Veveo Claims To Be “Siri on Steroids,” Beat Apple at Its Own Game
A new voice search technology known as Veveo has some capabilities that could make Siri jealous. Veveo's website poses the question, "So what if we could talk to our devices like we normally do with other people?" With its conversational interface, Veveo brings predictive search to devices and combines it with contextual awareness and knowledge of user intent to deliver a user experience that surpasses the capabilities found on Apple's popular voice-controlled personal assistant, Siri.
Veveo goes beyond the traditional spoken commands and speech control capabilities we have on devices today by taking user intent and behavior relevant to a conversation into consideration when displaying search results. As a result, Veveo is able to deliver an interface that more closely resembles human-like interaction and intelligence.
The company has a few demos on its website that shows the power of Veveo. In one video that focuses on video and television, you see a user interacting with an iPhone 4S. The user asks the phone questions such as, "When is the next Pats game?" and "When are they playing the Seahawks?" In both instances, the phone recognizes the user is talking about the Patriots and displays the results most people would expect to hear when asking these questions.
The user then moves on to a different request and asks about action thrillers. The phone recognizes the user isn't talking about sports games anymore and displays various action thriller movies. Using additional voice commands, the user eventually asks the phone to play a specific movie on Netflix, which it does with ease.
Veveo is designed to provide a hands-free conversational interface on a connected device or automobile. It's pretty cool technology, to say the least. The company is targeting mobile devices, TVs, and set-top boxes with its technology. Veveo CMO Sam Vasisht has said the company is in talks with telecom operators about using the technology. It's possible commercial rollouts by operators could begin sometime this year though no timing has been finalized.
Veveo currently offers a consumer app for Android known as vtap which provides a type of comprehensive search functionality that makes it easier to find contacts and functions on your phone such as the alarm, Bluetooth settings, and more. vtap QuickSearch is designed to learn what you do and when you do it. Over time, the vtap QuickSearch dashboard will display what is most important to you, whether that be contacts, apps, or settings. vtap QuickSearch is currently available for free from the Google Play store.
On its website, the company says vtap InstantVideo for iOS (which is seen in the video above) will be available soon though no specific launch date has been given.
