Some Digital Help With Everyday Math Problems

There was a new report last week about how a young man who had been trapped under his car while he was fixing it used Siri to call for help.  Siri and other speech recognition devices and software can provide some truly extraordinary things but there are other more mundane tasks that can be made easier with their help.

If you are like me, you often need to use a calculator when working on financial projects.  I began using spreadsheets back in the days of Visicalc and Multiplan so I don’t have any problem with complex math models in Excel.  Where I have problems is using the key pad on the computer to enter simple addition of multiple multi-digit numbers.  A combination of my fat fingers and lack of touch typing skills really slows me down.  So I was delighted to learn that there are several options available that allow me to just speak the numbers.

If you have an iPhone with Siri, you can perform a plethora of math calculations just by speaking the numbers.  Let’s say you have a column of five multi-digit numbers that you want to sum.  Just say “Siri, what is 123 plus 234 plus 567 plus 899 plus 5678?”  Siri will display all the numbers and give you the total.  This saves you from having to enter all the numbers by hand.  This works with whole numbers, fractions, decimals and dollars and cents.

Siri can do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as well as more complex calculations such as square roots and cosines.  Again, not only will you get the answer, Siri will even show the work.  Siri must have had the same math teacher I had in 8^th Grade.

If you don’t have Siri you can do many of the same calculations using Google.  You must be sure to turn on the “search by voice” function within Google.  Just like Siri, as you speak the problem, Google will show the numbers being spoken on the screen in the search box enabling you to check to make sure that you have all the correct information before accepting the answer.

Often we look to our smart devices to perform very complex tasks like using a GPS to find the fastest route to our destination. Sometimes just a bit of help balancing our check book is all we need.

Siri On Steroids May Be Coming To Your New Phone

When Apple rolled out the iPhone 4S back in 2011, one of the new features to garner lots of attention was Siri.  This digital assistant could receive voice commands and accomplish various tasks. It seemed to be right out of a Star Trek movie.   Siri was the source of extraordinary media attention and grist for several stand-up comedians.  Siri has expanded the tasks that it can do and has spawned several other competing applications that allow for voice commands.  You can now ask Google questions by speaking rather than typing in requests.  Microsoft has a new app called Cortana.

There is a new company entering the market that seeks to take Siri and Siri-like apps to a new level.  The company called Viv has set up shop in San Jose, California and has attracted a literal “Who’s Who” in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) to join its staff.  The team now has engineers who worked on the original Siri and IBM’s Watson of Ken Jennings and Jeopardy fame.  Their mission is to take Siri-like applications and enable them to do some very complex tasks.

For anyone who has used Siri, once the novelty and fascination of speaking orders to your phone wears off, it becomes very apparent that the complexity of tasks within Siri’s grasp is very limited.  In most cases Siri can only provide actions on existing functions or retrieve information already stored and organized in a form that answers your question.  Tasks that require the acquisition of information and actions based on that information to accomplish another action are well beyond Siri and all of the other similar apps now available. 

For example, you can ask Siri to wake you at 6:00 AM.  This is a simple task since your phone has an alarm program and a clock.  Siri needs only to connect the two to accomplish your request.    Let’s change the request making it more complex.  Let’s say that the reason you needed to be awake by 6:00 AM was to get to the airport for an 8:30 AM flight to Washington, DC, on Delta.  You know that bad weather is predicted overnight.  This could slow your drive.  So you request Siri is to wake you in time to get to the airport for your flight to DC.  Viv hopes to have an app that will break down your request into smaller tasks, gather information and then set the alarm to allow you to make your flight.

This task now requires monitoring the weather for your area.  It must also gather traffic reports for roads you will use.  The app must also retrieve data from your airline to make sure that the flight is indeed on time.  With all this information it will compute the amount of time you need to make the flight and wake you at the appropriate time.    While this task would be a simple one for a human personal assistant, it is now well beyond the reach of any app available for your phone.

The folks at Viv see extraordinary applications.  This level of AI might assist with medical diagnoses using information gleaned from millions of research papers, information that the attending physician doesn’t even know exists.   It might open opportunities for those with sight or auditory impairments.  For sure it will speed the development of driverless cars.  Although my morning commute on I-275 often seems like I am among many “driverless” cars.  Not sure even a new Siri will solve that issue!

