Information system

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_system

An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems comprise four components: task, people, structure (or roles), and technology. Information systems can be defined as an integration of components for collection, storage and processing of data, comprising digital products that process data to facilitate decision making and the data being used to provide information and contribute to knowledge.

A computer information system is a system, which consists of people and computers that process or interpret information. The term is also sometimes used to simply refer to a computer system with software installed.

"Information systems" is also an academic field of study about systems with a specific reference to information and the complementary networks of computer hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create and also distribute data. An emphasis is placed on an information system having a definitive boundary, users, processors, storage, inputs, outputs and the aforementioned communication networks.

In many organizations, the department or unit responsible for information systems and data processing is known as "information services".

Any specific information system aims to support operations, management and decision-making. An information system is the information and communication technology (ICT) that an organization uses, and also the way in which people interact with this technology in support of business processes.

Some authors make a clear distinction between information systems, computer systems, and business processes. Information systems typically include an ICT component but are not purely concerned with ICT, focusing instead on the end-use of information technology. Information systems are also different from business processes. Information systems help to control the performance of business processes.

Alter argues that viewing an information system as a special type of work system has its advantages. A work system is a system in which humans or machines perform processes and activities using resources to produce specific products or services for customers. An information system is a work system in which activities are devoted to capturing, transmitting, storing, retrieving, manipulating and displaying information.

As such, information systems inter-relate with data systems on the one hand and activity systems on the other. An information system is a form of communication system in which data represent and are processed as a form of social memory. An information system can also be considered a semi-formal language which supports human decision making and action.

Information systems are the primary focus of study for organizational informatics.

Overview

Silver et al. (1995) provided two views on IS that includes software, hardware, data, people, and procedures.

The Association for Computing Machinery defines "Information systems specialists [as] focus[ing] on integrating information technology solutions and business processes to meet the information needs of businesses and other enterprises."

There are various types of information systems, : including transaction processing systems, decision support systems, knowledge management systems, learning management systems, database management systems, and office information systems. Critical to most information systems are information technologies, which are typically designed to enable humans to perform tasks for which the human brain is not well suited, such as: handling large amounts of information, performing complex calculations, and controlling many simultaneous processes.

Information technologies are a very important and malleable resource available to executives. Many companies have created a position of chief information officer (CIO) that sits on the executive board with the chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief operating officer (COO), and chief technical officer (CTO). The CTO may also serve as CIO, and vice versa. The chief information security officer (CISO) focuses on information security management.

Six components

The six components that must come together in order to produce an information system are:

1. Hardware: The term hardware refers to machinery and equipment. In a modern information system, this category includes the computer itself and all of its support equipment. The support equipment includes input and output devices, storage devices and communications devices. In pre-computer information systems, the hardware might include ledger books and ink.
2. Software: The term software refers to computer programs and the manuals (if any) that support them. Computer programs are machine-readable instructions that direct the circuitry within the hardware parts of the system to function in ways that produce useful information from data. Programs are generally stored on some input/output medium, often a disk or tape. The "software" for pre-computer information systems included how the hardware was prepared for use (e.g., column headings in the ledger book) and instructions for using them (the guidebook for a card catalog).
3. Data: Data are facts that are used by systems to produce useful information. In modern information systems, data are generally stored in machine-readable form on disk or tape until the computer needs them. In pre-computer information systems, the data were generally stored in human-readable form.
4. Procedures: Procedures are the policies that govern the operation of an information system. "Procedures are to people what software is to hardware" is a common analogy that is used to illustrate the role of procedures in a system.
5. People: Every system needs people if it is to be useful. Often the most overlooked element of the system is the people, probably the component that most influences the success or failure of information systems. This includes "not only the users, but those who operate and service the computers, those who maintain the data, and those who support the network of computers".
6. Internet: The internet is a combination of data and people. (Although this component is not necessary for functionality.)

Data is the bridge between hardware and people. This means that the data we collect is only data until we involve people. At that point, data becomes information.

Types

A four level hierarchy

The "classic" view of Information systems found in textbooks in the 1980s was a pyramid of systems that reflected the hierarchy of the organization, usually transaction processing systems at the bottom of the pyramid, followed by management information systems, decision support systems, and ending with executive information systems at the top. Although the pyramid model remains useful since it was first formulated, a number of new technologies have been developed and new categories of information systems have emerged, some of which no longer fit easily into the original pyramid model.

Some examples of such systems are:

• intelligent system
• computing platform
• data warehouses
• decision support system
• enterprise systems
• enterprise resource planning
• expert systems
• geographic information system
• global information system
• management information system
• multimedia information system
• process control system
• social information systems
• search engines
• office automation.

A computer(-based) information system is essentially an IS using computer technology to carry out some or all of its planned tasks. The basic components of computer-based information systems are:

• Hardware are the devices like the monitor, processor, printer, and keyboard, all of which work together to accept, process, show data, and information.
• Software are the programs that allow the hardware to process the data.
• Databases are the gathering of associated files or tables containing related data.
• Networks are a connecting system that allows diverse computers to distribute resources.
• Procedures are the commands for combining the components above to process information and produce the preferred output.

The first four components (hardware, software, database, and network) make up what is known as the information technology platform. Information technology workers could then use these components to create information systems that watch over safety measures, risk and the management of data. These actions are known as information technology services.

Certain information systems support parts of organizations, others support entire organizations, and still others, support groups of organizations. Each department or functional area within an organization has its own collection of application programs or information systems. These functional area information systems (FAIS) are supporting pillars for more general IS namely, business intelligence systems and dashboards. As the name suggests, each FAIS supports a particular function within the organization, e.g.: accounting IS, finance IS, production-operation management (POM) IS, marketing IS, and human resources IS. In finance and accounting, managers use IT systems to forecast revenues and business activity, to determine the best sources and uses of funds, and to perform audits to ensure that the organization is fundamentally sound and that all financial reports and documents are accurate.

