Nowadays most of the smart digital devices that we find in the market have a voice command virtual assistant. Probably you’ve heard of “Siri” but still don’t know what it is for and what its applications are. It is an artificial intelligence mechanism with personal assistant functions for all iOS variants. This application uses natural language processing to answer questions, make recommendations and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of web services that have been increasing over time.
Initially, Siri should have been available also for Blackberry and Android, but all commercial efforts were canceled after the Apple Company acquired it for its exclusive use. Among the qualities highlighted by the application’s marketing campaign, it is stated that Siri can adapt over time to the individual preferences of each user, customizing web searches and performing multiple tasks, depending on what you want from it.
Siri can search for information about the weather, about booking restaurants closer to you, movies, make a Facebook post, make a tweet, open an App, create reminders, send a message, schedule appointments, send an email, set an alarm, create a route on a map, inform you of the groceries list, set a timer and you can even ask how it can help you.
Siri can also do things beyond administrative work assistance, for example, it can play a rap song or narrate a story, predict the weather in your city, write WhatsApp messages, among others functions. Siri can be a friend and collaborator who can make your life much easier without typing on the keyboard. Among its competitors are Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung Bixby.
How to start using Siri.
To start using Siri, you must press and hold the (Home) button on the iPhone or iPod. Then two consecutive tones will be heard and then Siri can begin to receive commands also creating an internal learning process by saving user preferences. To enter personal data, you must go to general Siri settings, in this space; you can specify the name, language and personal data of the user.
Technical Functioning.
If we talk about the internal mechanisms of Siri, we will not obtain a reply with exact certainty because it is shrouded in competitive corporate secrecy, but certain experts will ensure that Siri works in the following way: when we press the Siri microphone button what is said to be recorded is compressed and sent to Apple data centers Apple with a voice-to-text natural language processing engine. Siri then realizes what has been said.
According to our investigation, Siri creates a voice response by either sending back pre-stored responses to the device or making further inquiries to process a more precise voice and data response.
What is an (automated) virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant is a software-based assistant, offering services by helping users automate and perform tasks based on user input data, location recognition and the ability to access information from a variety of online resources. Virtual assistant technology is allowed by the combination of mobile devices, application programming interfaces, and the proliferation of mobile application technology.
Although, like almost everything digital out here, it was born for military use first. Today it is widespread consolidating itself as an increasingly global market trend. Not only is it configured to be used with the user’s voice, but it can also interact with other software in written form through images, which make it has endless possibilities.
