In a world increasingly dependent on digital technology, smooth interaction with digital devices has become a necessity. One of the obstacles that we often encounter is our technological assistant's inability to offer the right assistance in a timely manner.
Imagine Robin, a marketing executive who uses Siri, the virtual assistant on his iPhone, for scheduling meetings, sending emails, and setting reminders. Unfortunately, Siri sometimes struggles to understand Robin's instructions, leading to misunderstandings and, potentially, missed deadlines. This is the problem being addressed by a recently published patent, US11783827B2, by Apple.
The challenges with the current digital assistants stem from their inability to decipher user requests expressed in natural language, leading to ineffective interactions. Furthermore, in situations where multiple parameters are involved such as date, time, meeting attendees, these digital assistants fail to capture all necessary details in a single interaction. This necessitates multiple exchanges between the user and the assistant, creating inefficiencies, frustration and increased power consumption.
Now, let’s take a look at how this new patent plans to address these problems. The patent introduces a 'smart helper' whose purpose is to understand user requests, decide the appropriate steps to fulfill these requests, and then execute the best option. It does so by scoring various responses and picking the top rated. This enables a richer interaction between the user and the assistant in a single exchange, saving time and power.
Imagine a future where Robin asks Siri to arrange a meeting with his team for a project update next Monday. In this version of reality, Siri understands the instruction in one go and considers various factors such as availability of team members, Robin's preferred meeting time, and even the meeting duration based on previous similar meetings. It then provides the most suitable response, eliminating the need for multiple interactions. Additionally, this refined procedure results in lower power consumption and improved battery life on Robin’s iPhone.
One of the key elements of this patent is retaining user privacy while providing enriched experience. Personal information data is handled securely, stored minimumly and even de-identified where possible.
To be clear, it is important to remember that what we talked about is just a patent. It is not guaranteed that it will see reality, as patents do not always translate into marketable products. But imagine the implications if it does! Our daily lives, filled with digital interactions, becoming a lot smoother and more efficient.
P.S. This is about a patent, and therefore, there's no guarantee that this feature will end up in commercial devices.