New reports indicate that Apple has just purchased VocalIQ which is a company that specializes in assistant software that learns from the user. While Siri has been around for sometime it hasn’t been as good as most would have hoped. Android’s Google Now and Windows Phone’s Cortana both do a much better job of voice recognition and returned information. Siri has struggled to be the voice assistant that Apple had hoped it would be. Part of the reason for this is Siri (and the competition) all understand (to varying degrees) what humans say but they fail to understand the context in which they say it. VocalIQ is working on a way for the machines to not only understand what we’re saying but understand what we actually mean.
“What we need is framework for a real dialog. A conversation,” wrote officials. “Where, it’s not just us humans doing the talking, but the machines (things) talk to us. If and when they have something important to say. And they will. Lots. What we need is Machine Initiated Dialog.”
Apple often buys startups like VocalIQ to bolster its own products, much like it did with Siri. This technology will not only help Siri become better but could very well be used in Apple’s own driverless car efforts. In the end VocalIQ is supposed to be self-learning and benefit the end user by providing a true digital assistant, somewhat like Tony Stark’s Jarvis. It will be interesting to see if the software is really that good and if Apple can make it work inside their line of products.
What do you think of Apple’s purchase of VocalIQ? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
*Feature image courtesy Jeannie In A Bottle
[button link=”http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-applications/apple-buys-vocaliq-to-supercharge-siri/d/d-id/1322471″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Information Week[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
