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.


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