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I am curios why google and others don't let us change the wake up command. Technically I don't see an issue as the phrase can be setup to only work with your vo

I am curios why google and others don't let us change the wake up command. Technically I don't see an issue as the phrase can be setup to only work with your voice already. Is it because of the bad press that could be caused by people abusing this and posting about it?

duskwuff 8y ago
At least on iOS, the first pass of wakeup phrase recognition is handled by a pre-trained ML model, based on data from a wide variety of speakers. Training a model for a user-chosen phrase would take a lot more samples, and a lot more time, than most users would be willing to put up with. There's some details on Apple's approach at: https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey-siri.html https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey-siri.html
- jscheel 8y ago
  Ohhhh, interesting. They only use your additional training for speaker identification, so that someone else can't say "Hey Siri" to your device.
  - Klathmon 8y ago
    I believe it's similar with a lot of the Google devices. Last I read, a pretrained ML trigger happens entirely on-device, and if the trigger happens, it sends the previous few seconds to the server that does the real processing to check voice match and other stuff.
  - jdminhbg 8y ago
    As far as I know that disambiguation is pretty naive, just your general voice register; i.e., you could fool it pretty easily if you were trying to. That's why it still requires you to unlock a device for personal requests.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
Raphmedia 8y ago
For some reason "Google" is one of those words that really puts my accent to the test. I have to repeat it over and over for the device to wake up. "Ok Gogle" ... "Ok Gougle"... "Ok Goo gle"... I really wish you could change it.
- crooked-v 8y ago
  "Hey Siri" always feels similarly awkward to me. The only wake words I really like so far are "Alexa" (it helps that the Echo seems to recognize it even when I'm particularly mealy-mouthed) and "Computer" (that one's probably because of Star Trek making it feel more natural in my head).
izacus 8y ago
The hotword phrase is actually baked into a tiny firmware of a separate DSP that's constantly running and waiting for the pattern match. Updating the hotwork requires updating that firmware model (which doesn't really have a lot of RAM) and can sometimes differ between the manufacturers (e.g. it's the reason why Samsungs phones sometimes behave differently). This makes custom hotwords a bit... complicated :)
- stirlo 8y ago
  Amazon manages this fine on their Echo products...
  - greenshackle2 8y ago
    Last I checked they have like 4 hotwords you can't pick an arbitrary word.
  - izacus 8y ago
    Echo products are always on things that can afford to use main application processor to do the hotword detection.
convolvatron 8y ago
'ok google' seems more like a broad branding effort than button to turn on the service
jotm 8y ago
Can't have people forget who their lord benefactor is.
sdinsn 8y ago
The name is actually a very important part of the algorithm they use. That's why companies have chosen unique names (Alexa, Google, Bixby, etc.)- they standout clearly when a speaker uses them. If they let you use any word, it would suck the battery life away so quick.
- lozaning 8y ago
  Im still mad at Microsoft for making me say 'Hey Cortana' instead of just 'xbox' when Im using my kinect to control my home entertainment system. Alexa also has a couple different ones you can pick from. I liked the 'computer' one the most.

duskwuff 8y ago

At least on iOS, the first pass of wakeup phrase recognition is handled by a pre-trained ML model, based on data from a wide variety of speakers. Training a model for a user-chosen phrase would take a lot more samples, and a lot more time, than most users would be willing to put up with. There's some details on Apple's approach at: https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey-siri.html https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey-siri.html

jscheel 8y ago
Ohhhh, interesting. They only use your additional training for speaker identification, so that someone else can't say "Hey Siri" to your device.
- Klathmon 8y ago
  I believe it's similar with a lot of the Google devices. Last I read, a pretrained ML trigger happens entirely on-device, and if the trigger happens, it sends the previous few seconds to the server that does the real processing to check voice match and other stuff.
- jdminhbg 8y ago
  As far as I know that disambiguation is pretty naive, just your general voice register; i.e., you could fool it pretty easily if you were trying to. That's why it still requires you to unlock a device for personal requests.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]

Raphmedia 8y ago

For some reason "Google" is one of those words that really puts my accent to the test. I have to repeat it over and over for the device to wake up. "Ok Gogle" ... "Ok Gougle"... "Ok Goo gle"... I really wish you could change it.

crooked-v 8y ago
"Hey Siri" always feels similarly awkward to me. The only wake words I really like so far are "Alexa" (it helps that the Echo seems to recognize it even when I'm particularly mealy-mouthed) and "Computer" (that one's probably because of Star Trek making it feel more natural in my head).

izacus 8y ago

The hotword phrase is actually baked into a tiny firmware of a separate DSP that's constantly running and waiting for the pattern match. Updating the hotwork requires updating that firmware model (which doesn't really have a lot of RAM) and can sometimes differ between the manufacturers (e.g. it's the reason why Samsungs phones sometimes behave differently). This makes custom hotwords a bit... complicated :)

stirlo 8y ago
Amazon manages this fine on their Echo products...
- greenshackle2 8y ago
  Last I checked they have like 4 hotwords you can't pick an arbitrary word.
- izacus 8y ago
  Echo products are always on things that can afford to use main application processor to do the hotword detection.

convolvatron 8y ago

'ok google' seems more like a broad branding effort than button to turn on the service

jotm 8y ago

Can't have people forget who their lord benefactor is.

sdinsn 8y ago

The name is actually a very important part of the algorithm they use. That's why companies have chosen unique names (Alexa, Google, Bixby, etc.)- they standout clearly when a speaker uses them. If they let you use any word, it would suck the battery life away so quick.

lozaning 8y ago
Im still mad at Microsoft for making me say 'Hey Cortana' instead of just 'xbox' when Im using my kinect to control my home entertainment system. Alexa also has a couple different ones you can pick from. I liked the 'computer' one the most.