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In recent weeks, Apple has hosted face-to-face meetings with several prominent media executives to share plans for future iPods and a new television platform, presumably called "iTV." The company has explained how it plans to integrate all of its devices such as the iPhone and iPad via "Smart" Bluetooth 4.0, but the brain that will power all of these devices is none other than Siri, Apple's virtual personal assistant found on the iPhone 4S.
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With Siri, Apple has proved that it can make virtual assistants both useful and friendly. The technology, which helps users call, text, e-mail, schedule meetings, surf the Web and find answers to complicated context-sensitive questions, was born out of a $150 million project from DARPA and SRI Ventures, the largest artificial intelligence project in U.S. history to date. The unique feature has driven sales of the iPhone 4S to make the new smartphone one of the most successful product launches in the company's history.
Apple is looking ahead, searching for new and innovative ways to integrate its powerful voice-activated technology into its other consumer-friendly iOS products, such as the iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. Here are the various ways Apple plans to make Siri into a flagship tool on all its devices.
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iPod and Siri
A New York Times report discovered one quiet Apple project where Siri would power an iPod that would wrap around one's wrist like a watch.
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"Over the last year, Apple and Google have secretly begun working on projects that will become wearable computers. Their main goal: to sell more smartphones," wrote Nick Bilton. "A person with knowledge of the company's plans told me that a 'very small group of Apple employees' had been conceptualizing and even prototyping some wearable devices. One idea being discussed is a curved-glass iPod that would wrap around the wrist; people could communicate with the device using Siri, the company's artificial intelligence software."
Presumably, Siri on an iPod would perform like it does on the iPhone 4S: Users could hold down the home button to activate Siri, and then users can ask her to play a song, artist or playlist, as well as pause or skip a song. There's a good chance that Apple will expand Siri's capabilities by the time one of these devices emerges. In the future, Siri might be able to play specific albums, or even be able to create "smart playlists" based off genres, number of plays and the mood of the music.
iPhone and Siri
Siri is already on the iPhone 4S, and Apple has no plans to remove the personal assistant from any future iterations of the popular smartphone. Siri is still in beta on the 4S, but by the time that beta sticker is removed, we hope to see a number of smart features added to the platform.
The original Siri app for iPhone could actually integrate with other applications such as OpenTable or RottenTomatoes; now that Siri is a key feature for the iPhone, expect the technology to grow even smarter.
The only way Siri can get smarter is for its programmers to literally expand the system's knowledge base. Apple would be smart to tap the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization behind Wikipedia, as well as WebMD to add their libraries of useful encyclopedic data to Siri.
This could have unlimited potential in several industries, but the medical field would enjoy the biggest boost. If Siri could ask a list of questions and respond to each answer uniquely, even furthering the conversation with the patient with qualifications and clarifications, doctors and nurses could literally save thousands of hours of asking patients the same laundry list of prying medical history questions. Doctors could attend to more important matters while Siri stays with the patient and collects data. There aren't enough doctors to do the work that needs to be done, but Siri could potentially change that. IBM's supercomputer "Watson" has this technology but it's not available for consumer use.
iPad and Siri
While iPhones cast a broad appeal, people specifically approach iPads for business, education and productivity purposes. Given that Siri can read messages aloud and accommodate back-and-forth interact with its user, the voice technology has incredible potential on the iPad.
