Meet Siri

In this digital Short, you will learn:

• Configuring and Using Siri

• Making Calls with Siri

• Emailing with Siri

• Texting with Siri

• Using Siri to Manage Time

• Finding Music with Siri

There have been many “holy grails” in the development of computers and related technology. Things such as a truly intuitive interface, artificial intelligence, natural language search engines, and so on. One of these grails is voice recognition or a spoken interface, with the ultimate goal being a computer as featured on the show Star Trek to which the user simply speaks a command using normal language and the computer responds accordingly. There have been many attempts at these interfaces over the years, from voice commands on the desktop to voice-recognition dictation systems. Mostly, they’ve been marginally successful at best and laughable failures at worst. That’s because processing and interpreting spoken language is among the most difficult technical challenges there is; the incredible diversity in the way humans use language is mind-boggling. From local dialects to an individual’s pronunciation of words to speaking cadence, the hurdles to being able to artificially interact with the spoken word are incredible.