It’s final and official: Bixby isn’t an ordinary voice assistant. We know this already but we need Samsung to confirm that Bixby is more intelligent than just a voice assistant. It is an intelligent interface that will be found on the South Korean tech giant’s many devices. The idea is that this feature will be trained to learn from you. Any machine or device that has the Bixby will understand and remember how you interact. The result is the device will adapt to you instead of you trying to learn from and decipher it.
Bixby will definitely make our lives easier because we only need to say a few words for it to start and do some tasks. It will not only be found on smartphones but also on computers, smart home appliances, and more IoT devices (Internet of Things). This is a new solution by Samsung to make a smart home “smarter”. Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) for allowing deep learning to be reinforced in Samsung’s user interface and devices.
Bixby is different from the Samsung Assistant. It is the company’s answer to Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri. Samsung claims that this one offers a much deeper experience because Bixby has the following properties: Completeness, Context Awareness, and Cognitive Tolerance.
In a special blog post on Samsung’s website, the company’s Executive Vice President and Head of R&D, Software, and Services, InJong Rhee, explains how Bixby is more effective. He writes that unlike other similar agents, Bixby can support almost all tasks that can be controlled by conventional means like touch commands. This happens when app is enabled for Bixby. The result is Bixby can easily determine the behaviors of the users and the agents so predictability is improved. It is more complete in this sense because the AI assistant can do all tasks for you.
Bixby is also more aware of whatever context the user is in. It also looks into the state of the app once Bixby is enabled. This way, it can continue any work and allow other modes of interactions like voice or touch. Usually, an agent doesn’t understand that there is work in progress when switching modes but Bixby can do just that.
Last but not the least, Bixby boasts of ‘cognitive tolerance’. By this Samsung means Bixby can understand commands even with incomplete information. Bixby will still execute a task as it understands the users but will ask for more information. The result again is an interface that is easier and more natural to use.
Learning a new interface each time on every device can be exhausting but Bixby aims to help by making interactions more intelligent, more rewarding, and yet simpler than ever. Voice interfaces are more convenient to use now as they are more intuitive and continuous. Bixby aims to remove friction and make navigation more natural and efficient.
The Bixby button that you will find on the side of the Galaxy S8 will make things easier. Press the button, say a command like “Call mom”, and Bixby will do the task for you. Phone interactions will certainly be different from now on, at least, for avid Samsung users.
After smartphones, Bixby will be available on appliances. Samsung plans to expand the Bixby ecosystem and it should be easy because Bixby will be implemented in the cloud. InJong Rhee said that the possibilities are endless with Bixby. We agree and things will be easier once an SDK is released.
SOURCE: Samsung
