Siri is a speech-recognition computer application. It has both
speech input and output, meaning you can speak to it, and it can
speak back to you. You speak to Siri to ask it questions and
give it commands, such as small tasks that you’d like it to
complete. For example, ask Siri about the weather, and it will
respond out loud with a short summary of the day’s weather
report and on-screen with a snapshot of the five-day forecast.
Tell Siri that you need to schedule an appointment for 2:30 p.m.
on Wednesday, and it will add an item to your calendar, then
confirm verbally that it has done so. Say you receive an
incoming text message but can’t devote your eyes to the screen
to read it; you can command Siri to read it aloud to you. Siri
does not process your speech input locally on your phone. The
software sends commands through a remote server, so you have to
be connected to Wi-Fi or a 3G signal. Here’s an infographic from
the findings of University College London research on the use of
Siri amongst 661 iPhone 4