Apple’s Siri patent reveals a much more powerful service that may be in the works

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The United States Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday published Apple’s patent application related to its Siri digital assistant service. We’ve already heard rumors that Apple is planning to launch a new television set that completely reinvents how we interact with TV by using Siri to replace the remote, but now it appears that the company has much more expansive plans for the technology. Read on for more.

The patent describes a configurable “intelligent automated assistant” that can be used in computers, tablets, set-top boxes, televisions, cameras and more. It’s unclear if Apple will include Siri in its next-generation iPad, although it’s starting to become obvious that there’s no reason it wouldn’t. Patently Apple goes over many of the possibilities for Siri in its explanation of the patent, although one interesting aspect that caught our eye was the ability for Siri to interact with external situations.

“In various embodiments, the assistant could also take into account external events and respond accordingly, for example, to initiate action, initiate communication with the user, provide alerts, and/or modify previously initiated action in view of the external events,” Patently Apple explained.

1-19-12

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