Saturday, December 17, 2011

Google Developing Star Trek-inspired Voice Assistant Code-named “Majel”

Google Developing Star Trek-inspired Voice Assistant Code-named “Majel” - The real world seems to continue to get closer to the technological future envisioned by Star Trek, and apparently some of the people working to make that happen are inspired by Star Trek. A new report says that Google is working on a secret project to develop a voice controlled personal assistant, and they named the project "Majel" after Majel Roddenberry Barrett.

Google’s "Majel" Voice Assistant

Last December TrekMovie reported that Google had purchased a speech recognition software company as part of their plan to (as stated by Google’s Mike Cohen) help them "move a little faster towards that Star Trek future" of freeing people from their keyboards and talking to their computers. Now the site AndroidAndMe is reporting that Google’s "secret project" to take on Apple’s Siri voice assistant is named "Majel" in honor of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who provided the voice for Star Trek’s computer for decades (including the 2009 Star Trek movie). Apparently the voice assistant will be available in the future on Android phones and tablets.

According to the report:

Majel is an evolution of Google’s Voice Actions that is currently available on most Android phones with the addition of natural language processing. Where Voice Actions required you to issue specific commands like “send text to…” or “navigate to…”, Majel will allow you to perform actions in your natural language similar to how Siri functions.

And in a follow-up article, an insider tipster describes working with an early release of the secret project:

“…The UI is definitely more powerful than Siri’s, even if a little harder to navigate.

At least at one phase of the development you would activate it by saying “Computer…” It was hard not to use a Jean Luc Piccard accent when doing it!”

And to drive home the point that Google is using Star Trek’s talking computers as a yardstick, a recent video from company titled "The Evolution of Search" has Google fellow Amit Singhai saying (in part) "My dream has always been to build the Star Trek computer."

It isn’t known if "Majel" is just the code name for the secret project, or they will use it for the final product, but regardless we will know that Star Trek was part of the inspiration.

Here is a tribute video (from SuperTrekNerd) of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry as Star Trek’s computer voice. [video made in 2007, before the 2009 Star Trek movie]


iPhone Siri Vs Google Majel

iPhone Siri Vs Google Majel - Google is reportedly planning to expand its existing voice-recognition assistant for Android that will allow users to perform actions in their natural language similar to how Apple iPhone's Siri functions.

According to AndroidandMe.com, the company is planning to add a natural language processing feature to Google Voice Actions, already available on most Android phones.

Voice Actions allows users to give commands by saying keywords such as "send text to". But the updated software could allow it to respond to commands by using more natural verbiage, similar to Apple's Siri.

The feature has been codenamed "Majel," after the woman who does the voice of the computer in Start Trek: The Next Generation, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

It's expected Google will use Majel for search queries at first, and will incorporate other commands such as controlling phone and app actions down the line.

Majel could be released before the end of the year, but more likely in the next few months, the report said. (ANI)

Google’s Siri codenamed Majel, launching shortly?

Google’s Siri codenamed Majel, launching shortly? - The geeks among you might recognize Majel as the name of Gene Roddenberry’s wife, Majel Barrett, who voiced much of the on-board computery stuff in Star Trek.

Incidentally, I’ve never understood Star Trek. Gimme Star Wars any day.

Google already offers Voice Actions - or Jeannie, as it was recently renamed - which entertains commands such as “Send text to [recipient] [message]” and “Listen to [artist/song/album]” for those who can’t be bothered exercising their digits.

However, Majel, as it’s currently codenamed, will reportedly be less rigid and allow for more natural commands a la Siri.

The NYTimes is touting a 2011 release for Majel, which essentially translates as: “within the next couple of weeks” at this stage.

Am I the only person who’s not convinced by voice recognition? Too many accents, man, and it’s well hard for folk like us fae Glasgae, ken? Not to mention multi-national hybrids like Jan.

Google Majel: A Siri Killer For Android

Google Majel: A Siri Killer For Android

Very few things are unique nowadays or they tend to remain like this only for a short while, especially on the IT market where it is almost impossible to invent something to become a hard to replicate competitive advantage.

Ever since the release of the iPhone 4S and the introduction of Siri until now enough time has passed in which the Android world “drooled” over the features of the first personal assistent.

