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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > iPhone, iPad & iPod > Siri word recognition--teaching it a new word

Siri word recognition--teaching it a new word
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Boise Ed
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Atascadero, California
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Nov 15, 2013, 04:41 PM
 
I live in the town of Atascadero. Siri consistently interprets that as "Itaska Darrow." How can I teach Siri to recognize "Atascadero"?
     
subego
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Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Nov 15, 2013, 07:08 PM
 
Step 1) Make a contact with the first name "Atascadero"
Step 2) Pronounce it "ASS-ka-dare-o".


Step one seems vital. If I delete the contact it stops working for me.

If you have the contact, you can ask Siri to call it, and it will pronounce it back at you because "I don't have a number for Atascadero".

It's that pronunciation you want to ape. She does pronounce the "t", but it's barely audible.
     
subego
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Nov 15, 2013, 07:09 PM
 
     
subego
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Nov 15, 2013, 07:10 PM
 
This was not easy to figure out. You owe me a beer.
     
subego
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Nov 15, 2013, 09:24 PM
 
I'm guessing you need the contact because there's a fork in Siri's logic where it does a quick comparison of what you say with names from your contacts before sending the audio out for interpretation by the mothership.

I'm also guessing there's some linkage between the phonetics Siri is listening for and the phonetics she uses herself, so you can kinda "reverse engineer" what she thinks a word should sound like by how she says it.

I remember in the initial Siri release, I found the Australian voice to be much more pleasing, but I had to switch back because she couldn't understand my American accent.
     
Boise Ed  (op)
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Nov 22, 2013, 06:46 PM
 
I'd be glad to bend an elbow with you, subego, while figuring out how to bend Siri to my desires. I had tried an entry with the Phonetic Surname field, no first name, and pronunciation "uh-TASK-uh-darrow." I added a random first name. Then I tried changing the surname to your suggestion, ""ASS-ka-dare-o." Then I deleted the first name. It still comes back with "Itaska Darrow" every time. BTW, all this was within "Contacts," not the base-level Siri. Perhaps there's a difference between Siri's voice recognition and other apps' VR.

Your linkage idea bore some fruit. I thought maybe I could just ask Siri in what city I live, but it just displays it, without pronunciation. Then I asked "How do you pronounce the city where I live"? It then asked me to pronounce my first and last names, and offered me three interpretations of each. So then I tried "How do you pronounce Atascadero?" It then treated that the same as the names, offering me three choices, one of which was close enough. Going back into Contacts, though, I still got "Itaska Darrow." I went into Maps, and ditto. Grrrrr.
     
subego
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Nov 22, 2013, 07:40 PM
 
Try a contact with just the first name "Atascadero", but use the "ass" pronunciation when you say it.

Stay away from the phonetic entry. I think the problem is Siri's phonetics are a little off to begin with.
     
   
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