Cortana Is Microsoft's Next-Gen Personal Assistant

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Honestly, I thought this was a joke at first. But, the more I think about it, it can't be any worse that Siri. :D

Cortana will be more than just an app that lets users interact with their phones more naturally using voice commands. Cortana is core to the makeover of the entire "shell" -- the core services and experience -- of the future versions of Windows Phone, Windows and the Xbox One operating systems, from what I've heard from my contacts.
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As long as my phone refers to me as "Chief" in Cortana's voice every time I ask it to do something, I'm good.
 
I thought "cortana" sounded like a character from mortal kombat or something.

too many syllables. Makes you sound cheesy when you try to market it
 
Sound pretty f-ing cool to me! But I dig nerdy shit like that.

Hate all you want but siri is a dyke :)
 
This would be so much win if it used her voice... make this happen, Microsoft :D
 
If Jen Taylor is onboard this project as the voice of Cortana, I hate to say it, but I would probably pick up a Windows Phone. I just wish they would have released it as the voice for my Ford SYNC system too.
 
Another device that learns all my habits and tastes and darkest fears and stores them in the cloud! Woot!
 
And millions of Halo fans across the world just creamed themselves and vowed to buy a Microsoft phone....
 
I've always wondered why apple, with their shit ton of money, made siri sound so unnatural and robotic.
 
dr.kevin said:
I've always wondered why apple, with their shit ton of money, made siri sound so unnatural and robotic.
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The Uncanny Valleydiscussion was at it peak when they picked her voice so they probably purposely went robotic.
 
Also making Sirirsound robotic probably makes it feel more like its being formed on they fly where as people may have thought a real voice was some form for pieced together recordings. Like some automated phone customer service.
 
dr.kevin said:
I've always wondered why apple, with their shit ton of money, made siri sound so unnatural and robotic.
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Uncanny valley. It doesn't just apply to imagery. By making it intentionally less human, it is less likely to be in the creepy/awkward/silly region. That's why chopped up recordings of actual people speaking always sound really strange, the intonations and such are all wrong for the situation even though they are correct. At least, that would be one reason. Another being that many people like the idea of a robotic assistant being 'robotic' in the stereotypical way as found with movies.

That said, there have been some good gains with making intonations and whatnot more realistic, but they still have a long way to go. Perhaps if they record by set phrases that would help in most situations (as in, "The current topside temperature is XX degrees with an estimated high of XXX." versus recording each word with no inflections and pasting them together).
 
dr.kevin said:
I've always wondered why apple, with their shit ton of money, made siri sound so unnatural and robotic.
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When Steve Jobs originally introduced the first apple computer that did text to voice it had a very similar characteristics to Siri. I think Apple went a little nostalgic with this and made the voice a bit more modern by adding a woman's tone on top of it.
 
Steve said:
Not in a dudebro kinda way (I know exactly what you are talking about and I hate that too ;) ), I'm talking about how Jen Taylor actually voices Cortana and says "Chief" in the game ;)
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dude, bro what is wrong with chief, its like the epic way to be addressed broseph.
 
So does that mean that Jen Taylor will be doing the voicing? I have to admit that I am very intrigued as a hardcore Halo fan.
 
Megalith said:
I bet Jen Taylor is pretty happy about this. $$$
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The flipside is getting over exposed would end her career as a voice actor as any other roll. And likely saddled her with a draconian non-compete terms with MS. So I hope its some big $$$ for her.
 
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