Dictation to Siri

 

The iPhone 4S was released earlier this year in 2012. In comparison to the iPhone 4, there was not much difference, other than a brand new feature to be seen better than voice control – Siri. Siri allows iPhone users to do several things such as, opening and sending text messages, asking questions about e.g. their scheduled meetings that day or simpler like what was the weather like, and to track their events. Being released all over the world, the iPhone 4S and Siri was expected to be used without difficulty however in some countries, such as the Philippines, have struggled due to their accent and their location.

 

There have been several opinions towards Siri, whether it be that it doesn't understand certain words or it has been limited due to the location it has been used in, the Philippines have suffered due to both. Every iPhone user has had to ensure they give extra tender loving care when dictating to Siri in order to get the response they want. The Filipino accent struggles even with this as Siri struggles to recognise their Pinoy English accent.   

 

Speech recognition has been researched for over 5 decades and can be seen as an uncomfortable subject as we are not known with it as yet, however, speech recognition is seen to be the next big thing in the future. Machines are unable to process different accents however they can pick up other things such as emotion, whether you are angry or upset, in comparison to your normal tone of voice.

Things such as your pronunciations of phonemes (how a particular person pronounces letters such as 'R') can be a problem within speech recognition and dictating to a machine due to where you are from... A machine with features like Siri aren't able to tell the difference between an American pronouncing phonemes in comparison to the British pronunciation of phonemes.

 

In the Philippines and after realising that there is difficulty in speaking to Siri on the iPhone 4S, a company named Macapuno made their own app and version of Siri called Ate Vangie. This app allows the Filipino accent to be understood when dictating to Siri and to give the iPhone 4S user a response.

 

Just like any other iPhone 4S around the world, the app Ate Vangie can recognise the Filipino accent and analyse their tone of speech dependant on what they are feeling.

 

By Emily Shepherd Chandler