Microsoft: We've Had Siri-Like Tech for More Than a Year

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Microsoft’s Craig Mundie made it known in a recent interview that Apple’s Siri voice recognition technology is nothing new; matter-of-fact, Microsoft has had TellMe technology for over a year. The difference is Apple just has better marketing than Microsoft according to Mundie, the chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft. I’m sure the Microsoft Marketing Department is just thrilled by the announcement. I like my grapes on the sour side: How about you? :D

Microsoft acquired TellMe in early 2007 and the company announced its first app for Windows Mobile in April 2009—a downloadable program that let users dictate text messages, dial phone numbers, or search the Internet by voice.
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Yeah, Siri is more than dictation. The integration is a lot deeper than that. At least Google recognizes this:
http://blogs.computerworld.com/19212/google_says_apples_siri_threatens_search

But if Microsoft wants to underestimate how useful Siri is, that's fine. Just watch: in 6-12 months, both Android and Windows will copy it; it being conversational voice control instead of cryptic voice control. FWIW, Apple had cryptic voice control back on the 3GS.
 
Jean-Louis Gassée via twitter said:
Microsoft Research Chief: We had (something like) Siri before Apple electronista.com/articles/11/11… If true: We're imbeciles If false: We're imbeciles.
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Either way they're imbeciles for not promoting this feature.
 
I wonder what "technology" is actually out there that no one is telling us about...
 
well I don't know if TellMe is better or what, but one thing he nailed right is that Apple has really better marketing than MS,lol, im gonna bet Apple can even sell iShit from what else? their magical employees shit and make bazzzillioonsss. :p
 
Siri on iPhone 4S vs. Android vs. Windows Phone (comparing out of the box functions, no 3rd party mod or apps)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqkBJV0-4jA

My take?

Siri will find your contact and send what you say correctly most of the time.
Android - Requires manual actions and input but has good dictation... couldn't use this with the phone in your pocket
Windows Phone - will get just about everything you say wrong... Including context when you Say "send a text to 555-1212" note that the to field filled with 2555-1212

Conclusion? Voice features are not new but iOS is the only out of the box OS with one that basically works and in a more useful way.
 
Lazybones said:
Sure Microsoft TellMe and Siri are totally the same thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SHoukZpMhDE
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Windows Phone 7 doesn't have the natural language and device control functions of Siri, but that test was slated. For one you can send text messages via voice and it works just like Siri but you say "Text <Contact name or Number>" and then speak the message. Looking at this video you'd come away thinking that wasn't possible at all in Windows Phone, you just phrase it a bit differently and that particular function is practically identical to Siri, and it did come out BEFORE Siri.

At any rate Microsoft has been doing voice recognition forever and probably could have replicated most if not all of Siri's capabilities but Microsoft is taking things slow with Windows Phone 7 and is avoiding throwing too much into from the start, it's only a year old.

Yes, Siri is better than TellMe in Windows Phone right now due to it's much better natural language and device control capabilities though oddly you can start apps with voice in Windows Phone but not Siri.
 
KENNYB said:
Either way they're imbeciles for not promoting this feature.
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Probably because it's not news. Bill Gates had been insistent on developing voice controls since the beginning and it's been evolving along with windows. Funny, when Gates was actively insistent on the evolution of voice controls, everyone just waved him off. But when Jobs said it several years later, it's suddenly an ultimate feature.
 
Lazybones said:
Windows Phone - will get just about everything you say wrong... Including context when you Say "send a text to 555-1212" note that the to field filled with 2555-1212
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Because on Windows Phone you say "Text 555-1212" and leave out the "to". I've been using this feature on Windows Phone for months since I got the Mango beta this summer and it works very well. It doesn't work well in a noisy environment but a noisy environment doesn't lend itself to voice control and feedback interaction anyway.
 
Don't both systems learn from previous voice inputs? So how often did you use Siri&#65279; before this test, and how many times TellMe?
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interesting if true..


now for me, talking seems to take longer then doing it by hand.
 
heatlesssun said:
Looking at this video you'd come away thinking that wasn't possible at all in Windows Phone, you just phrase it a bit differently and that particular function is practically identical to Siri, and it did come out BEFORE Siri.
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Actual the video does show it is possible, but just like VERY OLD voice control systems you must speak commands that you need to lear.

Also this doesn't explain why in both the side by side videos I posted TellMe seems to be incapable of reasonable dictation where as both Siri and Android are very accurate.

Microsofts UM services in Exchange actually work great, but looking at Windows Phone they are not providing the same level of quality that both Android and Apple seem to have.
 
Lazybones said:
Actual the video does show it is possible, but just like VERY OLD voice control systems you must speak commands that you need to lear.
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Where in that video would one think that voice texting is possible? I didn't see it. And as far as having to learn stuff in Tell me, there's only like four words, "text", "find", "open", "call", not sure how complex that is for most people.

Again, Siri is better but I've had very good results with the voice texting and there's plenty of reviews that say that this feature is very good.
 
heatlesssun said:
Where in that video would one think that voice texting is possible?
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Sorry it was the video in my second post.. The point being that both videos show BAD speech to text happening which regardless of the command structure is not good.

I see many commends about TellMe learning over time, however why would a user want to keep using something that repeatedly fails until it gets better when other systems seem to have near exact results out of the box?

Point being is, that can you claim you have the same thing when it doesn't work as well?

