Apple Training Siri to Better Understand People With Atypical Speech
Apple is researching how to improve Siri to better understand people who talk with a stutter, according to new details shared by The Wall Street Journal in a piece on how companies train voice assistants to handle atypical speech.
Apple has built a bank of 28,000 audio clips from podcasts featuring people who stutter, which could be used to train Siri. The data that Apple has collected will improve voice recognition systems for atypical speech patterns, according to an Apple spokesperson.
Along with improving how Siri understands people with atypical speech patterns, Apple has also implemented a Hold to Talk feature for Siri that allows users to control how long they want Siri to listen for. This prevents Siri from interrupting users with a stutter before they're finished speaking.
Siri can also be used without voice all together, through a Type to Siri feature that was first introduced in iOS 11.
Apple plans to outline its work to improve Siri in a research paper set to be published this week, which will provide more details on the company's efforts.
Google and Amazon are also working to train Google Assistant and Alexa to better understand all users, including those who have trouble using their voices. Google is collecting atypical speech data, and Amazon in December launched the Alexa Fund to let people who have speech impairments train an algorithm to recognize their unique vocal patterns.
Top Stories
Music streaming service Deezer has announced that voice control support for Apple HomePod and HomePod mini speakers is now available for Premium, HiFi, Family, and Student subscribers.
The update means all paying subscribers with iOS 14.3 and later and the latest software on HomePod can ask Siri to play any song from Deezer's global catalogue of 73 million tracks. Voice control also allows...
iOS 14.5 includes a feature that lets users select a specific music service to use with Siri, with the options including third-party services like Spotify in addition to Apple Music.
Several reports have referred to this as a feature that allows a user to select a default streaming music service, including our own, but Apple today told TechCrunch that the option is a bit more nuanced than a...
Apple has made no mention of Find My integration for the Siri Remote designed for the second-generation Apple TV 4K, but Siri responses to certain requests about the remote suggest that Apple could perhaps have such a feature in the works, or at the least, might have considered adding it.
If you ask Siri to "Find my Siri remote," "Find my Apple TV remote," or even just "Find my remote," Siri ...
Apple today seeded the RC versions of upcoming iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the new beta updates coming one week after Apple released the eighth iOS and iPadOS 14.5 betas.
iOS and iPadOS 14.5 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or over the air after the proper profile has been installed on an iPhone or iPad.
iOS 14.5 is the...
Apple's all-online Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) starts today with the traditional keynote kicking things off at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
We're expecting to see a number of announcements, including iOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15, but it's unclear what else we'll be seeing at the event. While there had been some claims of redesigned MacBook Pro models making an appearance...
Apple at WWDC has announced several new upcoming FaceTime features for Apple devices, like spatial audio, voice isolation, wide spectrum, FaceTime Links, SharePlay, and more.
Adding spatial audio will make it feel like you're sitting in the same room as the person you're speaking to, and in group calls, friends will sound spread out in the room.
Voice isolation is a machine learning...
Apple today seeded the eighth betas of upcoming iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the new beta updates coming one week after Apple released the seventh iOS and iPadOS 14.5 betas.
iOS and iPadOS 14.5 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or over the air after the proper profile has been installed on an iPhone or iPad.
iOS 14.5 is the...
iFixit has released its teardown of the second-generation Apple TV 4K, revealing an easy to repair, modular design, alongside a laborious process to dismantle the redesigned Siri Remote.
As with previous Apple TV models, the entire plastic shell of the device is transparent to IR light, allowing the Siri Remote to be used from any angle.
The large fan inside the Apple TV is not connected...
Apple alongside the second-generation Apple TV 4K debuted a redesigned version of the Siri Remote, which is now available to customers with new Apple TV orders and as a $60 standalone replacement for the original Siri Remote.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We picked up the updated Siri Remote to see if it's worth picking up if you have an original Apple TV 4K or...
Apple today released iOS and iPadOS 14.5, marking the fifth major updates to the iOS and iPadOS 14 operating systems that were initially launched in September. iOS 14.5 comes three months after the release of iOS 14.4, and a month after the release of iOS 14.4.2, an update that introduced security fixes.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The iOS and iPadOS 14.5...
Top Rated Comments
[HEADING=2]Apple Training Siri to Better Understand People[/HEADING]