Samsung's latest acquisition likely targets the progress of its Bixby assistant and an AI-powered smart speaker, which need all the help they can get.
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First, "Bixby," now, "Bixby Vision." The names are suspected to be the branding for Samsung's digital assistant for the Galaxy S8.
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Just when you thought the Galaxy S8 couldn't get more exciting, we catch wind of another game-changing new Bixby feature in the works
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Despite Google’s rumored hostility to Samsung’s also rumored personal assistant plans for the fast-approaching Galaxy S8, the Viv-based Bixby AI character looks just about ready for primetime. And it might be integrated even more “system-wide” than you perhaps anticipated.
In addition to a dedicated side button for smart assistance activation, and your typical voice commands for web searches, messaging, various social media actions, photos, calls and so on, Bixby could well work with Samsung Pay too.
Or rather Samsung Pay Mini, aka a long-in-the-pipeline online payment platform for both Android and iOS that the chaebol appears to be confirming today, along with Bixby’s name. The two monikers are listed in black and white on an official Korean Samsung Pay Beta website, suggesting they’ll soon be tested by those willing to help out the digital wallet’s development and evolution.
Unfortunately, that’s all we have right now, and there’s no telling when further details will be released. Maybe in April, but probably (hopefully), sooner.
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So, do any of you remember the time when Google and Samsung almost filed for a divorce back in 2014? It was a time when Samsung had really forked Android to look like nothing we had ever seen before in tablets, and which never continued after Google sat down with Samsung and discussed how such dramatic changes were not in the best interest of Android. Today we even see OEM logos on boot up that mention “Powered by Android” at the bottom as a result.
Part of that negotiation involved the cross-licensing of patents between Google and Samsung in order to sweeten the pot. Samsung would benefit from patents, Google would benefit from the predominance of its services on Galaxy phones, and you can see that today if you try to find S Voice dug somewhere around your Galaxy phone. So now that we know that S Voice is pretty-much dead, and that Samsung is looking into VIV as an alternative, analysts predict that won’t happen.
We recently covered rumors that Samsung’s adoption of Nougat could jump directly to version 7.1.1, which could mean the Google Assistant in tow. Analysts claim that a major hurdle for this to happen is VIV, and that Google might force Samsung to not adopt VIV, at least for Android-powered devices. Still, if we consider just how terrible things have been for Tizen, then it’s clear that VIV might be dead on arrival. We’ll see how all this unfolds.
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Multiple trademark applications filed at Korean and European intellectual property regulators are showing off what may become of Samsung’s acquired Viv artificial intelligence technology on the Galaxy S8.
The chaebol announced that a voice assistant would debut with the new phone(s) this coming spring. Sure, you might consider them a dime for a dozen these days, but Samsung is tops when it comes to global smartphone sales volume. The chaebol would have a domain to command over and mine data from if it established an assistant. But in order to do that, the AI will need to act a little more like a human. Part of that begins with giving the voice that a customer will be talking with a name.
The KIPRIS and EUIPO have entries for different pronunciations and spellings of “Bixby” and “Kestra” [PDF download] filed under Samsung’s banner. Both of them are proposed to be used for purposes related to smartphones, software and/or hardware for dictation, voice recognition and other intelligent tasks requiring voice control. The likeliest scenario the two words will be used in will be in naming two voices or characters that might fall under a unified “S Voice” or “Viv” service. GalaxyClub.nl is also speculating that the two may refer to names of individual services provided by the new service.
Samsung acquired Viv Labs, the artificial intelligence company founded by one of the co-creators of Siri, in October.
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While normally smartphone manufacturers resent premature spillage of classified or tentative information on future flagship releases, Samsung may well be fueling the Galaxy S8 speculation fire itself to bury Note 7 scandals as fast and as deep as possible.
Practically confirmed to make use of a vastly improved Siri-like digital assistant service dubbed Viv, the Korean tech behemoth’s “next big thing” could go so far as to feature a physical button dedicated solely to AI interaction.
Early prototypes currently in development reportedly include such a key to one of their side edges, though the super-reliable publication exclusively breaking the story today emphasizes the designs “aren’t final and could change.”
What’s particularly intriguing is a separate, way less credible source anticipates the death of the classical home button, with Samsung likely to follow in Apple’s footsteps, but mainly for screen bezel-slimming purposes.
Speaking of the alleged Galaxy S8 screen, we’re still unsure exactly how much of the front panel it will take up, but the oft-rumored 4K, aka Ultra HD, resolution upgrade may ultimately be delayed, as Samsung looks to cut costs, deeming a 2K pixel count perfectly acceptable for 2017 standards, including for high-res VR viewing.
Last but not least, we’re again hearing word of thorough quality control and Note 7 investigations pushing back the GS8 launch and announcement all the way to April. Let’s hope it’s worth the wait.
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Samsung confirmed that it will be taking its acquisition of Viv Labs, an artificial intelligence firm founded by one of the creators of Siri, into full use by creating a new voice assistant that will debut with the launch of the Galaxy S8 next year.
Reuters reports that the company isn’t specifying what services the assistant will offer, though third-party apps may connect theirs “seamlessly.”
“Even if Samsung doesn’t do anything on its own, the more services that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new services and provide them to end-users with ease,” said Executive Vice President Injong Rhee.
Despite the Galaxy Note 7 recall, Samsung could leverage its sustained command of market share to vault its AI assistant into contention with the likes of Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa service, in addition to a new and improved Siri expected some time down the line. Alexa and Google Assistant are attempting to expand inquiry links to third-party services.
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The Galaxy Note 7 is out, the Galaxy S8 is in and so are the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus.According to at least one Weibo tech analyst, Samsung may end up following Apple’s (and, to a lesser extent with the Pixel, ...
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Samsung might be trying to beat arch-rival Apple quite literally at its own game in the increasingly competitive artificial intelligence arena, also going after Google, Amazon or Microsoft with external help.Forget S Voice, as the virtual personal assistant likely to be baked into next-generation Galaxy phones, Gear wearables and various home appliances is called Viv, its research and development having been led by “AI visionaries” Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham since 2012.Don’t feel bad if …
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