So rumor has it that Google is working on the second personal assistant known as Majel, probably inspired by the Star Trek movies.

The surprise is the fact that we might benefit from the services of this assistant by the end of the year. Majel has every chance to replace the current Android: Voice Actions, who right now is much below Siri. In other words, to be successful, the new vocal system has to recognize more natural expressions and to be capable of fulfilling a extended set of tasks and requirements from users.

A move like this from Google is understandable if we were to consider the huge amount of data Google has. Basically, Apple gave the start and we are not going to be surprised if we see Majel overcome Siri in a heartbeat.

It remains to be seen when and how we are going to met the long awaited personal assistant from Google.

Google to Launch 'Siri Killer' Majel Soon?

Google to Launch 'Siri Killer' Majel Soon? According to AndroidandMe, Google is creating a 'Siri killer' and is working round-the-clock so that the Android version can be released on day sooner. Google's answer to Siri could be one of the projects that's been undertaken in Google X, the secret lab where Google chase its dreams and one which very few Google employees have even heard of or know about.

The secret project is codenamed Majel, short for Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the voice of Federation Computer from the Star Trek series.

Actually, Google already has its own voice search - Voice Actions - on most Android smartphones. However, Majel could be a step forward in the evolution of the voice-controlled technology which, combining with natural language processing, would allow Majel to work as smoothly and naturally as Siri, if not better.

So will Majel be a knock-off of Siri? Matias Duarte, Google’s Director of Android OS User Experience, said in an interview with Slashgear that Google won't copy Siri, and they even won't use the “attitude” that Apple’s intelligent voice assistant shows.

“Our approach is more like Star Trek, right, starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. It’s not that there’s a personality, it doesn’t have a name, it’s just Computer,” Duarte said.

When will Android users get to see...umm...hear Majel? We don't know but one thing is certain - Google certainly won't allow its growing community of Android users be left high and dry.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Google Voice Understanding Project Majel is a response to Apple Siri

Google Voice Understanding Project Majel is a response to Apple Siri
Androidandme - Google’s response to Apple’s Siri voice assistant is codenamed Majel, which comes from Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, better known as the voice of the Federation Computer from Star Trek.

Majel is an evolution of Google’s Voice Actions that is currently available on most Android phones with the addition of natural language processing. Where Voice Actions required you to issue specific commands like “send text to…” or “navigate to…”, Majel will allow you to perform actions in your natural language similar to how Siri functions.

Speaking of actions, it sounds like only Google search queries will be included with the initial release, that could come as soon as this year. I say this year because I’ve heard that engineers at Google X are working around the clock on finishing the first release and the NYTimes previously reported that one product would be released by Google X this year.

Ted wrote: “It’s definitely as good, or better, than Siri. At least on the tablet you can sort through different answers with these swipe-able trays. Like, if you say “show me the Statue of Liberty” it’ll automatically take you to Google Image results, but another tray beneath it might be its location on Google Maps and then another tray might have a Wikipedia page. It’s also pretty good at giving you succinct answers if you ask it a question. The UI is definitely more powerful than Siri’s, even if a little harder to navigate.

At least at one phase of the development you would activate it by saying “Computer…” It was hard not to use a Jean Luc Piccard accent when doing it!”


From anonymous Googler

The central focus of Google X for the past few years has been a highly advanced artificial intelligence robot that leverages the underlying technology of many popular Google programs. As of October (the last time I was around the project), the artificial intelligence had passed the Turing Test 93% of the time via an hour long IM style conversation. IM was chosen to isolate the AI from the speech synthesizer and physical packaging of the robot.

The robot itself isn’t particularly advanced because the focus was not on mechanics, but rather the software. It is basically a robotish looking thing on wheels. Speech recognition is somewhat better than what you would get with normal speech input, mostly because of the use of high quality microphones and lip-reading assistance.

I have had the chance to interact with the robot personally and it is honestly the most amazing thing that I have ever seen. I like to think of it like Stephen Hawking because it is extremely smart and you can interact with it naturally, but it is incapable of physically doing much. There is a planned phase two for development of an advanced robotics platform.“



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