Intel is gearing up to launch a personal voice assistant which can operate offline. Should Siri be worried?
Intel wants to get rid of the Internet connection requirement which is currently needed for most voice command systems. How does the chip maker intend to accomplish this? With a smart headset called Jarvis, which Intel debuted at the International CES earlier this year. At the time, the company had shown off the reference design. Jarvis is intended to support similar voice recognition functions like Siri and Google Now.
In an interview with Quartz, Mark Bell, Intel's New Devices Group head, shared details on the impending voice assistant which could potentially give Siri sleepless nights. Bell spoke about how Jarvis, the prototype wireless headset, could be more powerful than its rivals because it uses technology that mobile wearable devices have not yet had access to.
"How annoying is it when you're in Yosemite and your personal assistant doesn't work because you can't get a wireless connection?" said Bell in an interview to Quartz. "It's fine if [voice recognition systems] can't make a dinner reservation because the phone can't get to the cloud. But why can't it get me Google Maps on the phone or turn off the volume?"
Intel has partnered with an anonymous third party who is responsible for putting together the voice recognition software on Intel's mobile processors. These processors are apparently powerful enough to analyze the human voice but are compact enough to fit into the device. It doesn't require cloud connectivity, which can lead to pauses.
Jarvis will sit on the user's ears and connect to their smartphone. Jarvis will also be able to listen to commands and respond in its own voice, thus acting as a personal assistant and a voice control.
Bell says Intel's solution is more responsive than that of its cloud-based rivals. Moreover, it leads to "graceful degradation," which basically means that it will work even when the headset is not online.
He says Intel is working towards selling its voice recognition technology to mobile phone manufacturers, but did not specifiy which ones.
Whether Intel's Jarvis can throw the gauntlet to and kill Siri thanks to its offline advantage remains to be seen. It is not known when the wearable technology will launch and so for now, Siri can rest easy.
