Although it has been around for several years, Apple's Siri (digital assistant) still experiences failures since it often fails to respond correctly to basic commands. But earlier this month he reportedly rose to the occasion when a four-year-old boy was forced to call for help in an emergency.
Ο μικρός Roman, κάτοικος της περιοχής Kenley στο Croydon του Ηνωμένου Βασιλείου, βρήκε τη μητέρα του ακίνητη στο πάτωμα στις 7 Μαρτίου. Προσπάθησε να την "ξυπνήσει" αλλά δεν τα κατάφερε. Μετά βρήκε το iPhone της, πίεσε τον αντίχειρά του στο κουμπί home, και ζήτησε βοήθεια από την ψηφιακή βοηθό Siri.
You can hear the sound of Roman's energy below.
Roman connected to the local emergency services (the number to call at United Kingdom is the 999). So the mechanism was set in motion, and soon (within 13 minutes of receiving the call, with the location) a team of nurses were able to give the mother life-saving first aid and take her and Roman to the hospital for further tests.
Although for the most part the presence of Roman was the one that saved his mother's life, this story highlights one of the important aspects of voice assistants: accessibility.
It is unclear whether the child could have called her number on his own serviceemergency, but he was very lucky to find a way to call for help.
Let's say that digital assistants are increasing with the last one Alexa of Amazon, and it seems great to see companies doing more to help their users through a difficult time, regardless of their age or whether their voices are recognized by connected Appliances.
Features like these will take a lot of work to make work out of the box around the world, as each country uses different emergency systems and services. Hopefully, Roman's story will motivate many companies to produce very simplified yet functional products, so that they can be used by everyone.
ΥΓ. : The title was corrected after a friend's Facebook intervention.
