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Apple's Knowledge Navigator, Siri and the iPhone 4S

by Kelly Hodgkins Oct 5th 2011 at 9:13AM


Back in 1987, Apple produced a concept video describing a product known as Knowledge Navigator. Knowledge Navigator is a computer app with bow-tied personal assistant that would let you interact with your device using your voice and natural language. You can check messages, find appointments, share documents and more.

Sound familiar? It should as it's surprisingly similar to Siri, the natural language personal assistant Apple introduced at its iPhone 4S event yesterday. Not only is Knowledge Navigator like Siri, the scenario in the concept video also takes place in September 2011.

As Kickstarter's Andy Baio pointed out on Waxy.org, there's a remarkable alignment of the dates here. Look at the date on the professor's calendar; it says September 16 and he's looking for a five-year-old article that was published in 2006. This September 16 date, which was chosen 24 years ago, is eerily close to Apple's October 4, 2011 announcement. Check out the video below, I think you'll enjoy it.

Corrected to acknowledge source of the timing comparison.



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Back in 1987, Apple produced a concept video describing a product known as Knowledge Navigator. Knowledge Navigator is a computer...
 

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daenney

This September 16 date, which was chosen 23 years ago, is eerily close to Apple's October 4, 2011 announcement.

.... I .... wait .... seriously? Are you actually trying to suggest that even though it's 23 years and 2,7 weeks apart this still has some meaning? C'mon... If it would be pi-weeks or a golden-mean-weeks apart maybe but this...

October 11 2011 at 8:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark E Taylor

So why no Siri for Mac OS X? I am far more likely to speak to my Mac at home than I am my phone in the middle of the street. I would love Siri on my Mac. Apple please....

October 05 2011 at 5:44 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
Macs4All

Isn't it amazing that this video, which seemed like "Yeah right. Whatever..." for all these years, suddenly looks a lot more plausible? Siri looks like a giant step forward in capturing the important words in a natural-language utterance.

One question: Does Siri require "training"? If so, can more than one person use it?

BTW, did anybody else catch the decidedly 1980's Mac "boop!" sound when the Knowledge Navigator is first opened?

October 05 2011 at 12:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
maowai

I've seen this video before...I think faceless version of Siri though. Does anyone know if you can have Siri do calculations for you? like say, "calculate 145 divided by 12.7" and have it give you the answer? because that would be very useful for me.

October 05 2011 at 12:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to maowai's comment
maowai

Edit: change the second sentence to "I think that I lie the faceless version of Siri though."

October 05 2011 at 12:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tanios

On October 4, Apple will release the iPhone 4S and you'll see why 2011 will be just like what we said it would be 24 years ago...

October 05 2011 at 11:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stephen

That tablet the good professor is using kinda looks like the The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

October 05 2011 at 11:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
steve

BNTY22 - as a 4 owner you may be upset, but it definitely is a selling point for the new phone, and this is the way that Apple is "monetizing" their purchase of Siri. Also, Apple building the functionality into the base phone allows it to exercise much more control than it could as an external app (since many of the functions it can now control don't have externally accessible APIs), so the new functionality is really different than the old one and maintaining both (especially with no financial incentive) seems unlikely.

October 05 2011 at 11:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John Lamb

It's set in 2009. There is a presentation of "the last 20 years" that ends in 2009, and the September 16 in the calendar is a Wednesday, which was in 2009. The "about five years ago" description of the 2006 paper was a guess - that's why they put "about" in the script - they were showing off that the AI could figure out that 3 years ago is with the range of "about five years ago."

October 05 2011 at 10:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to John Lamb's comment
Twisell

You are assuming that the data is up-to-date which is almost never the case in the real world.
The presentation could perfectly take place in 2012 while featuring a 1989-2009 data-series.

So the coincidence (or easter-egg) still look funny and credible ;)

October 05 2011 at 10:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
timl2k11

Another presentation shown ends in 2010. "Last 20 years" could mean last 20 years of available data and does not support your case or harm TUAW's that it is set in 2011 in any way.

October 05 2011 at 1:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
marcoiac

Quite amusing video. I guess at Apple they never stop pursuing good ideas and at some point they come full circle. The guy uses a tablet too!

October 05 2011 at 10:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BNTY22

I love Apple and I their line of high quality electronics but, for them to add Siri to the iPhone 4S as a selling point is rather poor business practice. I have Siri on my iPhone 4 and it is now inop. Give back my Siri on my iPhone 4! I don't think that this feature is a selling point for me and many of my associates agree.

October 05 2011 at 10:01 AM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
5 replies to BNTY22's comment
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