A December 14, 2017 application from Apple to the US patent Office shows Apple’s interest to patent, “a digital assistant that is capable of detecting a whispered speech input and providing a whispered speech response.”
Why would you want Siri to whisper to you?
One benefit could be to have a digital whisper bot in your pocket for ASMR sessions. Siri would not be the first virtual ASMR artist though, Amazon’s Alexa can already whisper (see link at bottom).
I don’t think ASMR sessions are Apple’s intent. Their proposed benefit is more about privacy and courtesy.
There may be times when you want to whisper something discrete to Siri like, “Where is the nearest public bathroom?”
Similarly, when she responds, you will prefer her to whisper back her response of, “The nearest public bathroom is located at 123 Main St.”
It may not always be a matter of privacy, courtesy is also a benefit. If you are in any public setting with people nearby, then it would be much more polite for you and Siri to whisper to each other.
Siri does currently work OK when you whisper, but this technology would result in more consistently accurate results.
There are also obvious work-arounds to keep Siri from shouting her reply to the world. You can turn your volume down or use headphones.
But in this blossoming age of ASMR, the best option would be to have a relaxing whisper session with Siri. I’m also visualizing a bus full of people whispering to their iPhones…has potential for some delightful public ASMR.
Read Apple’s patent:
Read more posts about the future of ASMR technology:
- Amazon’s Alexa can now whisper, is this the first virtual ASMR artist?
- Viewers of live ASMR videos may soon be able to feel the touch of an ASMR artist with Flex-N-Feel gloves
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