It looks like virtual voice assistance with intelligence is becoming so big, Apple wants to bring a similar feature to its Mac devices as well. According to a recent patent application that was filed earlier this year and just released recently, the Cupertino company is working on a Siri-like personal assistant for its desktop OS.
The report consists of 92 pages for an “Intelligent digital assistant in a desktop environment” that is beyond Mac’s existing voice diction feature. The voice assistant will, like Siri on iOS devices, be able to process natural speech and text input to perform actions like completing tasks, inputting and retrieving data, conduct searches and more.
“Siri for Mac” has an identical backend with Siri for iOS, user can activate it using a special mouse or keyboard gesture, or have it running in the background, listening for the activation phrase like the “Hey, Siri” implementation in the upcoming iOS 8. Other capabilities listed in the patent include send emails, find images or YouTube videos on the web, print documents, sort your files, and “hold” multiple files.
Unfortunately since there’s no reference to the assistant in the Yosemite beta preview, it is unlikely that Apple debut this assistant in the next OS update. Those excited to see this feature on their Macs will probably have to wait for another year.
(Source: Engadget, AppleInsider)
