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[Weaver]

Why does Siri listen to the output from the iPad’s own speakers? A film being played in the iPad activated Siri accidentally when an American character said the word siriously which is American for seriously. Why on earth doesn’t the iPad pre-subtract the speaker output from the mic’s input ? That would help stop the false triggers and it would also allow Siri to hear the user’s speech properly with more of a chance of success when sound is being played

[Alex Atkin UK]

Presumably as it would use more battery power.

Quite frankly though, I'd imagine its fairly useless it monitoring at all while watching something if it DOESN'T do that, as its not going to be able to hear you over what is playing.  So it still doesn't make sense.

[Westie]

I know a few people who like listening to the sound of their own voice! 

[sevenlayermuddle]

With the exception of my watch, I have Siri configured on my devices to respond only when a button is pressed, avoiding accidental activation.

I do have “Hey Siri” enabled on the watch, you have a narrow window of opportunity to say it after raising the wrist.   It still, occasionally, makes mistakes.    Once whilst sitting opposite other half in a restaurant, her phone beeped.  She looked then  claimed I’d sent her a message, although the content was garbage.   

Somehow, in the course of regularly raising my wrist to convey the food on my fork towards my digestive system, Apple had contrived an imaginary “Hey Siri” from the background chatter in the restaurant.

[Weaver]

I have the permanent hey Siri listening enabled, because when I’m really ill and can’t move, I can use voice commands to summon help from Janet via iMessage. You don’t need to press the button if on dc power. It works.

[sevenlayermuddle]

I have the permanent hey Siri listening enabled, because when I’m really ill and can’t move, I can use voice commands to summon help from Janet via iMessage. You don’t need to press the button if on dc power. It works.

Fair enough, I too find Siri incredibly useful, despite her/his shortcomings.   But in the scenario you described in opening post, can you be certain it was a sound from the iPad speakers that triggered Siri, as opposed to some other ambient sounds?

Aside from the watch, when  I’ve enabled “hey Siri”, I’ve had false activations that could only be attributed to rustling of paper.

[Weaver]

Yes, it was quiet in the room otherwise.

[tubaman]

I understand the annoyance, but I can't think how Siri would be able to differentiate 'hey Siri!' from a sound track as opposed to someone in the room saying it.
 

[Weaver]

You see that the input signal from the mic doesn’t contain a hey Siri but the output to the speaker does. So you look at both.

Multiple benefits.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I understand the annoyance, but I can't think how Siri would be able to differentiate 'hey Siri!' from a sound track as opposed to someone in the room saying it.
 

Noise cancelling is a thing, you subtract what you are playing from what is being received by the mic.  Its exactly the same principle as modern phones use by having two mics, one near your mouth and one further away, to remove background noise in voice calls.

[tubaman]

Yes of course - why didn't I think of that. 

[Weaver]

It’s happened again. iOS aka Siri was listening to its own output of a Netflix program sent to the speakers and then picked up back into the mic. It knew it had just said the words sirial killer, because iOS sent that audio to the speakers, so Siri heard what iOS itself had just said and called up Siri to helpfully give the definition of a serial killer! To quote John McEnroe, iirc, “You can nat be sirious!”

[sevenlayermuddle]

It shouldn’t that easy to false trigger. 

It is supposed to react only to “Hey Siri”, not just “Siri”.    Moreover, I think it needs to hear “  Hey Siri  “, ie gaps at either end, and between words, so even “Fairway Serial Killer” shouldn’t trigger it, regardless of accents.

On occasions that mine has false triggered, it’s seemed to been reacting to simple random sounds, such as the rustling of paper bags.  I wish I knew enough about speech recognition technology to speculate if that’s possible, or how that might happen.  But I don’t.

[Weaver]

No but I noticed that item in the dialog in the program I was watching and there was no other noise of any kind in the room

[Alex Atkin UK]

I'm not sure if Alexa is better or worse, as I have it set to Computer as the wake word which I knew would dramatically increase the false trigger but as a Trekkie it had to be done.  (how could I deny the opportunity to say "Computer, activate the shield" to turn on my ShieldTV?  To my dismay, "Computer, Early gray, hot" does nothing though. )

The thing is, its tuned to American so often if I say "computer" it doesn't work, I have to say "compuder".  I guess that kinda makes it more authentic?

I wish I could remember what it was that recently triggered it though as it was something nothing like "compuder" and I was utterly baffled.