News
Apple patent covers audio navigation for iPod
In a second patent application posted this week, Apple details an audio-based navigation interface that would allow iPod users to navigate and select music without looking at the iPod’s display. “Apple describes a system for automatic generation of audio navigation tags for your iPod,” reports Unwired View. “The tags are generated from the metadata of your music or video files—the text information like author, song name and duration, film director or lead actor name, etc.—which comes with a song or video that you download from iTunes store. This text information is then converted using text-to-speech software into a small audio files—audio navigation tags. The iPod computing capabilities are too small to do a good text-to speech translation, so this operation is carried out on your Mac or PC. Audio navigation tags then are attached to the songs or videos themselves and transferred to you iPod.”
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1
cool so now you can have a convo with your iPod…
Me: i wanna listen to SLAYER
iPod: No, im sick of playing SLAYER all day, lets listen to the beatles!
Me: hell no!
iPod: but but but, please! :(
Posted by slayer on May 5, 2006 at 7:11 AM (PST)
2
might be kinda cool/useful for use in the car though
Posted by LFCali on May 5, 2006 at 10:20 AM (PST)
3
just another way to keep demand for hard drive space up…first they introduced the cover art thing, then the ability to look at fotos, followed by videos and now extra data for the navigating…
I guess they have to do some sort of move, because who soon most people will be happy with the storage the nano has to offer…
Posted by mike on May 5, 2006 at 10:59 AM (PST)
4
If they can incorporate this it would be brilliant! Apple is all about ease of use and this is the only way they could improve useability. As LFCali says it would be very useful in car… how many times have I thought I’d love to listen to a particular album/genre/artist etc but it would have been a hastle to stop the car, navigate through the menus etc.
Even cooler would be if you could do something like create voice activated smart playlists on the fly, like “play me all 5 star songs of genre pop” etc.
Posted by robroe on May 5, 2006 at 11:02 AM (PST)
5
This semi-confirms/extends the confirmation of a full screen video iPod. Since the main issue was the location of the click wheel this alleviates the need for a click wheel thus providing an iPod with full screen capabilities, minus the click wheel, adding in voice selection. Rather ingenious. Anyone care to add to this thought?
Posted by Blake on May 5, 2006 at 12:08 PM (PST)
6
There is no way Apple would totally get rid of the clickwheel, it’s part of what made the iPod famous.
Posted by Nobody on May 5, 2006 at 1:32 PM (PST)
7
I think it will definity be a feature of the newest generation shuffle.
Dunno how good this “voice-dial” would work…
Imagine how many languages it would have to understand.
Perhaps you can’t choose by saying something but only listen to the name of the title…
Posted by Jumping Blueberry on May 6, 2006 at 3:42 AM (PST)
8
I don’t think this involves voice recognition on the iPod. “The tags are generated from the metadata of your music or video files—the text information like author, song name and duration, film director or lead actor name, etc.—which comes with a song or video that you download from iTunes store. This text information is then converted using text-to-speech software into a small audio files—audio navigation tags.” Meaning that you can hear the artist/track name being announced by a synthesised voice, which means you don’t need to look at the screen to see what’s playing, or you can build an iPod with no-display whatsoever. Like the Shuffle.
Posted by zapod on May 6, 2006 at 3:48 AM (PST)
9
While the patent itself is rather stupid - this no “revolutionary” or “innovative” idea and it has been available on PC’s for at least a decade - making an iPod with audio feed-back is an excellent thing for visually impaired users.
I know a person who will be able to benefit greatly from such a device…
Posted by Jowls on May 7, 2006 at 2:38 AM (PST)
10
I think this is great…mainly because my ipod’s screen shattered when i accidently dropped it and apple said it would cost more to fix the screen than to buy a new ipod…
Posted by Justin on May 28, 2006 at 5:32 PM (PST)