Mom in Australia reportedly uses Siri to save toddler's life
There may actually be something to always-listening devices, after all.
Apple's Siri voice assistant is being credited with helping to save the life of an Australian toddler who unexpectedly stopped breathing.
When a mother in Australia discovered her 1-year-old daughter had stopped breathing and was turning blue, according to a report in Yahoo Australia, she enlisted Siri to call for help.
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The mother, Stacey Gleeson, apparently had to use the "Hey Siri" voice function because her iPhone was out of reach.
Gleeson told Yahoo that she dropped her phone as she ran to check on her daughter (she'd noticed her child's condition over a baby monitor). When Gleeson realized she didn't have the phone in her hand, she called out "Hey Siri, call the ambulance.”
Siri did its job, and an ambulance arrived in time to help revive Gleeson's daughter, whom, Yahoo says, is now doing fine.
The happy tale serves as a reminder of why you might actually want to turn on "Hey Siri" on your iPhone and "OK, Google" on your Android device. If you haven't enabled voice features in your phone, you'll find them under the Google app on your Android phone and under Settings/General/Siri on your iPhone.
In case you're wondering, Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, which lives on Amazon Echo and other third-party devices cannot call an ambulance... yet.
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Lance Ulanoff was Chief Correspondent and Editor-at-Large of Mashable. Lance acted as a senior member of the editing team, with a focus on defining internal and curated opinion content. He also helped develop staff-wide alternative story-telling skills and implementation of social media tools during live events. Prior to joining Mashable in September 2011 Lance Ulanoff served as Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for the Ziff Davis, Inc. While there, he guided the brand to a 100% digital existence and oversaw content strategy for all of Ziff Davis’ Web sites. His long-running column on PCMag.com earned him a Bronze award from the ASBPE. Winmag.com, HomePC.com and PCMag.com were all been honored under Lance’s guidance.He makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Fox News, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Kelly and Michael, CNBC, CNN and the BBC.He has also offered commentary on National Public Radio and been interviewed by newspapers and radio stations around the country. Lance has been an invited guest speaker at numerous technology conferences including SXSW, Think Mobile, CEA Line Shows, Digital Life, RoboBusiness, RoboNexus, Business Foresight and Digital Media Wire’s Games and Mobile Forum.
