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I don't know what you mean: Correcting Siri's recognition mistakes

by Erica Sadun Oct 21st 2011 at 12:00PM

Here is another of a series of posts about Siri. Steve Sande and I have been hard at work collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook that will soon hit the Kindle store. We're exploring how get the most from Siri, and sharing some of our favorite tips with TUAW readers.

Siri always gives you a second chance. You can always fix what you said or correct Siri's interpretation of your speech. Just tap the talk bubble that represents what you said.

When you do, the bubble turns white and the system keyboard appears. This allows you to type directly into the bubble. You can edit your request directly or tap the microphone button on the keyboard to re-dictate your request. Tap Done to finish.

Sometimes Siri's dictation processor will add a blue line under a word in the text you have spoken. When you tap that word, iOS presents alternative interpretations of your speech. Select the correction you'd like to use, or edit/dictate a replacement.

You can also speak to correct text messages or mail contents that you have composed. The following examples let Siri know that you're not satisfied with what you've said. Notice how you can change the contents completely, add new material, and so forth.

  • Change it to Let's get together soon.
  • Add: Can't wait to see pictures of William exclamation point.
  • No, send it to Megs.
  • Cancel.

Before you send a text on its way, you can have Siri read it back to you. Say "Read it to me" or "Read it back to me." When you are satisfied with your text or email message, you can say something like "Yes, send it" to start it on its way.



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Here is another of a series of posts about Siri. Steve Sande and I have been hard at work collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook...
 

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Jay Ram

Apple went with the natural language interface, and if users might end up being too conversational and getting frustrated if the product doesn’t work. He explained that a virtual assistant has to offer two things: one easy and one really hard. The easier technology is basic speech recognition, and the harder bit is adding context to the words spoken and figuring out what the user wants to do. That requires a semantic engine and artificial intelligence that’s continually getting better but is still not perfect.
Siri has a long way to go way to go.See how it has problems with accents.
http://www.siricrazy.com/siri-fail/siri-fails-scottish-welsh-and-irish

October 30 2011 at 10:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jay Ram's comment
xxp84

Accents are halfway to being another language as far as a computer is concerned. I don't see how people expect it to perform the same for folks with heavy accents.

November 01 2011 at 3:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Wayne Schulz

Don't forget you can add phonetic spellings to contacts via:

- Add Field
- Phonetic First Name / Phonetic Last Name

This is practically required for anyone with two distinct Aaron/Erins in their address book.

October 24 2011 at 8:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Wayne Schulz's comment
xxp84

Hm, how does that help the multiple people with the same name situation? Aren't their phonetic pronunciations the same? I would think the answer would be to add Last Names.

November 01 2011 at 3:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
EvilPlatypus

Good tip, thanks for that. But, are you serious that Siri doesn't know about Platypus? Might have to cancel that 4S pre-order now...

October 21 2011 at 7:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
KKyle

Didn't know about "Add." That will be very helpful, because Siri is very quick to cut me off at the slightest pause while dictating a text message.

October 21 2011 at 3:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Aaron Mahler

Erica - any idea if Siri learns from these corrections, either local to the phone, per-user or globally in the cloud? I get a sense that it seems to learn on mismatched contacts when I correct it - but i might be wrong.

October 21 2011 at 2:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Aaron Mahler

Erica - any idea whether Siri learns from the corrections to any extent? It seems to me that when a spoken contact name is ambiguous or unclear and I correct it, it becomes more accurate next time. Might be my imagination, though.

October 21 2011 at 1:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Chris

am i the only one who finds it humorously ironic that this e-book about the hallmark feature of the new apple phone is going to be distributed through kindle?

October 21 2011 at 1:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jd3rdpig

When can we expect to see your ebook? How much will it be?

October 21 2011 at 12:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
scamsnl

When Siri asks if I'm ready to send a message, I've also been saying "Go ahead." Normally that works, other times she cancels the text and switches to "Calling Ed R------." So I suppose if you don't know any Eds, Neds, Teds, Freds, or their ilk, you can use that option as well. Feels more organic/conversational to me, at least.

October 21 2011 at 12:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to scamsnl's comment
xxp84

Solution: Stop hanging out with Ed. He's not worth it.

November 01 2011 at 3:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Frank Lowney

May I infer from the fact that your eBook will be (exclusively?) on Kindle that there will be no audio or video? If so, what was the thinking behind that decision -- rapid deployment?

October 21 2011 at 12:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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