Other types of organizational information systems are FAIS, transaction processing systems, enterprise resource planning, office automation system, management information system, decision support system, expert system, executive dashboard, supply chain management system, and electronic commerce system. Dashboards are a special form of IS that support all managers of the organization. They provide rapid access to timely information and direct access to structured information in the form of reports. Expert systems attempt to duplicate the work of human experts by applying reasoning capabilities, knowledge, and expertise within a specific domain.

Development

Information technology departments in larger organizations tend to strongly influence the development, use, and application of information technology in the business. A series of methodologies and processes can be used to develop and use an information system. Many developers use a systems engineering approach such as the system development life cycle (SDLC), to systematically develop an information system in stages. The stages of the system development lifecycle are planning, system analysis, and requirements, system design, development, integration and testing, implementation and operations, and maintenance. Recent research aims at enabling and measuring the ongoing, collective development of such systems within an organization by the entirety of human actors themselves. An information system can be developed in house (within the organization) or outsourced. This can be accomplished by outsourcing certain components or the entire system. A specific case is the geographical distribution of the development team (offshoring, global information system).

A computer-based information system, following a definition of Langefors, is a technologically implemented medium for recording, storing, and disseminating linguistic expressions, as well as for drawing conclusions from such expressions.

Geographic information systems, land information systems, and disaster information systems are examples of emerging information systems, but they can be broadly considered as spatial information systems. System development is done in stages which include:

• Problem recognition and specification
• Information gathering
• Requirements specification for the new system
• System design
• System construction
• System implementation
• Review and maintenance

As an academic discipline

See also: Information engineering, Information science, Information technology, and Information management

The field of study called information systems encompasses a variety of topics including systems analysis and design, computer networking, information security, database management, and decision support systems. Information management deals with the practical and theoretical problems of collecting and analyzing information in a business function area including business productivity tools, applications programming and implementation, electronic commerce, digital media production, data mining, and decision support. Communications and networking deals with telecommunication technologies. Information systems bridges business and computer science using the theoretical foundations of information and computation to study various business models and related algorithmic processes  on building the IT systems  within a computer science discipline. Computer information systems (CIS) is a field studying computers and algorithmic processes, including their principles, their software and hardware designs, their applications, and their impact on society, whereas IS emphasizes functionality over design.

Several IS scholars have debated the nature and foundations of information systems which have its roots in other reference disciplines such as computer science, engineering, mathematics, management science, cybernetics, and others. Information systems also can be defined as a collection of hardware, software, data, people, and procedures that work together to produce quality information.

Related terms

Information systems relationship to information technology, computer science, information science, and business.

Similar to computer science, other disciplines can be seen as both related and foundation disciplines of IS. The domain of study of IS involves the study of theories and practices related to the social and technological phenomena, which determine the development, use, and effects of information systems in organizations and society. But, while there may be considerable overlap of the disciplines at the boundaries, the disciplines are still differentiated by the focus, purpose, and orientation of their activities.

In a broad scope, information systems is a scientific field of study that addresses the range of strategic, managerial, and operational activities involved in the gathering, processing, storing, distributing, and use of information and its associated technologies in society and organizations. The term information systems is also used to describe an organizational function that applies IS knowledge in the industry, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations.

Information systems often refers to the interaction between algorithmic processes and technology. This interaction can occur within or across organizational boundaries. An information system is a technology an organization uses and also the way in which the organizations interact with the technology and the way in which the technology works with the organization's business processes. Information systems are distinct from information technology (IT) in that an information system has an information technology component that interacts with the processes' components.

One problem with that approach is that it prevents the IS field from being interested in non-organizational use of ICT, such as in social networking, computer gaming, mobile personal usage, etc. A different way of differentiating the IS field from its neighbours is to ask, "Which aspects of reality are most meaningful in the IS field and other fields?" This approach, based on philosophy, helps to define not just the focus, purpose, and orientation, but also the dignity, destiny and, responsibility of the field among other fields.

Business informatics is a related discipline that is well-established in several countries, especially in Europe. While Information systems has been said to have an "explanation-oriented" focus, business informatics has a more "solution-oriented" focus and includes information technology elements and construction and implementation-oriented elements.

Career pathways

Information systems workers enter a number of different careers:

• Information system strategy
• Management information systems – A management information system (MIS) is an information system used for decision-making, and for the coordination, control, analysis, and visualization of information in an organization.
• Project management – Project management is the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time.
• Enterprise architecture – A well-defined practice for conducting enterprise analysis, design, planning, and implementation, using a comprehensive approach at all times, for the successful development and execution of strategy.
• IS development
• IS organization
• IS consulting
• IS security
• IS auditing

There is a wide variety of career paths in the information systems discipline. "Workers with specialized technical knowledge and strong communications skills will have the best prospects. Workers with management skills and an understanding of business practices and principles will have excellent opportunities, as companies are increasingly looking to technology to drive their revenue."

Information technology is important to the operation of contemporary businesses, it offers many employment opportunities. The information systems field includes the people in organizations who design and build information systems, the people who use those systems, and the people responsible for managing those systems. The demand for traditional IT staff such as programmers, business analysts, systems analysts, and designer is significant. Many well-paid jobs exist in areas of Information technology. At the top of the list is the chief information officer (CIO).

The CIO is the executive who is in charge of the IS function. In most organizations, the CIO works with the chief executive officer (CEO), the chief financial officer (CFO), and other senior executives. Therefore, he or she actively participates in the organization's strategic planning process.

Bachelor of Business Information Systems

Bachelor of Business Information Systems (BBIS), also Business Information Systems (BIS), is an information technology (IT) and management focused undergraduate program designed to better understand the needs of rapidly growing technology in business and IT sector. It is bachelor degree that combines elements of business administration and computer science with majoring on information systems and technology.The purpose of this course is to equip students with the skills and knowledge needed to effectively manage and utilize information technology in a business and IT industry.

