[vi-android] Re: The Voice-Off: Android versus Siri
- From: "Steve Nutt" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2014 13:20:31 -0000
Hi,
They don't vary all that much as it goes. They all have mics that are good
enough to understand clear speech so that really isn't an issue.
All the best
Steve
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-----Original Message-----
From: vi-android-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:vi-android-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Maggie Rush
Sent: 03 January 2014 13:15
To: vi-android@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vi-android] Re: The Voice-Off: Android versus Siri
I have one query here though. There are many types of Android phones out
on the market, and surely they vary with speech recognition, depending
on the microphone built in to them?
JMHO.
Cheers, Maggie.
On 4/01/2014 1:52 a.m., Colin Howard wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> Note, I came across this amongst posts from way back August 2013 I suspect
> matters have advanced since.
>
> I am sending for interest and, maybe, constructive comments?
>
> The Voice-Off: Android versus Siri
> By David Pogue
>
> 90 Seconds With Pogue: Speech Smackdown: The Times's David Pogue pits
> Google's Android and Apple's iOS against each other to see which voice
> recognition system is better.
>
> By DAVID POGUE
>
> Published: August 21, 2013
>
> Email: pogue@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
> "Android's voice commands are still no match for Siri."
>
> Man, I really was stupid. Who'd be dumb enough to take sides in a
religious
> war? I'd have been better off writing, "Conservatives are better-looking
> than liberals" or "Pro-life people are worse drivers than pro-choice."
>
> But the superiority of cellphone speech-recognition technology is not an
> idle question. Once touch screens became the future of phones, voice
> recognition became desperately important. Without physical keys or
buttons,
> entering text and manipulating software controls are fussy, multistep
> procedures.
>
> So I've just spent two weeks immersed in voice recognition. I carried an
> iPhone and a phone running Google's Android operating system with me
> everywhere. I spoke to both phones simultaneously. I wanted to get to know
> the differences, the strengths, the weaknesses.
>
> When people talk about speech recognition, they mean, and often confuse,
> three different functions. There's dictation, where the phone converts
> speech to text; commands, where you operate the phone by talking; and
> Internet information searches. There are vast differences among the
> successes of the three.
>
> Dictation, for example, is still fairly poor on both systems. Both Android
> phones and Siri, the iPhone's speech feature, make many transcription
> errors. When you hear people bashing cellphone transcription, declaring,
"I
> gave up on it," they're usually referring to dictation.
>
> That's forgivable, but come on. You're asking your phone to understand
> varying accents at varying distances from its microphone, in rooms with
> varying background noise. It's a wonder this feature works at all.
>
> The latest Android version doesn't require an Internet connection to do
> basic dictation. And in Android, the words appear on the screen as you
utter
> them; Siri doesn't transcribe until you stop talking.
>
> On the other hand, Siri understands formatting controls like "capital,"
"all
> caps" and "no space," as well as all kinds of punctuation - "colon,"
"dash,"
> "asterisk," "ellipsis" and so on. Android understands only the basic
> symbols, like "period," "comma" and "exclamation point."
>
> The second category, phone-control commands, is far more successful for
far
> more people. This is when you say: "Call Mom," "Text Emily," "Wake me at
> 7:30," "Play some Billy Joel," "Remind me to feed the cat when I get
home,"
> and so on.
>
> Controlling your phone without touching it is important for safety, of
> course. If you must interact with your phone while driving, speaking to it
> certainly seems safer than looking at it.
>
> But don't forget the convenience factor. It's much faster to say, "Open
> Angry Birds" than to flip through home screens full of icons. And "Set my
> alarm for 8 a.m." is about 375 finger-taps quicker than using the clock
app.
>
> Here, Siri has the edge. As you're driving along, for example, and you
hear
> the incoming message sound, you can say, "Read my new messages," and Siri
> reads them aloud. It even invites you to dictate a reply, without ever
> taking your eyes off the road. Android can't do that.
>
> Both systems can tap into some of the phone's own apps. They recognize
> commands like "Make a meeting with Bob Barnett Thursday at noon" (a
calendar
> interaction), "Make a note to pay back Harold" (notes), "Send an e-mail to
> Danny Cooper" (mail) and "What's Steve Alper's home address?" (contacts).
