With the launch of the iPhone 4S, Apple introduced its new voice-activated virtual assistant Siri to early acclaim, immediately sparking a rush for developers to offer the same functionality on Android smartphones.

Whilst Iris, Vlingo, Cluzee and even Google’s own Voice Actions have bridged the gap, none have delivered the same level of polish on Android that Apple has managed on the iPhone 4S, despite numerous reports of the technology not recognising commands or accents.

On Wednesday, “Siri for Android” by app publisher “Official App” hit the Android Market, launching on the Google marketplace to deliver what many are going to believe is an official port of Apple’s Siri software to Android smartphones. In reality, it’s a shortcut that launches Google’s built-in Voice Actions — and it’s already been installed on more than 1000 devices.

The app developer doesn’t hide the fact that Siri for Android a simple app launcher in its Android Market description, stating:

Siri, now for your Android device!

This application is a Siri icon that opens “Google’s Voice Actions” app.

Experienced smartphone users will immediately recognise that the app is bogus, in fact a small number of users have given the app low ratings to ensure that it doesn’t start to trend in the Android Market download charts. The problem here is that hundreds, if not thousands, of Android device owners have already been sucked in by the app and downloaded it onto their device — smartphone users new to the platform may know no different and download it also.

Given that Google employs little-to-no checks on its marketplace, developers such as “Official App” do not have contend with application approvals and can launch copyright/trademark infringing applications in minutes. There is also nothing to say that a developer could have sideloaded malware into the app, using the brand name to ensure thousands of installs.

The developer has also submitted an “official” Pinterest app, which has topped 10,000 installs already. Again, the app redirects users to an existing functionality, in this case Pinterest’s mobile website. Users don’t seem to recognise this either:

VIA:thenextweb

Much like the somewhat controversial face unlock feature built-in to Google’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone, a new patent application reveals Apple too is working on similar, but more advanced user detection solutions. As PatentlyApple pointed out, Apple noted these recognition systems could land in a future iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or MacBook.

The basics of the patent entitled “Low Threshold Face Recognition,” is to allow a user to unlock a device—such an iPhone or iPad—using facial recognition. Apple’s solution could allow the device’s camera to recognize the user even when the device is in sleep mode. In other words, the device’s camera would remain active when sleeping, detect the user, and unlock the device without having to press the sleep/wake button. This could, in theory, allow a user to bypass the current Slide to Unlock feature.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the system would be the ability for the device’s settings to be customized depending on the user. For example, when detecting a specific user, iOS could set personalized wallpapers, notification settings, and custom configurations for apps. This would provide multiple user logins, allowing iOS users to easily share a device among family or coworkers.

Apple’s system would differ from other face recognition systems by ignoring face biometrics. As PatentlyApple explained, “The face recognition techniques are based on a simple, weighted difference map, rather than traditional (and computationally expensive) correlation matching.” Apple’s system could detect “high information portions” of a face such as the eyes, mouth, or the tip of a nose. In addition, an “orange-distance filter” could be applied to determine variations in skin tone and detect the “likely presence” of a user. This could detect the distance between the device and the user’s face, as well as the user’s “level of attentiveness.”

In 2010, before the iPad launch, The Wall Street Journal reported Apple was experimenting with the ability to recognize individual users with the device’s camera. Today’s patent was originally filed in 2009.

VIA:9to5mac