Research

Information systems research is generally interdisciplinary concerned with the study of the effects of information systems on the behaviour of individuals, groups, and organizations. Hevner et al. (2004) categorized research in IS into two scientific paradigms including behavioural science which is to develop and verify theories that explain or predict human or organizational behavior and design science which extends the boundaries of human and organizational capabilities by creating new and innovative artifacts.

Salvatore March and Gerald Smith proposed a framework for researching different aspects of information technology including outputs of the research (research outputs) and activities to carry out this research (research activities). They identified research outputs as follows:

1. Constructs which are concepts that form the vocabulary of a domain. They constitute a conceptualization used to describe problems within the domain and to specify their solutions.
2. A model which is a set of propositions or statements expressing relationships among constructs.
3. A method which is a set of steps (an algorithm or guideline) used to perform a task. Methods are based on a set of underlying constructs and a representation (model) of the solution space.
4. An instantiation is the realization of an artefact in its environment.

Also research activities including:

1. Build an artefact to perform a specific task.
2. Evaluate the artefact to determine if any progress has been achieved.
3. Given an artefact whose performance has been evaluated, it is important to determine why and how the artefact worked or did not work within its environment. Therefore, theorize and justify theories about IT artefacts.

Although Information Systems as a discipline has been evolving for over 30 years now, the core focus or identity of IS research is still subject to debate among scholars. There are two main views around this debate: a narrow view focusing on the IT artifact as the core subject matter of IS research, and a broad view that focuses on the interplay between social and technical aspects of IT that is embedded into a dynamic evolving context. A third view calls on IS scholars to pay balanced attention to both the IT artifact and its context.

Since the study of information systems is an applied field, industry practitioners expect information systems research to generate findings that are immediately applicable in practice. This is not always the case however, as information systems researchers often explore behavioral issues in much more depth than practitioners would expect them to do. This may render information systems research results difficult to understand, and has led to criticism.

In the last ten years, the business trend is represented by the considerable increase of Information Systems Function (ISF) role, especially with regard to the enterprise strategies and operations supporting. It became a key factor to increase productivity and to support value creation. To study an information system itself, rather than its effects, information systems models are used, such as EATPUT.

The international body of Information Systems researchers, the Association for Information Systems (AIS), and its Senior Scholars Forum Subcommittee on Journals (202), proposed a list of 11 journals that the AIS deems as 'excellent'. According to the AIS, this list of journals recognizes topical, methodological, and geographical diversity. The review processes are stringent, editorial board members are widely-respected and recognized, and there is international readership and contribution. The list is (or should be) used, along with others, as a point of reference for promotion and tenure and, more generally, to evaluate scholarly excellence.

A number of annual information systems conferences are run in various parts of the world, the majority of which are peer reviewed. The AIS directly runs the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) and the Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS), while AIS affiliated conferences include the Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS), European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), the Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS), the International Conference on Information Resources Management (Conf-IRM) and the Wuhan International Conference on E-Business (WHICEB). AIS chapter conferences include Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Scandinavian Conference on Information Systems (SCIS), Information Systems International Conference (ISICO), Conference of the Italian Chapter of AIS (itAIS), Annual Mid-Western AIS Conference (MWAIS) and Annual Conference of the Southern AIS (SAIS). EDSIG, which is the special interest group on education of the AITP, organizes the Conference on Information Systems and Computing Education and the Conference on Information Systems Applied Research which are both held annually in November.

Mobile interaction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_interaction

Mobile phone device

Mobile interaction is the study of interaction between mobile users and computers. Mobile interaction is an aspect of human–computer interaction that emerged when computers became small enough to enable mobile usage, around the 1990s.

Mobile devices are a pervasive part of people's everyday lives. People use mobile phones, PDAs, and portable media players almost everywhere. These devices are the first truly pervasive interaction devices that are currently used for a huge variety of services and applications. Mobile devices affect the way people interact, share, and communicate with others. They are growing in diversity and complexity, featuring new interaction paradigms, modalities, shapes, and purposes (e.g., e-readers, portable media players, handheld game consoles). The strong differentiating factors that characterize mobile devices from traditional personal computing (e.g., desktop computers), are their ubiquitous use, usual small size, and mixed interaction modalities.

The history of mobile interaction includes different design trends. The main six design trends are portability, miniaturization, connectivity, convergence, divergence, and application software (apps). The main reason behind those trends is to understand the requirements and needs of mobile users which is the main goal for mobile interaction. Mobile interaction is a multidisciplinary area with various academic subjects making contributions to it. The main disciplines involved in mobile interaction are psychology, computer science, sociology, design, and information systems. The processes in mobile interaction design includes three main activities: understanding users, developing prototype designs, and evaluation.

History

The history of mobile interaction can be divided into a number of eras, or waves, each characterized by a particular technological focus, interaction design trends, and by leading to fundamental changes in the design and use of mobile devices. Although not strictly sequential, they provide a good overview of the legacy on which current mobile computing research and design is built.

1. Portability

   One of the first work in the mobile interaction discipline was the concept of the Dynabook by Alan Kay in 1968. However, at that time the necessary hardware to build such system was not available. When the first laptops were built in the early 1980s they were seen as transportable desktop computers.

2. Miniaturization

   By the early 1990s, many types of handheld devices were introduced such as labelled palmtop computers, digital organizers, or personal digital assistants (PDAs).

3. Connectivity

   By 1973, Martin Cooper worked at Motorola developed a handheld mobile phone concept, which later on by 1983, led to the introduction of the first commercial mobile phone called the DynaTAC 8000X.

iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G

Android smartphones

1. Convergence

   During this era, different types of specialized mobile devices started to converge into new types of hybrid devices with primarily different form factors and interaction designs. On 1992, the first device of such technique, the "smartphones" was introduced. The first smart phone was the IBM Simon and it was used for making phone calls, calendars, addresses, notes, e-mail, fax and games.

2. Divergence

   During the 2000s, a trend toward a single function many devices started to spread. the basic idea behind divergence is that specialized tools facilitate optimization of functionality over time and enhancement of use. The most famous device of this era was the Apple iPod on 2001.

