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Next iPod to Have Text-to-Speech?

An article in the Scotsman speculates that the next version of Apple's icon iPod will have text-to-speech capabilities that allows it to read the text of music tracks to the listener. The article says,

"Apple has flatly refused to comment on the design, but a patent lodged by the company in the United States makes clear the sixth generation of iPods will be able to convert those famous text menus into speech.

The ingenious system will rely on home PC processing power and clever software. The computer being used to download tracks will analyse each album title, song name and artist and convert them into sound files. These will be loaded into the iPod, along with the song files."

This is being driven by safety concerns. When you use an iPod in an "eyes-busy" activity like driving or using exercise equipment, having the music tracks read to the listener is preferable to having them only displayed on the screen.

This certainly makes sense to me. Apple has long been at the forefront of text-to-speech technology. It only seems a natural move to integrate it into their iPod music players.

An article in the Scotsman speculates that the next version of Apple's icon iPod will have text-to-speech capabilities that allows it to...
 

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A Mac OCR developer

I hope this report means that Apple will improve their text-to-speech capabilities. Frankly, the quality of Apple's current TTS system is inferior compared to competing systems. If Apple can't improve it themselves, they should license a system like Natural Voices from AT&T for inclusion in Leopard.

July 10 2006 at 1:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Elias

I don't see why the iPod itself can't have Text-to-Speech. My brother bought a Panasonic cordless phone that speaks the caller ID.

July 10 2006 at 11:52 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tush

I like Reg's idea. Adding the clips into the ID3 tags would rock, and then it could be a universal thing.

July 10 2006 at 11:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jay

Wonder how it will handle the over 400 Russian songs I have in ACC format but all the info is in cyrillic? BTW cyrillic (the Russian alphabit) does display just fine in iTunes and on the iPod just don't thing it will be able to pronounce them.

July 09 2006 at 10:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
R Muffet

Why not just have properly recorded voice clips, stored as ID3 tags like album art?

The few seconds of recording would only add a size measured in K, and it would sound a whole lot better.

July 09 2006 at 8:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Al

Umm, not == now, whups

July 09 2006 at 7:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jason mark

I'm more psyched for the voice to work both ways. Imagine pressing a button and saying "Artist - Paul Simon" and having it list back to you:

* All Albums
* Graceland
* ect.

(I don't think I actually have any other Paul Simon album, so I don't know what would come after Graceland).
Then you say "Graceland" and it plays Graceland. If it comes across a name it mispronounces (i.e. Bjørk or NIN) you could have an option to correct it in your own voice, and it will say it back in your voice next time (sort of like autodial on a phone).

Very exciting first step (if the rumour is true).

Imagine hands-free iPod control!


July 09 2006 at 7:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ken R

Yeah, I've been hoping for this since the shuffle first came out. My original thought was that iTunes would create a short audio file with the Song name, album, and artist, which would be read by the iPod on user request or before a song.

July 09 2006 at 6:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
garion911

I've had this for -years- on my PhatBox in my car.. All it does is generate .WAV files for the speech, and then upload them to the PhatBox.. The PhatBox uses the .WAV files to announce the track, album, arist, etc.. With more cars having iPod docks, or line-in, I see this as a much safer way to use it..

July 09 2006 at 6:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Al

I implemented this into podzilla (a gui for the iPod that runs under iPodlinux) utilising flite over a year ago. This meant the synthesis was done on the iPod itsself, not using pre-made clips. It wasn't great, but hey, it worked. This method sounds a lot like what RockBox can do currently.

If you want this functionality now, use RockBox.

One thing you've massively overlooked is that this means the visually impaired would not be more able to use an iPod.

-- coob

July 09 2006 at 5:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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