You Can Hear Me Now!

One of my favorite Star Trek movies is The Voyage Home.  The crew of the Enterprise had travelled back in time to save the earth’s whales and I remember the scene in which Scotty, the starship’s engineer, is attempting to use a vintage Macintosh computer by speaking into the mouse.  Of course his commands fell on the proverbial deaf digital ears as this technology had not yet arrived on earth in 1986.   Nevertheless, I always thought it was so cool that on the bridge of the starship Capt. Kirk could carry on conversations with the computer: making commands, setting the course and asking for answers to complex questions.  While it has been a long time coming, there are now some very practical and easy to use voice commands available on a number of new digital devices.

Perhaps the most well known right now is Siri, the personal assistant application available on the Apple iPhone and iPad. At first you might think that speaking commands is something that is cool but has limited real world uses.  You would be wrong.  There are several tasks that Siri can help with that are very practical and helpful.  For example, tax season is upon us and instead of using a calculator or computer spread sheet to add up a series of numbers, just speak them to Siri. Siri will give you the sum and show each number in the series so you can make sure you have all the entries.  Want to take a brief cat nap?  Just tell Siri to set an alarm.  Forget when you are to meet with a client?  Siri can check your calendar and tell you all the meetings you have with this person.  You can send emails and other messages using only voice commands.

On a road trip and need a cup of coffee?  Ask Siri the location of the closest Starbucks.  On a more serious note, Siri can find the closest gas station, bank or hospital.

For people with Windows devices, there are also applications that can make use of voice commands.  Using Windows 7 or 8 and the Google Chrome browser opens up a whole suite of applications.  By clicking on the microphone icon in the Google search box you can just speak your question.  Google can also do math functions.  Not only can you ask for the sum of a series of numbers, Google will do advanced math functions like square roots and cosines.

While you may not be able to control your starship you can ask Google to display a map.  Give it a try.  Ask for a map of Harrison, Ohio.  Then ask for a map of your street using your address including zip code.

Voice commands have come a long way and will continue to make the keyboard and mouse as Scotty would say, “Oh how quaint!”

Your New Best Friend

The new operating system for Apple mobile devices was released about a month ago and to date some 70% of all who regularly use an iPhone or iPad have downloaded the upgraded OS7 software.  I waited a while as I have found that even with the most diligent testing and pre-evaluation, whenever a new version of software comes out there are always bugs.  This was true with the release of OS7.0.0 but after the release of OS7.0.2 most, if not all the bugs, have been addressed.

There are several improvements that OS7 provides even to older models of the iPhone and iPad.  For example, I am still using an iPhone 4S and have noticed significant improvements in speed and accessibility.  Perhaps the most visible, or should I say audible, improvements are in Siri, the personal assistant app that uses voice recognition.  The number and complexity of the tasks that Siri can now perform has been greatly expanded.

For those who do not use voice recognition applications like Siri, you are missing out on some very cool and helpful features of your phone or tablet.  It should be noted that many of the features of Siri, an application only available on Apple products, are available on other platforms as well.  For example, Google also has very good voice recognition applications and those can be used on both Apple and non-Apple devices.

The new Siri is very reminiscent of scenes from the bridge of the Enterprise in the iconic Star Trek TV series.  Captain Kirk was always in some dialog with the onboard computer.  For example Kirk would command, “Computer, lay in a course for the Orion Nebula.”  The computer would respond accordingly and off the ship would go.  All very cool.  Today, some 40 years later, you can ask Siri to give you directions to Aunt Millie’s house and up will come a map and a GPSapp will lead you there.

The new version of Siri does much more.  You can ask for math problem solutions like the square root of a number.  You can even speak a series of numbers and get a total.  The list of numbers is displayed so you can check to make sure all were included in the total.

If you use a calendar on your smart phone or iPad and forget when you set an appointment in the future, you can ask Siri to find it.  “Siri, when am I meeting with John Smith?”  The response will provide all the meetings you have scheduled on your calendar with John Smith.  Of course, you can ask Siri to schedule a meeting with John Smith at a specific date and time.  If Siri finds you already have a meeting at that time Siri will indicate the conflict.