3. Apps

   During 2007, Apple Inc. introduced the first truly "smart" cellular phone; the iPhone. It was a converged mobile device with different features functionality. The most important thing is that it represents a significant rethinking of the design of mobile interactions and a series of notable interaction design choices. In less than a decade Apple Inc. would sell over one-billion iPhones

Goals

With the evolution of both software and hardware on the mobile devices, the users are becoming more demanding of the user interface that provide both functionality and pleasant user experience. The goal of mobile interaction researches is to understand the requirements and needs of mobile users. Compared with stationary devices mobile devices have specific, often restricted, input and output requirements. A goal that is often named is to overcome the limitations of mobile devices. However, exploiting the special opportunities of mobile usage can also be seen as a central goal.

Disciplines involved

Mobile interaction is a multidisciplinary area with various academic subjects making contributions. This is a reflection of the complicated nature of an individual's interaction with a computer system. This includes factors such as an understanding of the user and the task the user wants to perform with the system, understanding of the design tools, software packages that are needed to achieve this and an understanding of software engineering tools. The following are the main disciplines involved in mobile interaction:

1. Psychology

Many of the research methods and system evaluation techniques currently used in mobile human-computer interaction research are borrowed from psychology. As well as attitude measures, performance measures that are used in mobile human-computer interaction research studies come from the area of experimental psychology. Understanding users and their needs is a key aspect in the design of mobile systems, devices, and applications so that they will be easy and enjoyable to use. Individual user characteristics such as age, or personality physical disabilities such as blindness, all have an effect on users' performance when they are using mobile applications and systems, and these individual differences can also affect people's attitude towards the mobile service or device that they interact with. A study from 2020, for example, found that smartphone users initiated 89% of the interactions with their phones, with only 11% of the interactions resulting from a notification.

2. Computer science

Computer science (along with software engineering) is responsible for providing software tools to develop the interfaces that users need to interact with system. These include the software development tools.

3. Sociology

Sociologists working in this area are responsible for looking at socio-technical aspects of human-computer interaction. They bring methods and techniques from the social sciences (e.g., observational studies, ethnography) that can be used in the design and evaluation of mobile devices and applications.

4. Design

People working in this area are concerned with looking at the design layout of the interface (e.g., colors, positioning of text or graphics on a screen of a PDA). This is a crucial area of mobile human-computer interaction research due to the limited screen space available for most mobile devices. Therefore, it is crucial that services and applications reflect this limitation by reducing information complexity to fit the parameters of the mobile device, without losing any substantial content.

5. Information systems

People who work in information systems are interested in investigating how people interact with information and technologies in an organisational, managerial, and business context. In an organisational context, information system professionals and researchers are interested in looking at ways in which mobile technologies and mobile applications can be used to make an organisation more effective in conducting its business on a day-to-day business.

Mobile interaction design

Mobile interaction design is part of the interaction design which heavily focused on satisfying the needs and desires of the majority of people who will use the product. The processes in mobile interaction design are in the following main types of activity:

1. Understanding users – having a sense of people's capabilities and limitations; gaining a rich picture of what makes up the detail of their lives, the things they do and use.
2. Developing prototype designs – representing a proposed interaction design in such a way that it can be demonstrated, altered, and discussed.
3. Evaluation – each prototype is a stepping stone to the next, better, refined design. Evaluation techniques identify the strengths and weaknesses of a design but can also lead the team to propose a completely different approach, discarding the current line of design thinking for a radical approach.

Google Assistant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Assistant

Google Assistant

Google Assistant on the Pixel smartphone
Developer(s)	Google
Initial release	May 18, 2016; 8 years ago
Written in	C++
Operating system	Android, ChromeOS, iOS, iPadOS, KaiOS, Linux, Android TV, Wear OS
Platform	Android Google Nest Wear OS Android TV ChromeOS Smart Speakers Headphones Smart Displays Google Allo iOS iPadOS Ubuntu Raspberry Pi
Predecessor	Google Now
Successor	Google Gemini
Available in	English, Arabic, Bengali, Chilean Spanish, Colombian Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese
Type	Virtual assistant
Website	assistant.google.com

The Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software application developed by Google that is primarily available on home automation and mobile devices. Based on artificial intelligence, The Google Assistant can engage in two-way conversations, unlike the company's previous virtual assistant, Google Now.

The Google Assistant debuted in May 2016 as part of Google's messaging app Allo, and its voice-activated speaker Google Nest. After a period of exclusivity on the Google Pixel smartphones, it was deployed on other Android devices starting in February 2017, including third-party smartphones and Android Wear (now Wear OS), and was released as a standalone app on the iOS operating system in May 2017. Alongside the announcement of a software development kit in April 2017, Assistant has been further extended to support a large variety of devices, including cars and third-party smart home appliances. The functionality of the Assistant can also be enhanced by third-party developers. At CES 2018, the first Assistant-powered smart displays (Smart speakers with video screens) were announced, with the first one being released in July 2018. In 2020, Google Assistant is already available on more than 1 billion devices.

Users primarily interact with the Google Assistant through natural voice, though keyboard input is also supported. Assistant is able to answer questions, schedule events and alarms, adjust hardware settings on the user's device, show information from the user's Google account, play games, and more. Google has also announced that Assistant will be able to identify objects and gather visual information through the device's camera, and support purchasing products as well as sending money. Google Assistant is available in more than 90 countries and over 30 languages, and is used by more than 500 million users monthly.

In October 2023, a mobile version of the Gemini chatbot, originally titled Assistant with Bard and simply just Bard, was unveiled during the Pixel 8 event. It is set to replace Assistant as the main assistant on Android devices, although the original Assistant will remain optional. The chatbot released on February 8, 2024, in the United States.

History

The Google Assistant was unveiled during Google's developer conference on May 18, 2016, as part of the unveiling of the Google Nest smart speaker and new messaging app Allo; Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained that the Assistant was designed to be a conversational and two-way experience, and "an ambient experience that extends across devices". Later that month, Google assigned Google Doodle leader Ryan Germick and hired former Pixar animator Emma Coats to develop "a little more of a personality".

