Google’s voice assistant is named after Majel Barrett-Rodenberry, the voice of the Federation Computer from Star Trek, and is an expansion of Voice Actions.

Once Siri came out, it didn’t take long for Android developers to come up with ‘Iris,’ an Android version of the voice-activated personal assistant. However, it seems Google might have an official answer to Siri, and it may be available before the end of the year.

According to Android and Me, Google is currently working on a more advanced version of Google Voice Actions, called Majel. Majel will apparently eliminate the restriction that requires current Voice Actions users to use a more instructional tone when issuing commands. Instead of telling the personal assistant to ‘send text to…’ or ‘navigate to…,’ Android and Me reports that Majel will understand queries and actions presented in a more natural language.

Unfortunately, the site does not detail a source for this information. However, it does point to an interview that Google’s Matias Duarte did with SlashGear back in October, which provides additional evidence. Speaking to SlashGear, Duarte mentioned a Star Trek-type personal assistant that differs from Siri in that it’s not an artificial personality.

“Our approach is different,” he said, referring to Apple’s endeavor to recreate an artificial personality with Siri. “The metaphor I like to take is – if it’s Star Wars, you have these robot personalities like C-3PO who runs around and he tries to do stuff for you, messes up and makes jokes, he’s kind of a comic relief guy,” he explained.

“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.” And you can talk to it and you can touch it, you can interact with it at the same time as you talk with it. It’s just another way to interface with the computer.”

Android and Me says that Majel will be limited to search actions when it is first released. Though an end-of-year launch is looking a tad unlikely, what with there only being 17 days left in 2011, it’s possible we could see this early next year. Stay tuned for updates …

SOURCE via Android and Me