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Apple Working on a Talking iPod? [UPDATED]
Sunday, July 9th, 2006 at 3:00 PM - by Brad Cook
A recent patent filed by Apple in the United States shows an intent to develop an iPod with the ability to speak information to the user, according to Scotsman.com. Reporter Richard Gray said that the patent describes "'eyes-busy' situations" where the user is busy with another activity and would like album and song titles, as well as artist names, read to them.
" The patent also makes clear that text-to-speech technology is likely to spread to other hand-held electronic devices such as mobile phones and palm-top computers," Mr. Gray wrote.
While the technology has been difficult to implement, he said that Apple's system "will break down words in a new way that makes it possible to pronounce perfectly even the most obscure song titles and artist names." The company might even use famous actors and other celebrities for the purpose, as well as allow the user to select between different voice characteristics, including gender, Mr. Gray added.
He spoke with a speech technology expert at Edinburgh University, who told him: "It is possible to create very high quality text-to-voices these days. We have seen some already used in mobile phones, but it has struggled in the past with difficult words and names. The technology is much better now and can cope with most things."
12:26 PM EST, 7/11/06: Updated article with link to patent.
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