I was recently reading Steve Jobs’s biography by Walter Isaacson and I read that he had a music system in his whole house, and also used it as a microphone, to hear family’s discussions until his father discovered that and made him stop doing it. Now. You would have made the rest of the post by yourself, by reading that title and the first sentence — exactly that. When Siri wasn’t there, sound could be played on the stereos and sound could be heard from the stereos. But what if we have a helper connected to that speaker, who gets the input, performs some search and says back the results? What’s the time, Siri? Siri, how’s the weather today? Where can I get a cup of coffee Siri? Just from your desk, or while reading the newspaper, think about it!
ps. Doesn’t necessarily need to be Siri, but that’s an interesting piece of software.
I think this “music system in the whole house” thing was with Wozniak, not Jobs….I read the biography too….I really can’t remember any such thing about Jobs.
A diaphragm can be used both ways to generate magnetic impulses that could be later converted to sound – but you definitely need to get an amplifier if you want it to work the other way round. Try plugging in a microphone into the headphone jack and blasting on the volume – it works, but is VERY WEAK.
I wonder how Jobs managed it with just speakers, you know…