[From The Huffington Post, where the story includes more images]

[Image: One of the winners of the Shapeway contest, this amazing design, courtesy of SaGa Design, is essentially an iPhone casing that forces you to interact with the usually intangible Siri.]

Shapeways Siri Contest: iPhone 4S Virtual Assistant Brought To Life Through Design (PICTURES)

The Huffington Post  Courteney Palis  Posted: 02/29/2012

Ever since the iPhone 4S was released back in October, the device’s voice-controlled virtual assistant app has captured the attention of users and non-users alike. By now, we’ve grown accustomed to Siri and her pleasant monotone, always at our virtual beck-and-call with a good sense of humor to boot. But now, Siri’s got a face. Several faces, actually, thanks to the creative minds who submitted unique Siri renderings to Shapeways, a 3D printing service and online marketplace.

The New York-based start-up held a contest on its website calling all Shapeways community members, Twitter users and others to submit their ideas — whether an image, video, sketch, or model — of what Siri might look like. The online contest started on February 1 and closed on February 20 at 11:59 EST. The talented winners, one for the 3D Design category and another for the Inspiring Design category, will be awarded a 3D printing of their Siri design.

Shapeway announced the contest results in a blog post on February 29. Check out the slideshow (below) to see the winning designs, followed by the honorable mentions. We’ll tell you this much right now: If Siri really looked like some of these models, Android’s Voice Actions app wouldn’t stand half a chance.