音声認識によるiPhone操作特許

またもやApple社による特許申請のニュースです。

iPhone Hacksによれば

Apple Patent Reveals Voice Recognition Technology Could be Coming to the iPhone - iPhone Hacks

Voice recognition, a feature that many users have been waiting for; could be coming to the iPhone sometime in the near future based on the patent published by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

As per the patent, one of key components is a hardware component called “voice-to-command analyzer” which would determine whether the audio is meaningless or represents an action request. This would save other processors the burden of deciphering speech.

After the voice-to-command analyzer determines that the audio represents an action request it triggers a macro manager, executing actions from a predetermined library.

音声認識技術を利用したiPhone（やAppleTV）をコントロールする特許がAppleから出されているとの事です。

“The user might provide an audio input, namely, a voice command, by announcing the phrase “play irreplaceable”. Here, the electronic device would recognize that the first portion “play” is a command that is supported and the second term “irreplaceable” is the name of a song available to be played at the electronic device. As another example, the user could provide an audio input, namely, a voice command, by announcing the phrase “play 06″, which could be the user requesting to play a playlist denoted as “summer ‘06″ and available at the media device.”

「プレイリストの何曲目を再生しろ」というどこかで見たことのあるようなカンタンな指示や、

“The command “tell” which can respond to the meeting attendees with a message. For example, “tell everyone I will be 10 minutes late” which will be understood by the electronic device as a request to send a text message or email to all attendees of the meeting that the user will be ten (10) minutes late to the meeting.”

ミーティング時間が迫っているときに、「10分遅れると知らせてくれ」と指示すると、参加者全員にSMSが送信されるというものです。また、カメラに関しても同じように音声でコントロール可能にする内容となっています。

“In the camera mode, likely camera operations include taking pictures, deleting pictures, saving pictures, etc.”

ただし、これらを実現するためには「”voice-to-command analyzer”」なる機械が必要であり、現行世代のiPhoneに搭載される可能性はないということです。

しかしながら、iPhoneではすでに音声認識を行うアプリがリリース（Cactus Voice Dialer、VoiceDial、Vocalia）されており、マイクロソフトがiPhone用の音声認識アプリを開発中であるというウワサもありますので、今後別の展開があるかも知れませんね。