Platform expansion

For system-level integration outside of the Allo app and Google Nest, the Google Assistant was initially exclusive to the Google Pixel smartphones. In February 2017, Google announced that it had begun to enable access to the Assistant on Android smartphones running Android Marshmallow or Nougat, beginning in select English-speaking markets. Android tablets did not receive the Assistant as part of this rollout. The Assistant is also integrated in Wear OS 2.0, and will be included in future versions of Android TV and Android Auto. In October 2017, the Google Pixelbook became the first laptop to include Google Assistant. Google Assistant later came to the Google Pixel Buds. In December 2017, Google announced that the Assistant would be released for phones running Android Lollipop through an update to Google Play Services, as well as tablets running 6.0 Marshmallow and 7.0 Nougat. In February 2019, Google reportedly began testing ads in Google Assistant results.

On May 15, 2017, Android Police reported that the Google Assistant would be coming to the iOS operating system as a separate app. The information was confirmed two days later at Google's developer conference.

Smart displays

In January 2018 at the Consumer Electronics Show, the first Assistant-powered "smart displays" were released. Smart displays were shown at the event from Lenovo, Sony, JBL and LG. These devices have support for Google Duo video calls, YouTube videos, GMaps directions, a GCalendar agenda, viewing of smart camera footage, in addition to services which work with Google Home devices.

These devices are based on Android Things and Google-developed software. Google unveiled its own smart display, Google Nest Hub in October 2018, and later Google Nest Hub Max, which utilizes a different system platform.

Developer support

In December 2016, Google launched "Actions on Google", a developer platform for the Google Assistant. Actions on Google allows 3rd party developers to build apps for Google Assistant. In March 2017, Google added new tools for developing on Actions on Google to support the creation of games for Google Assistant. Originally limited to the Google Nest smart speaker, Actions on Google was made available to Android and iOS devices in May 2017, at which time Google also introduced an app directory or application directory for overview of compatible products and services. To incentivize developers to build Actions, Google announced a competition, in which first place won tickets to Google's 2018 developer conference, $10,000, and a walk-through of Google's campus, while second place and third place received $7,500 and $5,000, respectively, and a Google Home.

In April 2017, a software development kit (SDK) was released, allowing third-party developers to build their own hardware that can run the Google Assistant. It has been integrated into Raspberry Pi,cars from Audi and Volvo, and Home automation appliances, including fridges, washers, and ovens, from companies including iRobot, LG, General Electric, and D-Link. Google updated the SDK in December 2017 to add several features that only the Google Home smart speakers and Google Assistant smartphone apps had previously supported.

The features include:

• Third-party device makers can incorporate their own "Actions on Google" commands for their respective products
• Text-based interactions and many languages
• Users can set a precise geographic location for the device to enable improved location-specific queries.

On May 2, 2018, Google announced a new program that focuses on investing in the future of Google Assistant through early-stage startups. Their focus was to build an environment where developers could build richer experiences for their users. This includes startups that broaden Assistant's features, are building new hardware devices, or simply differentiating in different industries.

Voices

Google Assistant launched using the voice of Kiki Baessell for the American female voice, the same actress for the Google Voice voicemail system since 2010.

On October 11, 2019, Google announced that Issa Rae had been added to Google Assistant as an optional voice, which could be enabled by the user by saying "Okay, Google, talk like Issa". Although, as of April 2022, Google Assistant response with "Sorry, that voice isn't available anymore, but you can try out another by asking me to change voices." if the command is given.

Interaction

The Google Assistant on the Google Pixel XL phone

Google Assistant, in the nature and manner of Google Now, can search the Internet, schedule events and alarms, adjust hardware settings on the user's device, and show information from the user's Google account. Unlike Google Now, however, the Assistant can engage in a two-way conversation, using Google's natural language processing algorithm. Search results are presented in a card format that users can tap to open the page. In February 2017, Google announced that users of Google Home would be able to shop entirely by voice for products through its Google Express shopping service, with products available from Whole Foods Market, Costco, Walgreens, PetSmart, and Bed Bath & Beyond at launch, and other retailers added in the following months as new partnerships were formed.Google Assistant can maintain a shopping list; this was previously done within the notetaking service GKeep, but the feature was moved to Google Express and the Google Home app in April 2017, resulting in a severe loss of functionality.

In May 2017, Google announced that the Assistant would support a keyboard for typed input and visual responses, support identifying objects and gather visual information through the device's camera, and support purchasing products and sending money. Through the use of the keyboard, users can see a history of queries made to the Google Assistant, and edit or delete previous inputs. The Assistant warns against deleting, however, due to its use of previous inputs to generate better answers in the future. In November 2017, it became possible to identify songs currently playing by asking the Assistant.

The Google Assistant allows users to activate and modify vocal shortcut commands in order to perform actions on their device (both Android and iPad/iPhone) or configure it as a hub for home automation.

This feature of the speech recognition is available in English, among other languages. In July 2018, the Google Home version of Assistant gained support for multiple actions triggered by a single vocal shortcut command.

At the annual I/O developers conference on May 8, 2018, Google's SEO announced the addition of six new voice options for the Google Assistant, one of which being John Legend's. This was made possible by WaveNet, a voice synthesizer developed by DeepMind, which significantly reduced the amount of audio samples that a voice actor was required to produce for creating a voice model. However, John Legend's Google Assistant cameo voice was discontinued on March 23, 2020.

In August 2018, Google added bilingual capabilities to the Google Assistant for existing supported languages on devices. Recent reports say that it may support multilingual support by setting a third default language on Android Phone.

Speech-to-Text can recognize commas, question marks, and periods in transcription requests.

