Interesting find about Siri on iPhone IOS 7.1

S

Scott Free

Joined
Sep 15, 1999
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I upgraded my iPhone to IOS 7.1 a few weeks ago. In case you don't know, the new Siri gives you several language options, plus four dialects of English (Canadian, American, British and Australian.) Yesterday, for fun, I switched Siri over to Australian English. Today, I tried using Siri to get directions, and she couldn't understand me. I kept getting wrong information. So I switched back to American English, and all worked fine. When I got home, I tried again getting the same directions in both American and Australian English, and only got the correct information when using American. So—Siri not only speaks with a given English dialect, but listens in that dialect as well. Just thought it was an interesting discovery for iPhone users.
 
The "support" for different accents isn't new. UK/Aus was available in iOS5, and Canadian was introduced in iOS6. None work well with Scottish. I wonder if Siri has problems with "American" English, given the different accents, especially with a thick Brooklyn or a southern drawl or Hispanic accent. And there's easily as many British accents as there are American ones.

Does Google Now/Google voice recognition have these problems? I know with Google, you can "train" it to understand you better; is this something Siri/Apple hasn't incorporated yet?
 
Planterz said:
I know with Google, you can "train" it to understand you better; is this something Siri/Apple hasn't incorporated yet?
Click to expand...

Siri is supposed to get better the more you use it. I would think this would be of help for those with heavy accents.
 
As Siri doesn't speak redneck I fired her after three days. She said I was to demanding.
 
Planterz said:
The "support" for different accents isn't new. UK/Aus was available in iOS5, and Canadian was introduced in iOS6. None work well with Scottish. I wonder if Siri has problems with "American" English, given the different accents, especially with a thick Brooklyn or a southern drawl or Hispanic accent. And there's easily as many British accents as there are American ones.

Does Google Now/Google voice recognition have these problems? I know with Google, you can "train" it to understand you better; is this something Siri/Apple hasn't incorporated yet?
Click to expand...

I see a golden opportunity for Haze. :D
 
I would imagine the biggest difference in the program is the colloquial terminology. Imagine an aussie, a brit, and a yankee asking for directions on the street. All are going to use different terms to get the point across.
 
dr_fosg8 said:
I would imagine the biggest difference in the program is the colloquial terminology. Imagine an aussie, a brit, and a yankee asking for directions on the street. All are going to use different terms to get the point across.
Click to expand...

I was asking for directions to West Auto, and the directions wanted to send me to an island off of Florida. I THINK "auto" and "island" were at least one set of the mix-up words. You are right, though, we all have different words for things. Those aussies and brits need to learn REAL English. :)
 
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