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Date: | Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:33:38 -0500 |
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Deeper Voice Recognition on iPhone, iPad?
Written by Ray Harris
Tuesday, 29 March 2011 22:15
Deeper Voice Recognition on iPhone, iPad? Yes, Please
By Brian X. Chen
Voice-recognition capabilities on the iPhone enable a user to
play music and
call contacts using speech commands. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Apple's next-generation mobile operating system may include a
more powerful
voice recognition system, putting to use the company's recent
acquisition of
an artificial-intelligence startup.
Apple on Monday said it would announce details on the future of
iOS, the
software powering the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, at the
Worldwide
Developers Conference in June. Expanded voice recognition
features will be a
highlight of the new operating system, claims TechCrunch's MG
Siegler.
The new voice system would take advantage of technologies
developed by Siri,
an artificial-intelligence company that Apple acquired April
2010, Siegler
claims. Before Siri was acquired by Apple, it released an iPhone
app that
acted as a personal assistant. Dictating a command such as "I'd
like a table
for four at Nopa restaurant" would prompt Siri to reserve a table
through
the OpenTable online-booking service.
Deeper voice recognition in iOS would be a plausible next step
for Apple.
The touchscreen interface was already a giant leap forward for
making user
interface more approachable, and an expanded voice recognition
system that
controls core aspects of the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch would
make Apple's
mobile products even more user friendly for customers.
I can imagine less tech-savvy customers picking up an iPad and
saying
something like "Download Angry Birds," which would initiate the
download
after you verify the purchase. Some other casual use examples
would be
"Search World War II on Wikipedia," or "What's the weather like
next week in
San Francisco?"
An improved voice-recognition system would also be extremely
useful for an
often-neglected audience: customers with visual impairments. The
National
Federation of the Blind previously applauded Apple for its
VoiceOver system
in iOS, a computer voice that reads back any text that you touch
with your
finger.
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
Archived on the World Wide Web at
http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html
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