In April 2019, the most popular audio games in the Assistant, Crystal Ball, and Lucky Trivia, have had the biggest voice changes in the application's history. The voice in the assistant has been able to add expression to the games. For instance, in the Crystal Ball game, the voice would speak slowly and softly during the intro and before the answer is revealed to make the game more exciting, and in the Lucky Trivia game, the voice would become excitable like a game show host. In the British accent voice of Crystal Ball, the voice would say the word 'probably' in a downward slide like she's not too sure. The games used the text-to-speech voice which makes the voice more robotic. In May 2019 however, it turned out to be a bug in the speech API that caused the games to lose the studio-quality voices. These audio games were fixed in May 2019.

Interpreter Mode

On December 12, 2019, Google debuted an interpreter mode in Google Assistant smartphone apps for Android and iOS. It provides translation of conversations in real-time and was previously only available on Google Home smart speakers and displays. Google Assistant won the 2020 Webby Award for Best User Experience in the category: Apps, Mobile & Voice.

On March 5, 2020, Google introduced a feature on Google Assistant that read webpages aloud in 42 languages.

On October 15, 2020, Google announced a new 'hum to search' function to find a song by simply humming, whistling, or singing the song.

Google Duplex

This section is about Duplex for Google Assistant. For the number, see googolplex.

In May 2018, Google revealed Duplex, an extension of the Google Assistant that allows it to carry out natural conversations by mimicking human voice, in a manner not dissimilar to robocalling. The assistant can autonomously complete tasks such as calling a hair salon to book an appointment, scheduling a restaurant reservation, or calling businesses to verify holiday store hours. While Duplex can complete most of its tasks fully autonomously, it is able to recognize situations that it is unable to complete and can signal a human operator to finish the task. Duplex was created to speak in a more natural voice and language by incorporating speech disfluencies such as filler words like "hmm" and "uh" and using common phrases such as "mhm" and "gotcha", along with more human-like intonation and response latency. Duplex is currently in development and had a limited release in late 2018 for Google Pixel users. During the limited release, Pixel phone users in Atlanta, New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco were only able to use Duplex to make restaurant reservations. As of October 2020, Google has expanded Duplex to businesses in eight countries.

Criticism

After the announcement, concerns were made over the ethical and societal questions that artificial intelligence technology such as Duplex raises. For instance, human operators may not notice that they are speaking with a digital robot when conversing with Duplex, which some critics view as unethical or deceitful. Concerns over privacy were also identified, as conversations with Duplex are recorded in order for the virtual assistant to analyze and respond. Privacy advocates have also raised concerns around how the millions of vocal samples gathered from consumers are fed back into the algorithms of virtual assistants, making these forms of AI smarter with each use. Though these features individualize the user experience, critics are unsure about the long term implications of giving "the company unprecedented access to human patterns and preferences that are crucial to the next phase of artificial intelligence".

While transparency was referred to as a key part to the experience when the technology was revealed, Google later further clarified in a statement saying, "We are designing this feature with disclosure built-in, and we'll make sure the system is appropriately identified." Google further added that, in certain jurisdictions, the assistant would inform those on the other end of the phone that the call is being recorded.

Reception

PC World's Mark Hachman gave a favorable review of the Google Assistant, saying that it was a "step up on Cortana and Siri." Digital Trends called it "smarter than Google Now ever was".

Criticism

In July 2019 Belgian public broadcaster VRT NWS published an article revealing that third-party contractors paid to transcribe audio clips collected by Google Assistant listened to sensitive information about users. Sensitive data collected from Google Home devices and Android phones included names, addresses, and other private conversations after mistaken hot word triggering, such as business calls or bedroom conversations. From more than 1,000 recordings analyzed, 153 were recorded without the "OK Google" command. Google officially acknowledged that 0.2% of recordings are being listened to by language experts to improve Google's services. On August 1, 2019, Germany's Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information initiated an administrative procedure to prohibit Google from carrying out corresponding evaluations by employees or third parties for the period of three months to provisionally protect the rights of privacy of data subjects for the time being, citing GDPR. A Google spokesperson stated that Google paused "language reviews" in all European countries while it investigated recent media leaks.

Cortana (virtual assistant)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Assistant 

 

Cortana

Cortana logo
Cortana on Windows 10 version 22H2
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	April 2, 2014; 10 years ago
Stable release(s) [±]
Android 3.3.3.2753-enus-release / November 29, 2019; 4 years ago iOS 3.3.3 / November 30, 2019; 4 years ago
Preview release(s) [±]
Android 3.3.3.2753 / November 29, 2019; 4 years ago
Operating system	Windows, Windows Phone, iOS, Android, Xbox OS
Platform	Windows 11 Windows 10 Windows 10 Mobile Windows Phone 8.1 Harman Kardon Invoke Microsoft Band 2 Microsoft Band Surface Headphones Skype Windows Mixed Reality Amazon Alexa
Successor	Microsoft Copilot
Available in	English French Chinese (Mandarin) German Spanish Italian Japanese Brazilian Portuguese
Type	Intelligent personal assistant
License	Proprietary
Website	www.microsoft.com/en-us/cortana

Cortana was a virtual assistant developed by Microsoft that used the Bing search engine to perform tasks such as setting reminders and answering questions for users.

Cortana was available in English, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese language editions, depending on the software platform and region in which it was used.

In 2019, Microsoft began reducing the prevalence of Cortana and converting it from an assistant into different software integrations. It was split from the Windows 10 search bar in April 2019. In January 2020, the Cortana mobile app was removed from certain markets, and on March 31, 2021, the Cortana mobile app was shut down globally. On June 2, 2023, Microsoft announced that support for the Cortana standalone app on Microsoft Windows would end in late 2023 and would be replaced by Microsoft Copilot. Support for Cortana in the Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft 365 mobile apps was discontinued in fall of 2023.

