Apple Wants Siri To Detect When Someone Is Whispering -- And Whisper Back

Having Siri answer questions out loud can be helpful, but sometimes too loud for the environment the user is in. A new patent, spotted by Gizmodo, shows Apple is trying to address that inconvenience.

The patent reveals Apple is looking into improving Siri by allowing her to detect when a user whispers to her, and in return having the voice assistant whisper back. The documents, titled “Digital Assistant Providing Whispered Speech," details a system that would recognize when a person is using his or her regular voice or when the user is whispering by measuring an input’s amplitude and frequency patterns.

Whispering to Siri now might pose a problem, since voice assistants usually need to hear commands loud and clear to answer questions or carry out tasks. Users have previously complained about their voice assistants’ failure to correctly hear them. The patent shows Apple recognizes that problem.

“Some existing speech recognition devices may be incapable of detecting the user's whispered speech, or suffer from misrecognition of the whispered speech,” the Apple patent said. “Nor are they capable of responding to the user using a whispered speech. For example, they may respond in a regular or loud voice, which may be undesired under certain circumstances where a whispered response is more appropriate. Providing a digital assistant that is capable of detecting whispered a speech input and providing a whispered speech response is thus important.”

Currently, users who want to use Siri but don’t want her to talking out loud in public can go to Settings > General > Accessibility and choose the Type to Siri option. The feature allows people to use the keyboard to write-in their questions instead of using their voice. The new whispering technology with Siri would be a faster process for users, rather than having to write out questions on their device.

The patent, which was filed by Apple last year and was made public on Thursday, explained the different situations in which it would be best for Siri to whisper.

“A speech recognition device may be used under different circumstances or in different environments. For example, a user may ask the device a question while working at a cubicle with other co-workers surrounding the user. A user may also ask the device a question while attending a meeting in a conference room with other meeting participants. A user may also speak to the device while studying in a library where speaking loudly may be prohibited. Under some circumstances, the user may whisper speech to the device and/or desire that responses be whispered. It is thus important that a device recognizes the user's whispered speech, which may vary from normal speech, and provide a whispered speech response under these circumstances.”

The patent is only an idea Apple is looking into, and it doesn’t mean it will actually go through with it. However, it’s good to know that Siri could one day be able to whisper to users, especially when asking embarrassing questions.