4 ms·

Sirius – Open Source Siri/Cortana Alternative for Linux

74 points by steviee 12y ago

detaro 12y ago
some previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9204954 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9204954 I'm really curious how well this works. If it does, it sounds like a great starting point for building your own speech control systems -> most other open-source solutions rely on online speech recognition services (mostly google's)
- IshKebab 12y ago
  Given all speech recognition systems except Google's kind of suck, I'm going to guess it doesn't work very well. You need a huge training database and a priori information (i.e. what are people likely to be saying; think Google autocomplete) to do it really well. They have neither.
higherpurpose 12y ago
Why so Sirius? Sorry, couldn't resist.
awalGarg 12y ago
Looks like they got too much traffic due to Hn :/ http://i.imgur.com/A2K9mDr.png http://i.imgur.com/A2K9mDr.png
espadrine 12y ago
Cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:siBjE2UmVPQJ:clarity-lab.org/claritube/introducing-sirius/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:siBjE2U... They also link to this paper: http://clarity-lab.org/wp-content/papercite-data/pdf/hauswald15asplos.pdf http://clarity-lab.org/wp-content/papercite-data/pdf/hauswal... It describes the system as a hidden Markov model combined with either a deep neural network or a Gaussian mixture model which compute the probability of state transitions, based on which the Viterbi algorithm computes the most likely path in the tree, a sentence.
javindo 12y ago
Whilst this is a great idea which I look forward to watching progress, Sirius doesn't seem like the best name for this. It's very close to an existing industry product in the same category and Apple certainly don't hold back in trademark litigation.
- sschueller 12y ago
  Also don't forget the satellite radio service that merged with XM radio. [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_Satellite_Radio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_Satellite_Radio
  - aylons 12y ago
    Well, this is more distant. If we're at it, it is also the name of a particle accelerator in Brazil: http://www.lightsources.org/news/2015/02/21/sirius-%E2%80%93-new-brazilian-synchrotron-light-source http://www.lightsources.org/news/2015/02/21/sirius-%E2%80%93...
    - sschueller 12y ago
      It doesn't matter in the US. A large company will take you through the ringer if there is any possibility of confusion even if they may not have a claim.
- cpfohl 12y ago
  All I hear is "Harry Potter's Godfather"....
- bcg1 12y ago
  You may be right... but "Siri" itself is a riff on "SRI", as in "Stanford Research Institute" or "SRI International". Apple could use their money to try to take down an open source university project, which would certainly foster goodwill for them, and it would probably draw attention to Siri's DARPA roots, which would also be some doubleplusgood publicity for them. They might be better off just not spending the money and buying back more of their stock.
- 12y ago
shiggerino 12y ago
I wish they'd use a standard build system and not a bunch of home-made unportable scripts, so it would be a bit easier to give this thing a try. https://github.com/jhauswald/sirius https://github.com/jhauswald/sirius
jesuslop 12y ago
Any opinion on Kaldi vs RASR? (their open speech recognition technologies)
rbanffy 12y ago
I notice an almost accidental reference to the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. http://hitchhikersguidetoearth.wikia.com/wiki/Sirius_Cybernetics_Corporation http://hitchhikersguidetoearth.wikia.com/wiki/Sirius_Cyberne...
avinassh 12y ago
Has anyone tried this installing on their laptops and checked how it works? I use OSX and some installation FAQ would have been nice for me. Even after reading multiple times, I can't understand whether I should install Sirius or Sirius Suite.
barbolo 12y ago
Sirius would be a cool name if Siri didn't exist. I'm just imagining if Linux was called something like Winds. It makes the whole thing look like a cheap copy of the original. Sorry, I can't take that sirius. Change the name!
- QuercusMax 12y ago
  That was my first reaction as well. It's also bad because of Sirius radio. Seriously (pun intended), come up with your own name!
bcg1 12y ago
nice name: sirius = siri + us I like this effort a lot, and I think it would be really interesting to fork it and make a personal version that people could customize with their own information and thought processes. This is my favorite aspect of the university system; I have no problems with innovation through free market capitalism and profit motive, but its nice that there is university infrastructure to support researchers and provide balance for the times when profit motive is not enough. It is a shame that many aspects of university have just become glorified vocational school debt machines.