History

Beginnings (2009–2014)

The development of Cortana started in 2009 in the Microsoft Speech products team with general manager Zig Serafin and Chief Scientist Larry Heck. Heck and Serafin established the vision, mission, and long-range plan for Microsoft's digital personal assistant and they built a team with the expertise to create the initial prototypes for Cortana. Some of the key researchers in these early efforts included Microsoft Research researchers Dilek Hakkani-Tür, Gokhan Tur, Andreas Stolcke, and Malcolm Slaney, research software developer Madhu Chinthakunta, and user experience designer Lisa Stifelman. To develop the Cortana digital assistant, the team interviewed human personal assistants. The interviews inspired a number of unique features in Cortana, including the assistant's "notebook" feature. Originally, Cortana was meant to be only a codename, but a petition on Windows Phone's UserVoice site proved to be popular and made the codename official.

Cortana was demonstrated for the first time at the Microsoft Build developer conference in San Francisco in April 2014. It was launched as a key ingredient of Microsoft's planned "makeover" of future operating systems for Windows Phone and Windows.

It was named after Cortana, a synthetic intelligence character in Microsoft's Halo video game franchise originating in Bungie folklore, with Jen Taylor, the character's voice actress, returning to voice the personal assistant's US-specific version.

Expansion (2015–2018)

Cortana white interface on Windows 10 Mobile

In January 2015, Microsoft announced the availability of Cortana for Windows 10 desktops and mobile devices as part of merging Windows Phone into the operating system at large.

On May 26, 2015, Microsoft announced that Cortana would also be available on other mobile platforms. An Android release was set for July 2015, but the Android APK file containing Cortana was leaked ahead of its release. It was officially released, along with an iOS version, in December 2015.

During E3 2015, Microsoft announced that Cortana would come to the Xbox One as part of a universally designed Windows 10 update for the console.

Microsoft integrated Cortana into numerous products such as Microsoft Edge. Microsoft's Cortana assistant was deeply integrated into the browser. Cortana was able to find opening hours when on restaurant sites, show retail coupons for websites, or show weather information in the address bar. At the Worldwide Partners Conference 2015 Microsoft demonstrated Cortana integration with products such as GigJam. Conversely, Microsoft announced in late April 2016 that it would block anything other than Bing and Edge from being used to complete Cortana searches, again raising questions of anti-competitive practices by the company.

Microsoft's "Windows in the car" concept included Cortana. The concept makes it possible for drivers to make restaurant reservations and see places before they go there.

At Microsoft Build 2016, Microsoft announced plans to integrate Cortana into Skype (Microsoft's video-conferencing and instant messaging service) as a bot to allow users to order food, book trips, transcribe video messages and make calendar appointments through Cortana in addition to other bots. As of 2016, Cortana was able to underline certain words and phrases in Skype conversations that relate to contacts and corporations. A writer from Engadget has criticised the Cortana integration in Skype for responding only to very specific keywords, feeling as if she was "chatting with a search engine" due to the impersonal way the bots replied to certain words such as "Hello" causing the Bing Music bot to bring up Adele's song of that name.

Microsoft also announced at Microsoft Build 2016 that Cortana would be able to cloud-synchronise notifications between Windows 10 Mobile's and Windows 10's Action Center, as well as notifications from Android devices.

In December 2016, Microsoft announced the preview of Calendar.help, a service that enabled people to delegate the scheduling of meetings to Cortana. Users interact with Cortana by including her in email conversations. Cortana would then check people's availability in Outlook Calendar or Google Calendar, and work with others Cc'd on the email to schedule the meeting. The service relied on automation and human-based computation.

In May 2017, Microsoft announced INVOKE, a voice-activated speaker featuring Cortana, in collaboration with Harman Kardon. The premium speaker has a cylindrical design and offers 360-degree sound, the ability to make and receive calls with Skype, and all of the other features currently available with Cortana.

In 2017, Microsoft partnered with Amazon to integrate Echo and Cortana with each other, allowing users of each smart assistant to summon the other via a command. This feature preview was released in August 2018. Windows 10 users were able to just say "Hey Cortana, open Alexa" and Echo users were able to say "Alexa, open Cortana" to summon the other assistant.

The Harman Kardon Invoke speaker, powered by Cortana

Decreasing focus and discontinuation (2019–2024)

In January 2019, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that he no longer sees Cortana as a direct competitor against Alexa and Siri.

Shortly thereafter, Microsoft began reducing the prevalence of Cortana and converting it from an assistant into different software integrations. It was split from the Windows 10 search bar in April 2019.

In January 2020, the Cortana mobile app was removed from certain markets, and then, on July 24, 2020, Cortana was removed from the Xbox dashboard as part of a redesign. On January 31, 2021, Microsoft removed the Cortana mobile application in many markets, including the UK, Australia, Germany, Mexico, China, Spain, Canada, and India.

On March 31, 2021, Microsoft shut down the Cortana apps globally for iOS and Android and removed the apps entirely from their corresponding app stores. To access previously recorded content, users had to use Cortana on Windows 10 or other specialized Microsoft applications.

Microsoft also reduced emphasis on Cortana in Windows with the 2021 release of Windows 11. Cortana was not used during the device setup process or pinned to the taskbar by default.

On June 2, 2023, Microsoft announced the Cortana standalone app on Windows 10 and Windows 11 which would shut down later in the year. In its support article, Microsoft listed several alternatives, most of which have since been rebranded as Microsoft Copilot. They also added that the change would not impact Cortana in Office 365 and Teams environments.

On August 11, 2023, Microsoft updated the Cortana standalone app in Windows, informing that it was deprecated and can no longer be used. Microsoft's support article announcing the deprecation of Cortana was updated to reflect this change. Along with the deprecation of the standalone app, it was announced that Cortana support in Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams displays, and Teams rooms would end in late 2023. The support article states that Cortana in the “Play my emails” feature of the Microsoft Outlook mobile app would continue to be available.

Finally, later in June 2024, the support article was updated, stating that Cortana in the voice search and the "Play my emails" feature is now removed from the Microsoft Outlook mobile app, officially marking the discontinuation of Cortana across all Microsoft products.

