Putting aside the dated hardware (and hairstyles!), this technology is still a ways off. Yes, Siri is a good start, but it doesn't come anywhere near the type of conversational fluency and contextual awareness that the virtual assistant in this video does.
Honestly, I think we're still 10 or 20 years out from that.
That assistant looks like Bill Nye :-) I wonder if anyone showed this video as prior art in the iPad patent discussion.
Perhaps one of the most salient things to learn from this is that people with a vision, and a will, work continually toward that vision even when progress seems non-existent. A solid idea of what you'd like something to look like, elucidated clearly, can help shape products for years until what you imagine can be made real. When I saw Alan Kay talk about the Dynabook at one of Xerox PARC's lecture series I felt that here was a guy who had basically committed to this vision, and was knocking down objections one by one.
Ironically, this video was made at the request of one of the CEOs who was booted during Apple's dark period. (Gil Amelio? Edit: See child, it was John Sculley.)
Source: Insanely Great. I don't have a copy to look it up in.
The video is a mix of two different videos, one from 1987, and one from 1997. The CyberDog / OpenDoc stuff in the second half is obviously not from the 80's as those projects were created in 1996-1997.
What's interesting to me is how slow the UI obviously is - I guess they were trying to make it "realistic" for the time and therefore more believable than instantaneous (or it was a limitation of the software they used to create it). Reminds me of the "Lost in Space" movie where the UI from the future seemed too fast to them.
Until today that is. It's been artifically limited to Apple's forthcoming iPhone 4S, and current customers will have the service shut off for them on the 15th.
I hadn't heard anything about them removing the app from people who already have it. I will find it infuriating if an app I bought almost 2 years ago and still use is suddenly removed because of a marketing decision to tie it exclusively to a new product. It currently works on a 3GS and even on 3G with somewhat less functionality.
one of the best concepts i've seen from apple. yes, siri does not do all that, but, you certainly can manage most of it with all the apps available..nice find, nice find indeed!
They seem to have also invented the concept of "checking-in". See video[1] at 0:38 second mark onwards where he talks about a student checking in at Guatemala.
I really hope Siri is not so much about speech recognition but about "intention recognition". If something like "Text my wife that I'll be home at 8" really works without memorizing the exact phrase, then Siri is not just a voice interface, but indeed a personal assistant. I guess that's why Apple kept the name Siri - so the user thinks of "her" as a personality.
That said, I'm very skeptical - has Apple ever added a beta tag to a main features of new hardware?
I saw this on VHS when it originally came out, at an Apple user group meeting. I was 15 years old. I remember thinking at the time that it all seemed to far-fetched to become reality. I'm glad I was wrong.
"Your sensitive stuff is safe with us.
Whether it's your email address, or usernames or passwords, your dedicated Zirtual Assistant would rather fall on their sword than divulge any of your sensitive information to internet creepers!" Hmm. Creepy!
It's sad that we still did not achieve the level smoothness and interoperability imagined in this video. Who cares about talking to the computer. Getting things done is still a bunch of ugly hacks.
Regardless of the awkwardness of this, it's still incredibly fascinating to see. It's kind of like Google Wave meets FaceTime meets Siri and an Exahertz of AI.
That's nice and all but this video is not from 1987.. 1997 maybe. The lady at the beginning of the video mentions Yahoo which didn't launch until 1995.
[+] [-] breckinloggins|14 years ago|reply
Honestly, I think we're still 10 or 20 years out from that.
[+] [-] jff|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _delirium|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mindstab|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|14 years ago|reply
Perhaps one of the most salient things to learn from this is that people with a vision, and a will, work continually toward that vision even when progress seems non-existent. A solid idea of what you'd like something to look like, elucidated clearly, can help shape products for years until what you imagine can be made real. When I saw Alan Kay talk about the Dynabook at one of Xerox PARC's lecture series I felt that here was a guy who had basically committed to this vision, and was knocking down objections one by one.
[+] [-] stevejohnson|14 years ago|reply
Source: Insanely Great. I don't have a copy to look it up in.
[+] [-] rabble|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] epaulson|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ck2|14 years ago|reply
But I guess the video is somewhat well known and any voice recognition from Apple will draw it's comparison.
Same video posted a year earlier with many more views http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WdS4TscWH8
What's interesting to me is how slow the UI obviously is - I guess they were trying to make it "realistic" for the time and therefore more believable than instantaneous (or it was a limitation of the software they used to create it). Reminds me of the "Lost in Space" movie where the UI from the future seemed too fast to them.
[+] [-] doomlaser|14 years ago|reply
Until today that is. It's been artifically limited to Apple's forthcoming iPhone 4S, and current customers will have the service shut off for them on the 15th.
[+] [-] Cushman|14 years ago|reply
Damn. They got some marketing balls.
[+] [-] spinchange|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fady|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kinkora|14 years ago|reply
[1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WdS4TscWH8
[+] [-] mrich|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] planb|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tjogin|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] larrywright|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ubercore|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sp332|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] primigenus|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] raquo|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] speek|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spiffistan|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pennig|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coob|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] civilian|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shubhamgoel|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joejohnson|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ljf|14 years ago|reply
At which point in the video do they mention Yahoo? I watched it again and couldn't hear it.