Google Working on Siri`s Competitor for Android “Majel” [Video]

Google is working on its own version of Siri and it`s codenamed “Majel” (referring to Majel Barrett-Roddenberry), the Federation computer from Star Trek). This project aims at highly-enhancing Android voice recognition technology like Voice Actions.

With Siri taking the front lead in the world of voice recognition services, maybe Google realized they had to do something to join the competition.

Android and Me has the info on the Majel project:

Majel is an evolution of Google’s Voice Actions that is currently available on most Android phones with the addition of natural language processing. Where Voice Actions required you to issue specific commands like “send text to…” or “navigate to…”, Majel will allow you to perform actions in your natural language similar to how Siri functions.

Speaking of actions, it sounds like only Google search queries will be included with the initial release, that could come as soon as this year. I say this year because I’ve heard that engineers at Google X are working around the clock on finishing the first release and the NYTimes previously reported that one product would be released by Google X this year.

Google`s project is expected to witness an early-2012 release. However, we still have no exact date. A Google`s executive talked about the company`s future of voice technology in a recent interview.

“Our approach is more like Star Trek, right, starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. It’s not that there’s a personality, it doesn’t have a name, it’s just Computer.”

Google`s man in charge of Android`s development, Andy Robin, said that smartphones were not meant to be assistants, just tools for communication with other people. So, that`s Google`s angle with the Majel project.

News were brought that Google has bought Clever Sense, the makers of Alfred recommendation app for the iPhone. The app performs Siri-like actions by interpreting natural language.