Oh, patents! Siri

© Françoise Herrmann 

Siri, the voiced, personal assistant and knowledge navigator, inside your Iphone 4S and higher, is notoriously smart, funny, helpful and sweet. True! I fell in love with her US inboxation, instantly.

Here is what Siri said to me, the very first time I queried her. I was looking for a parking space.

SiRi asked: What can I help you with?

I said: Yelp!

And SiRi opened up Yelp!, a small app for finding just about anything anywhere.

Then SiRi asked again: "What can I help you with?"

I said "Parking"

And SiRi replied:

There are 5 bike shops near you....!!!! 

 I thought this was immensely clever… and loved it that Siri was so mindful of global warming… and so began the love affair with my Iphone….

______ 

 Siri’s voice technology, purchased by Apple, was masterminded by Nuance Communications, Inc.. Nuance is the same company that masterminds Dragon™, now a cloud-based voice recognition and transcription program, widely used in medical settings --and by many translators who have ditched typing, preferring to dictate their translations!

 Siri’s voice technology, transformed into a natural language-driven personal assistant and knowledge navigator, is recited in US PatentUS2021016678 titled Intelligent Automated System, filed by Apple, Inc., and awarded in 2012 to  GRUBER THOMAS ROBERT [US]; CHEYER ADAM JOHN [US]; KITTLAUS DAG [US]; GUZZONI DIDIER RENE [CH]; BRIGHAM CHRISTOPHER DEAN [US]; GIULI RICHARD DONALD [US]; BASTEA-FORTE MARCELLO [US]; SADDLER HARRY JOSEPH [US]

 Below, you will find the abstract of Apple’s patent US2021016678, and a link to Siri live on YouTube! 

Abstract US20121016678 - Intelligent Automated System - aka SIRI An intelligent automated assistant system engages with the user in an integrated, conversational manner using natural language dialog, and invokes external services when appropriate to obtain information or perform various actions. The system can be implemented using any of a number of different platforms, such as the web, email, smartphone, and the like, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, the system is based on sets of interrelated domains and tasks, and employs additional functionally powered by external services with which the system can interact.