You can dictate and send emails, instant messages and ask Siri to remind you of a meeting or appointment.  When turning in for the night you can ask Siri to wake you in the morning.  Many don’t use Siri because they forget it is available.  You might want to give it a try.

Now, if Siri can wake me up in the morning, is a fresh cup of coffee out of the question?

Accessorize Your Spring Outfit

In just a short time it will be spring and with the change in season often comes a change in our wardrobe. Gone are the scarves, sweatshirts and heavy coats as we pull out the shorts, tee shirts and flip flops.  For some digerati their spring clothing may come with some new accessories.

Our friends at Google are offering to a select group of consumers a device that incorporates their new technology called “Google Glass.”   The first iteration will be a pair of eye glasses with video display built into the lens.  Connected wirelessly to your smart phone, the glasses allow you to view anything that would normally be viewed on the phones screen on the actual glass lens.

I have only seen pictures and videos of the glasses.  To me they look like an updated version of the strange head gear featured on The Borg, a group of artificial creatures from the Star Trek series.

The glasses can’t be purchased yet but Google has launched a novel pre-order campaign.  They just finished a contest called "If I Had Glass," where contestants fill out entries explaining all the cool things they would do with Google Glass, if they were someday, maybe, perhaps, allowed to purchase them for $1,500.  Tom Sawyer would be proud.

Not to be outdone, the folks just down the road from Google at Apple may have their own digital accoutrement.  You wear this one on your wrist. While the company has not acknowledged the new product (they seldom do provide advance notice of new offerings), it has been widely reported that they are working on a flexible glass wrist watch-like device that can provide many of the functions as the iPhone.

For some of us older folks we remember Dick Tracy, Inspector Gadget and James Bond  having these devices.  None however had Siri or Angry Birds. 

One of Apple’s partners, Corning Glass, the company that provides the Gorilla Glass for the iPhone, has announced that they have developed a new type of flexible glass.  Industry watchers predict that soon Apple will announce the glass will be used for this wearable new digital “must have.”

These products may not be ready for this year’s Easter Parade, but we may see some cool wearable digital bling on fashion runways sooner than we think.

Siri, Your New Best friend

I can still remember how mesmerized I was in 1968 watching the haunting exchanges between Dr. David Bowman and the Hal 9000 Computer. This interaction between a machine and a human being was perhaps the first time the promise of operating a machine with voice commands was demonstrated to the general movie going public. Of course, if you remember the movie, all did not go as planned on that voyage through the galaxy.

The recent launch of the Apple iPhone 4s brought back memories of 2001: A Space Odyssey. While the 4s has some modest improvements to its innards over the iPhone 4, the big news is Siri. Siri has been around for a while but this new iteration is the first to allow users to give directions or ask questions to the phone using plain language. So “Open the pod bay doors Hal” or “I’m afraid I can’t do that Dave” are no longer the stuff of science fiction.

I am sure we will look back in a few years and see the current iteration of Siri as somewhat primitive. Siri works best when you ask it to do simple tasks like entering an appointment in you calendar or do a Google search for a specific piece of information. Of course, it can place voice calls and send and retrieve text messages all hands free.

Like most Apple products the interface is simple. You press a button and ask Siri a question. For example, ask Siri what the weather will be and you will get a report of the current weather in your location. What you don’t see or hear is that when you ask that question, in the background with light speed, Siri analyzes your words, checks the internal GPS to ascertain where the phone is now located and then uses that information to search for a weather service on the web that has the local information. Once obtained, Siri will read to you the information. Again all this is done in a few seconds.

Siri is not perfect. A recent exchange between Stephen Colbert and Siri on the Colbert Report demonstrated that. Unlike the Hal 9000 that seemingly could do everything to operate Dr. Bowman’s spacecraft, Siri was not of much help to Steven when he asked for help writing a script for the show. Nevertheless Siri is a big step towards the promise of voice recognition technology and artificial intelligence based personal services.

Now I have to admit that I do not yet have an iPhone 4s, but I do plan to get one when my current smart phone, which seems to be getting less smart all the time, is due for replacement. Perhaps Siri can write the column for me?