I have used voice systems on and off for years, and always try them for a short time then stop because they are incredibly un reliable. I find my self driving or walking with my phone in my pocket responding to things via voice on my Bluetooth headset now with some frequency since it actually works!
 
Lazybones said:
Point being is, that can you claim you have the same thing when it doesn't work as well?
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I said the voice to text works pretty much the same. I've not tried Siri personally but as I've said I've been using Mango TellMe for 5 months for voice texting it works very well. No it's not perfect and that "Kurt Voneget" deal will trip is up but "Schenectady" is a tongue twisting word that I can't pronounce well 90% of the time myself. And don't discount the learning, it does seem that over time that TellMe has gotten better.

All I am saying is that my personal experience with TellMe's voice texting is much better than those videos. I would use it multiple times a day if it were as bad as those demos.
 
Lazybones said:
So I did some hunting around and found this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOWJXY3NaAw showing the function working well on an Windows 7 phone...

Interesting....
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Thanks, see this MUCH more like the experience I've had. I'm not trying to be a fanboy, just trying to convey the real world experience I've had for the last 5 months.

No it's not perfect but most of the time my results are like this than the previous videos.
 
heatlesssun said:
Thanks, see this MUCH more like the experience I've had. I'm not trying to be a fanboy, just trying to convey the real world experience I've had for the last 5 months.

No it's not perfect but most of the time my results are like this than the previous videos.
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Same, not trying to be a fanboy as well.. Just went hunting for VS videos to see the differences... Functionality wise there are clear differences... However the trend in the vs videos (i looked at some others as well) was that the accuracy of TellMe was unusably bad... Clearly some of this is situational and I still think Siri has an edge but that might not last long.
 
Why is Siri so important? I had Windows 3.11, 95, 98, XP all doing that same thing (OS level voice control) way back when. As I see it this is just another Job's marketing pile where yet again he claims to have invented a technology that everyone else has already had. I will admit that this Siri is the first time I have heard of it on a phone.
 
Lazybones said:
Same, not trying to be a fanboy as well.. Just went hunting for VS videos to see the differences... Functionality wise there are clear differences... However the trend in the vs videos (i looked at some others as well) was that the accuracy of TellMe was unusably bad... Clearly some of this is situational and I still think Siri has an edge but that might not last long.
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Voice is still a cutting edge technology. It would be easy to make a video to make Siri look crappy as well, there are plenty out there. But I totally agree that Siri is currently better but I don't think that it's something that Microsoft can't catch up in and maybe leapfrog pretty quickly as this really isn't anything new and Microsoft has plenty of investments in voice technology.
 
kzaske said:
Why is Siri so important? I had Windows 3.11, 95, 98, XP all doing that same thing (OS level voice control) way back when. As I see it this is just another Job's marketing pile where yet again he claims to have invented a technology that everyone else has already had. I will admit that this Siri is the first time I have heard of it on a phone.
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This is the thing that CONSTANTLY battles Microsoft observers like myself. Microsoft had smart phones with very good voice command and control YEARS BEFORE Apple or Google even had a smart phone. It's INEXPLICABLE what the hell was going on with Microsoft in the smart phone space. Everyone understood that Windows Mobile wasn't finger friendly, and it's like every version of Windows Mobile had the SAME interface for a decade.
 
Hit button and talk. This is how Apple did it better. And if you want, you don't even have to unlock the phone.
 
I'd rather have a Lumia 800. I don't see myself using a voice recognition software, even for security.
 
Team Obi Juan said:
But can you set reminders, add calendar events, and place calls just by hitting the one button and speaking?
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Windows Phone doesn't have the device control capabilities of Siri currently, though oddly enough Windows Mobile had a more device control capabilities than Windows Phone does currently. However, yes voice dialing works with the touch of one button while the device is unlocked.
 
BDS23 said:
I'd rather have a Lumia 800. I don't see myself using a voice recognition software, even for security.
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Verizon is supposed to be getting Nokia phones next year, we shall see. Microsoft foucsed on the most practical things with TellMe in Windows Phone right now. Voice dialing, yeah, extremely useful and practical. Web searches and such, again very useful and practical and I use that stuff all the time, it really is nice stuff. Again, not nearly as deep as Siri.
 
BladeVenom said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgF8-nTwu00 I think we all remember how that's gone for them.
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Of course because no technology ever fails besides Microsoft's stuff and on failure means it always fails. And of course it's not improved any in the last 4 years.

I have this stuff setup on a couple machines. With a good mike and about 30 minutes of training it works pretty well. I've been playing with the Kinect for Windows SDK and the voice control in that is actually kind of neat, works well for app launching and control.

Voice is a tricky thing, humans misunderstand speech themselves millions of times a day so there's there's always going to be errors with this technology, the thing that's difficult for voice control is how to recover from error gracefully and efficiently. For instance the handwriting recognition in Windows probably is about 90% to 95% for me writing text like I am with this post, but error correction and recovery in handwriting unlike speech is very straight forward, part of beauty in the built in handwriting recognition tool is it's wonderful correction tools.

That same 90% to 95% accuracy with speech is much less "accurate" in that correction is harder. Handwriting recognition in Windows is thus more practical, its simply easier and more natural to deal with errors. If you think about it is the same way when dealing with humans. Everyone has been annoyed when talking to another human when either an accent was thick or a connection bad or volume too low and constant repeating was necessary to get the message across.
 
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