Many HomePod users know that one big disadvantage the product faces is Siri’s inability to differentiate voices. That could be changing as a new patent filed by Apple hints that Siri may soon be able to recognize voices to personalize responses.
Currently anytime a user asks a question to HomePod such as “read my messages,” Siri will spout off the response to anyone reading whatever is associated with the Apple ID logged during setup. Currently Siri can identify different voices on devices such as iPhone and iPad with the “Hey Siri” command, so it’s unclear as to why similar technology wasn’t included in HomePod at launch.
The patent filed describes the following:
The patent for “User profiling for voice input processing,” granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday, details how a voice recognition could identify the user by their speech to use a pre-existing registered user profile. Recognition can be performed in a variety of ways, including biometric information, which the patent suggests could be a “voice print.”
That profile would help the digital assistant perform tasks, including items that can only be performed just for that user.
Much of the information disclosed is on the technical side and is not very clear on how Siri might use this going forward.