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More signs of voice control found in iPhone OS 3.0
More evidence pointing to the possibility of a voice control feature in iPhone OS 3.0 has been found in the latest beta version of the software. Citing anonymous sources, Ars Technica reports that a number of references to classes and methods related to the code name “Jibbler” have been discovered in the software, which appear to suggest support for both voice synthesis and voice recognition. References to Jibbler, which appears to be an enhancement to the iPhone’s home page SpringBoard application, include VSSpeechSynthesizer, VSRecognitionSession, SBVoiceControlDisableHandlerActions, SBSensitiveJibblerEnabled, and SBVoiceControlSoundCompletion. Ars adds that SB refers to SpringBoard, and VS likely refers to voice services; the report also suggests that the feature may be activated by the in-line button on the headset, and could be used for voice-controlled dialing, along with iPod nano 4G and iPod shuffle 3G-style audio feedback. Prior screenshots of the upcoming OS update showed a Voice Control menu option in the Settings app.
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1
A few thoughts on this:
1. Built-in voice dialing is already covered by 3rd party apps, but integrating this into the OS is a no-brainer.
2. Voicemail transcription like Google Voice or Jott would make the iPhone’s claim of “visual voicemail” completely accurate. I’d love to see my messages without having to play them back.
3. I’d like to see voice synthesis in the SDK toolkit so apps can speak back to us, Macintalk-style. One obvious application would be an update to Kindle and Stanza ebook software to read text aloud, which would be a cheap audiobook replacement while driving. This is already built into the Kindle 2 hardware. The computer voices don’t compete with a proper human reading performance, but would be nice to have as an option.
4. Voice feedback for the iPod is likely, but is there anyone who cares about this? Maybe my imagination is failing me, but I don’t get the appeal.
Posted by jindofox on April 21, 2009 at 8:45 AM (PST)