Voice recognition, a feature that many users have been waiting for; could be coming to the iPhone sometime in the near future based on the patent published by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
As per the patent, Apple could be considering adding voice controls as a standard option in the iPhone, but also notes that it could be applied to other devices such as iPod and Apple TV as well.
As per the patent, one of key components is a hardware component called "voice-to-command analyzer" which would determine whether the audio is meaningless or represents an action request. This would save other processors the burden of deciphering speech.
After the voice-to-command analyzer determines that the audio represents an action request it triggers a macro manager, executing actions from a predetermined library.
The patent also provides examples of the voice controls. Examples of voice control for the iPod application are mentioned below:
"The user might provide an audio input, namely, a voice command, by announcing the phrase “play irreplaceable”. Here, the electronic device would recognize that the first portion “play” is a command that is supported and the second term “irreplaceable” is the name of a song available to be played at the electronic device. As another example, the user could provide an audio input, namely, a voice command, by announcing the phrase “play 06″, which could be the user requesting to play a playlist denoted as “summer ‘06″ and available at the media device."
Example of the voice controls for Calendar application are mentioned below:
"The command “tell” which can respond to the meeting attendees with a message. For example, “tell everyone I will be 10 minutes late” which will be understood by the electronic device as a request to send a text message or email to all attendees of the meeting that the user will be ten (10) minutes late to the meeting."
Example of the voice controls for Camera application are mentioned below:
"In the camera mode, likely camera operations include taking pictures, deleting pictures, saving pictures, etc."
Based on the examples mentioned above it is also safe to assume that Apple will also bring voice dialing in addition to the voice controls mentioned above to the iPhone which is one of the missing features.
Apple’s patent is a block diagram of an iPhone which is presented as device 200.
The hardware component "voice-to-command analyzer" rules out the chances of seeing this voice recognition technology in the current generation iPhones.
So far we have already seen voice recognition iPhone apps such as Where; or Voice dialer apps such as Cactus Voice Dialer, VoiceDial and Vocalia. There are also rumors that Microsoft is developing a voice recognition iPhone app via its subsidiary Tellme.
It is important to note here that Apple like so many other companies, patents ideas and so these features might never see the light of day. However, I won't be surprised to see voice recognition technology in future generations of the iPhone.
What's your take on this patent?
[via MacNN]
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Already planning the next iPhone? I guess I shouldn't be too surprised…
Of course they are. Apple has been planning the next iPhone since the day the iPhone 3g was announced. LOL
The additional hardware may rule out seeing this specific voice recognition system used in the 3G. Apple can still implement it without the hardware filter, and just use a software filter in its place (basically emulate that missing chip). This would lower battery life a little, but would still let it work.
@ Brandon
A company that doesnt plan for the future is doomed to fail. If you want to stay ahead of your competition, you will always have something new on the horizon.
Steve Jobs said back when the iPhone 2G was released that they are working on a new version of the iPhone aka iPhone 3G and another one after.
So the new iPhone has been developing for the past year and more.
I saw http://www.iphonehacks.com/2008/10/voice-recognitn.html and wanted to mention a useful site: http://www.FreePatentsOnline.com
It provides free patent searching, free PDF downloading, allows annoting documents and sharing them, and free alerts for new documents.
If you have a spot, a link to let your users know abou the site would be great.
I want the next iPhone that is HDTV enable.