. Others have tried to provide this kind of service but none have had the design and user base that Apple have in order to make it 'stick'.

I'll be watching this one carefully.

Wearable and Always On Computing

I'll be surprised if 2011 doesn't see something further happen around the wearable computing space.  We need to stop tinkering with metal boxes and facilitate direct interaction with the world a bit more.

There are two social dynamics to this kind of interfacing:

1. Broadcast the display externally on walls, tables, car bonnets or bodies (not private) OR
2. Broadcast internally on glasses or hidden earpieces (i.e. privately).

I think both approaches are more favourable to the current head down into a mobile neck stretch. Mobiles are private devices and Tablets/iPads a bit less so but they are both metal objects you have to put in front of your face and carry around.  The world is only there in periphery when using devices like these. 

Directly communicating with others and including the web as a 'third voice' is still not an elegant flow when taken out of presentation theatres and onto buses and high streets.

Pervasive and wearable computing will see an always-on environment for audio and video. The machines will listen to you 24/7 and parse what you say. The video components will continually record and pattern match the objects around you. Forget Amazon recommends when the data you can input is your whole day! We don't need to key the data about us like monkeys with typewriters. Spines everywhere will rejoice as we lift our heads to look back at the world once more.

The demos from MIT Wearable Computing Team in 2009 still look fantastic and the prototype only cost around $300 back then.



The TED talk - Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry



The interface ideas

The evolution of Steve Manns private eye glass display

Joystiq live from Microsoft's E3 2009 keynote - full review

This reprise of the Microsoft keynote takes the lead on anything Apple will do this year...fair play Microsoft...

Joystiq live from Microsoft's E3 2009 keynote

Human Body as interface for X-Box - full body motion and voice recognition

Great new human body interface illustration via Microsoft at their recent keynote....

Hunting Robots and How to Survive a Robot Uprising

The Pentagon recently announced that they want suppliers to provide a "Multi-Robot Pursuit System" that will let packs of robots "search for and detect a non-cooperative human".


I recommend boning up on robot pursuit avoidance now. How to Survive a Robot Uprising is the book you need. You'll read it in an hour and it may save your life one day or at least give you suggestions on how to get your leg out of an annoyed hoover.

Speaking Freely

"You are currently studying user generated content and I'm not obsessed with the fact about trying to become the next ___."

spoken through SpinVox

What was actually said:

"We are currently studying User Generated Content and we're not obsessed with trying to become the next Facebook"

Speaking Freely

"The majority of computing is working collectively towards murtuality."

spoken through SpinVox

What was actually said

"The majority of computing is working collectively towards Virtual Reality"

Speaking Freely

Speak your blog through SpinVox now.

I'm reading this first blog over the spin Vox Service. This service knocks me out and I christen this blog off the coff(?) IT stuff.

@We set ourselves free and avoid the Darwinian ending of big thumbs.

spoken through SpinVox

What was actually said
"Speak your blog through SpinVox now. I'm reading this first blog over the SpinVox service. This service knocks me out and I christen this blog Off The Cuff IT Stuff". We set ourselves free and avoid the Darwinian ending of big thumbs"