In the movies, all you had to do to get your futuristic computer to perform tasks is give it a command in plain language. I really thought we were still years out from that, but I'm happy to be proven wrong by Siri, an AI-based voice-recognition app for the iPhone.
Google's voice transcription sounds great in theory. The application, though, is just one brain cell short of crappy. I totally expected the new software to perform the same way. Fortunately, it's a lot more sophisticated than that. A whole lot more, in fact.
Siri's voice recognition has it roots from SRI, under a research project partly funded by Darpa. The company behind the app consisted of members of the research team who went their own way in 2007, setting out to develop a virtual personal assistant. This new iPhone app is one of the fruits of that effort.
The current version only integrates 20 web information services (including Yelp, CitySearch and OpenTable), although they do have an available API that should help see that grow in the future. Early testing is ridiculously impressive, to the point that we're suspecting there's a physical person listening to our questions and manually finding the answers. Yep, it's that good.
Want to find a Persian restaurant in your vicinity? Want to book a table for Thursday next week? Looking for a three-star hotel in a city you're visiting? Tell it and it will do the deed with scary accuracy.
The best part? Siri is totally free. According to the company, they make their money on the backend, taking affiliate commission for the products and services they send you to. It's available for download from the App Store now, although the current version is strictly for iPhone 3GS users (it uses a lot of processing power).