>
> Android blows away iOS, though, in Web searches. Both kinds of phones do
an
> amazing job fetching weather updates ("What will the weather in Detroit be
> this weekend?"), times ("What time is it in Belgium?"), stock prices,
sports
> information ("When's the next Cowboys game?"), conversions ("How many
> dollars in 32 euros?"), calculations ("How many days until Valentine's
> Day?") and every kind of Web-search query ("How many calories are in a
> Hershey bar?", "When is the next solar eclipse?", "How do you spell
> schadenfreude?", "Show me pictures of a 1985 Corvette," and so on).
>
> Some Siri humor.
>
> Android is especially amazing at dialing places without having to look
them
> up ("Call the Macy's on 34th Street") and directions ("Get me to La
Guardia
> Airport by public transportation"), since its Map app is so unbelievably
> good. It's also smarter about connecting questions. If your first question
> was, "Who is Hillary Clinton?", you can follow up with, "Who is her
> husband?"
>
> And Google has a built-in music-recognition feature, like the Shazam app.
> Tap the voice-recognition icon, let the phone listen to whatever song is
> playing, and marvel as it instantly identifies the song and singer.
>
> Unfortunately, Android has an Achilles' heel - actually, more like
Achilles'
> entire leg. To issue spoken commands, you have to tap the microphone icon
on
> the Google search bar. And it's only on the home screen or the Google Now
> screen (swipe up from the bottom). So you can't speak commands when your
> phone is locked, or when you're in another app.
>
> On the iPhone, you hold down the Home button or the clicker on your
earbuds
> cord, so the voice command feature works when the phone is asleep or in
any
> app.
>
> In other words, to use an Android phone's speech features, you frequently
> have to pick it up, and you always have to look at it, which defeats much
of
> the purpose. The exception: Motorola's new phones, like the Moto X, can be
> set to listen all the time.
>
> Siri is better with restaurants and movies, too. Both phones understand,
> "Good Indian restaurants around here" or "Call the Olive Garden on
Daleford
> Road." But Siri can also book reservations, thanks to integration with
> OpenTable.com. You can say, for example, "Make a reservation at an
> inexpensive Italian restaurant Saturday night at 7."
>
> Similarly, Siri provides attractive, consolidated answer screens for,
"What
> movies are opening this week?" "Give me the reviews for 'The Way, Way
Back,'
> " or "What are today's showtimes for 'The Smurfs 2'?" Android just shows
you
> Google search results.
>
> And then there's the issue of personality: Siri has it, Android doesn't.
>
> We're talking about wisecracks, jokes, attitude, addressing you by name.
If
> you ask Siri, "Who's your daddy?", she replies: "You are. Can we get back
to
> work now?" Say, "Beam me up, Siri," and she says: "Please remove your
belt,
> shoes and jacket, and empty your pockets." Say, "Talk dirty to me," and
she
> replies, "Humus. Compost. Pumice. Silt. Gravel."
>
> Now, on the great battlefield of the Apple-Google fanboy war, humor is
small
> potatoes. Apple haters practically claw their eyes out when you mention
> Siri's personality. "It's not useful! It's a parlor trick! It strains me
to
> avoid profanity in describing how stupid you sound!"
>
> And that's fine. That's why there's choice: two camps in this
philosophical
> school. (Well, there's also Windows Phone and BlackBerry, but their speech
> recognition is extremely rudimentary.)
>
> And so: Put down your swords, fanboys. Both systems are exceedingly
useful,
> once you spend the time to learn them. (Here's a site with a good list of
> Android voice commands:
>
>
http://www.itworld.com/personal-tech/288505/70-things-try-googles-android-41
-voice-search
>
>
>
> And here's one for Siri:
>
> http://techblog.tv/full-list-of-siri-commands-how-to-use-siri/
>
>
>
> Here is the link to a mp3 file.
>
> j.mp/16Yy4yy.)
>
>
>
> Though Siri has the edge, the gap has closed substantially, and both
systems
> are rapidly improving. For example, until recently Android had no
> phone-control features at all - only Web searches. And in this fall's iOS
7
> update, Siri will gain a more pleasant speaking voice, faster searches and
> the ability to change settings by voice ("Turn on Airplane Mode," "Turn up
> the brightness," "Turn on Bluetooth") - something neither phone can do
now.
>
> This much is clear: Cellphone speech recognition is getting better fast.
> Very soon, we'll do less talking through our phones - and more talking to
> them.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Colin, who by the Lord's providence remains living
> near Fareham in Southern England, hopes you
> enjoyed a very blessed Christmas and are having a
> peaceful, prosperous and happy New Year during 2014.
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