74 points by steviee 12y ago

some previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9204954 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9204954 I'm really curious how well this works. If it does, it sounds like a great starting point for building your own speech control systems -> most other open-source solutions rely on online speech recognition services (mostly google's)

IshKebab 12y ago
Given all speech recognition systems except Google's kind of suck, I'm going to guess it doesn't work very well. You need a huge training database and a priori information (i.e. what are people likely to be saying; think Google autocomplete) to do it really well. They have neither.

higherpurpose 12y ago

Why so Sirius? Sorry, couldn't resist.

awalGarg 12y ago

Looks like they got too much traffic due to Hn :/ http://i.imgur.com/A2K9mDr.png http://i.imgur.com/A2K9mDr.png

espadrine 12y ago

Cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:siBjE2UmVPQJ:clarity-lab.org/claritube/introducing-sirius/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:siBjE2U... They also link to this paper: http://clarity-lab.org/wp-content/papercite-data/pdf/hauswald15asplos.pdf http://clarity-lab.org/wp-content/papercite-data/pdf/hauswal... It describes the system as a hidden Markov model combined with either a deep neural network or a Gaussian mixture model which compute the probability of state transitions, based on which the Viterbi algorithm computes the most likely path in the tree, a sentence.

javindo 12y ago

Whilst this is a great idea which I look forward to watching progress, Sirius doesn't seem like the best name for this. It's very close to an existing industry product in the same category and Apple certainly don't hold back in trademark litigation.

sschueller 12y ago
Also don't forget the satellite radio service that merged with XM radio. [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_Satellite_Radio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_Satellite_Radio
- aylons 12y ago
  Well, this is more distant. If we're at it, it is also the name of a particle accelerator in Brazil: http://www.lightsources.org/news/2015/02/21/sirius-%E2%80%93-new-brazilian-synchrotron-light-source http://www.lightsources.org/news/2015/02/21/sirius-%E2%80%93...
  - sschueller 12y ago
    It doesn't matter in the US. A large company will take you through the ringer if there is any possibility of confusion even if they may not have a claim.
cpfohl 12y ago
All I hear is "Harry Potter's Godfather"....
bcg1 12y ago
You may be right... but "Siri" itself is a riff on "SRI", as in "Stanford Research Institute" or "SRI International". Apple could use their money to try to take down an open source university project, which would certainly foster goodwill for them, and it would probably draw attention to Siri's DARPA roots, which would also be some doubleplusgood publicity for them. They might be better off just not spending the money and buying back more of their stock.
12y ago

shiggerino 12y ago

I wish they'd use a standard build system and not a bunch of home-made unportable scripts, so it would be a bit easier to give this thing a try. https://github.com/jhauswald/sirius https://github.com/jhauswald/sirius

jesuslop 12y ago

Any opinion on Kaldi vs RASR? (their open speech recognition technologies)

rbanffy 12y ago

I notice an almost accidental reference to the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. http://hitchhikersguidetoearth.wikia.com/wiki/Sirius_Cybernetics_Corporation http://hitchhikersguidetoearth.wikia.com/wiki/Sirius_Cyberne...

avinassh 12y ago

Has anyone tried this installing on their laptops and checked how it works? I use OSX and some installation FAQ would have been nice for me. Even after reading multiple times, I can't understand whether I should install Sirius or Sirius Suite.

barbolo 12y ago

Sirius would be a cool name if Siri didn't exist. I'm just imagining if Linux was called something like Winds. It makes the whole thing look like a cheap copy of the original. Sorry, I can't take that sirius. Change the name!

QuercusMax 12y ago
That was my first reaction as well. It's also bad because of Sirius radio. Seriously (pun intended), come up with your own name!

bcg1 12y ago

nice name: sirius = siri + us I like this effort a lot, and I think it would be really interesting to fork it and make a personal version that people could customize with their own information and thought processes. This is my favorite aspect of the university system; I have no problems with innovation through free market capitalism and profit motive, but its nice that there is university infrastructure to support researchers and provide balance for the times when profit motive is not enough. It is a shame that many aspects of university have just become glorified vocational school debt machines.