In the technologically driven world of today, we are all too familiar with the problems faced when technology doesn't behave as expected - especially in regards to our smartphones. A common fixture of these gadgets, our intelligent automated assistants, can certainly come under fire when they fail to execute tasks as intended.
Case in point: you're trying to send multiple photos of your recent vacation to a friend through your phone's automated assistant. But the assistant can't process your request because it's unable to select the appropriate application for the task – in this case, the app that can handle sharing a large number of images. iPhone users will recognize this scenario as a typical hiccup with Siri, Apple's renowned virtual assistant.
These minor yet persistent issues not only lead to inefficiency, but also hamper user enjoyment of the device. Moreover, they end up requiring more inputs from the user, which in turn, drains the phone battery faster.
Enter Apple's new patent, titled "TASK EXECUTION BASED ON CONTEXT" (Patent Number US20230393712A1). This patent proposes a way to make Siri - or any intelligent automated assistant - smarter. How? By enabling it to recognize the task you're asking for, choose the correct application to execute it, send the necessary instructions to the application, perform the task within that application, and present you with the final result. All of this, regardless of whether the required application is running at the time of the request.
This ability to identify the specific application suited for a task makes for more efficient interactions with your digital assistant. It could boost your enjoyment of the device, reduce unnecessary power usage, and ultimately extend battery life. Even better, this intelligent decision-making process wouldn't disrupt the current application open on the device, ensuring smoother multitasking.
So, how will this play out in the real world? Let's revisit the earlier scenario. With the new patent in action, when you ask Siri to send multiple vacation photos to a friend, it will realize a messaging app isn't the right tool for the task and instead choose a photograph application better equipped to handle the task. Siri will then execute the task within the selected app and give you the results - all with a single request from you.
But let's not get too ahead of ourselves. For now, this technology is just a patent, meaning that its implementation isn't guaranteed. However, should it materialize, it promises to solve a prevalent challenge, making our interactions with our devices smoother and more efficient. Now, wouldn't that be something?
P.S: While this technology is at this moment a patent, there's no guarantee it’ll hit the market anytime soon. It paints a promising picture of better and smarter digital assistance, but one that may or may not become a reality.