Voice control coming to the iPhone
The latest iPhone OS 3.0 developer beta includes some of the underlying programming libraries necessary for both voice control and synthesis on the device. The latest version of the iPod Shuffle included some voice features, but the iPhone could take the concept much further.
A member of Apple’s Developer Program uncovered the files in the new test version of the iPhone’s OS update. The voice features are going by the codename Jibbler and will be integrated into the Springboard application launcher.
The names of these functions give some hint as to what they could be used for. So far, the developer uncovered VSSpeechSynthesizer, VSRecognitionSession, SBVoiceControlDisableHandlerActions, SBSensitiveJibblerEnabled, and SBVoiceControlSoundCompletion.
The VS may stand for Voice Services and SB denotes the SpringBoard application launcher. This hints that the iPhone 3.0 OS will likely have the ability to recognize text, accept commands and synthesize speech from text.
At the very least, Apple is likely to include basic voice control for the iPod functionality created for the Shuffle, however it is also likely to take it much further. It would not be at all surprising for the 3.0 version to allow you to launch applications or dial contacts using voice control.
If Apple releases the programming SDK to the developer community, these features could open up a host of new vocie application possibilities for the iPhone. It’s easy to imagine interactive text and email managers or converting voice notes to the notepad.
Another possibility for voice integrated applications would be to create full turn-by-turn navigation applications for the iPhone. The developer tools for turn-by-turn directions were also made available in the 3.0 beta, so it’s entirely possible that Apple is working with a partner to create a navigation application much as they did with Google previously.
Whether or not these features will work for the iPhone 3G or just the next version of the device is still somewhat questionable, but Apple’s ability to bring fresh new ideas and features to the iPhone certainly is not.
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February 8th, 2011
The next time I learn a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I imply, I know it was my option to learn, but I really thought youd have something interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you may fix in case you werent too busy in search of attention.