by Stephanie Boyd - Apple patent application suggests iOS voice-command assistant Siri could soon offer Mac users a "Third Hand"
Already a well-established feature on iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad, Apple's virtual assistant Siri could soon offer a helping hand on Mac desktops and laptops running OS X. According to a patent filed by Apple earlier this year, Siri on OS X is likely to make use of that operating system's advanced features, allowing users to accomplish tasks - even more complex ones - simply by talking to their computers.
Apple patent: Siri may lend users a "third hand" on OS X
According to the patent, Siri is set to make working on OS X much smarter by taking the mouse position into account when listening to the user's commands with a technique called "focus selector". One example mentioned in the patent describes a user browsing through a picture gallery and wanted to change the sorting - which could be accomplished with the command "Sort these by date and merge into a new document".
Other than completing tasks related to current foreground applications, Siri is likely to always listen out for background user commands, effectively lending a "third hand" to the user, avoiding the need to switch tasks when, for example, wanting to include a particular photo with an email. While typing the email, the user could simple instruct Siri to "find me a picture of (fill in the blank) and insert it here", offering a real increase in productivity.
The next version of OS X, version 10.10 "Yosemite", is scheduled for release in fall 2014 - most likely too early to include the newly-patented Siri digital voice assistant, which may make its first OS X appearance in the following version next year.
Reported by One News Page Staff 4 hours ago.