Functionality

Cortana was able to set reminders, recognize natural voice without the requirement for keyboard input, and answer questions using information from the Bing search engine. Searches using Windows 10 are made only with the Microsoft Bing search engine, and all links will open with Microsoft Edge, except when a screen reader such as Narrator was being used, where the links will open in Internet Explorer. Windows Phone 8.1's universal Bing SmartSearch features were incorporated into Cortana, which replaced the previous Bing Search app, which was activated when a user presses the "Search" button on their device. Cortana includes a music recognition service. Cortana was able to simulate rolling dice and flipping a coin. Cortana's "Concert Watch" monitored Bing searches to determine the bands or musicians that interest the user. It integrates with the Microsoft Band watch band for Windows Phone devices if connected via Bluetooth, it was able to make reminders and phone notifications.

Since the Lumia Denim mobile phone series, launched in October 2014, active listening was added to Cortana enabling it to be invoked with the phrase: "Hey Cortana". It was able to then be controlled as usual. Some devices from the United Kingdom by O2 received the Lumia Denim update without the feature, but this was later clarified as a bug and Microsoft has since fixed it.

Cortana integrated with services such as Foursquare to provide restaurant and local attraction recommendations and LIFX to control smart light bulbs.

Notebook

Cortana stored personal information such as interests, location data, reminders, and contacts in the "Notebook". It was able to draw upon and add to this data to learn a user's specific patterns and behaviors. Users were able to view and specify what information was collected to allow some control over privacy, said to be "a level of control that goes beyond comparable assistants". Users were able to delete information from the "Notebook".

Reminders

Cortana had a built-in system of reminders, which were able to, for example, be associated with a specific contact; Cortana would then remind a user when in communication with that contact, possibly at a specific time or when the phone was in a specific location. Originally, these reminders were specific to the device Cortana was installed on but starting on February 12, 2015, Cortana synchronized reminders across devices.

Design

Most versions of Cortana took the form of two nested circles, which were animated to indicate activities such as searching or talking. The main color scheme would include a black or white background and shades of blue for the respective circles.

Phone notification syncing

Cortana on Windows mobile and Android were capable of capturing device notifications and sending them to a Windows 10 device. This allowed a computer user to view notifications from their phone in the Windows 10 Action Center. The feature was announced in early 2016 and released later in the year.

Miscellaneous

Cortana had a "do-not-disturb" mode in which users were able to specify "quiet hours", as was available for Windows Phone 8.1 users. Users were able to change the settings so that Cortana calls users by their names or nicknames. It also had a library of "Easter Eggs", pre-determined remarks.

When asked for a prediction, Cortana correctly predicted the winners of the first 14 matches of the football 2014 FIFA World Cup knockout stage, including the semi-finals, before it incorrectly picked Brazil over the Netherlands in the third place play-off match; this streak topped Paul the Octopus who correctly predicted all 7 of Germany's 2010 FIFA World Cup matches as well as the Final. Cortana was able to forecast results in various other sports such as the NBA, the NFL, the Super Bowl, the ICC Cricket World Cup and various European football leagues. Cortana was able to solve mathematical equations, convert units of measurement, and determine the exchange rates between currencies including Bitcoin.

Integrations

Microsoft integrated Cortana into numerous products such as Microsoft Edge. Microsoft's Cortana assistant was deeply integrated into the browser. Cortana was able to find opening hours when on restaurant sites, show retail coupons for websites, or show weather information in the address bar. At the Worldwide Partners Conference 2015 Microsoft demonstrated Cortana integration with products such as GigJam. Conversely, Microsoft announced in late April 2016 that it would block anything other than Bing and Edge from being used to complete Cortana searches, again raising questions of anti-competitive practices by the company.

Microsoft's "Windows in the car" concept included Cortana. The concept makes it possible for drivers to make restaurant reservations and see places before they go there.

Cortana was able to integrate with third-party apps on Windows 10 or directly through the service. Starting in late 2016, Cortana integrated with Microsoft's Wunderlist service, allowing Cortana to add and act on reminders.

At Microsoft's Build 2017 conference, Microsoft announced that Cortana would get a consumer third-party skills capability, similar to that in Amazon Alexa.

On February 16, 2018, Microsoft announced connected home skills were added for Ecobee, Honeywell Lyric, Honeywell Total Connect Comfort, LIFX, TP-Link Kasa, and Geeni, as well as support for IFTTT. At Microsoft's Ignite 2018 conference, Microsoft announced an Technology Adopters Program that Enterprises could build skills that could be developed and deployed into Azure tenants, accessible by organizational units or security groups.

Privacy concerns

Cortana indexed and stored user information. Cortana could be disabled; this would cause Windows search to search Bing as well as the local computer, but that could also be disabled. Turning Cortana off did not in itself delete user data stored on Microsoft's servers, but data was able to be deleted by user action. Microsoft was further criticized for requests to Bing's website for a file called "threshold.appcache", which contained Cortana's information through searches made through the Start Menu, even when Cortana was disabled on Windows 10.

As of April 2014, Cortana was disabled for users aged under 13 years.

Regions and languages

The Chinese version of Cortana, Xiao Na

The British version of Cortana spoke with a British accent and used British idioms, while the Chinese version, known as Xiao Na, spoke Mandarin Chinese and had an icon featuring a face and two eyes, which was not used in other regions.

As of 2020 the English version of Cortana on Windows devices was available to all users in the United States (American English), Canada (French/English), Australia, India, and the United Kingdom (British English). Other language versions of Cortana are available in France (French), China (Simplified Chinese), Japan (Japanese), Germany (German), Italy (Italian), Brazil (Portuguese), Mexico, and Spain (Spanish). Cortana listens generally to the hot word "Hey Cortana" in addition to certain languages' customized versions, such as "Hola Cortana" in Spanish.

The English United Kingdom localized version of Cortana was voiced by voice actress Ginnie Watson, while the United States localised version was voiced by Jen Taylor. Taylor was the voice actress who voices Cortana, the namesake of the virtual assistant, in the Halo video game series.