Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store
First Look: Vocalia English speech recognition tool for iPhone
I want my iPhone to have voice dialing. Belgian developers Creaceed are moving in the right direction by introducing the Vocalia English speech recognition tool for iPhone. This app just does one thing right now -- displaying contacts from your Address Book when you say names. You still need to tap on the name that appears to open the contact, then tap on a number to dial it. Creaceed is working on adding new functionality to future versions.How well does Vocalia recognize names? I tested it by reading the first 100 names in Contacts. Without training Vocalia, it was able to correctly recognize 98 of the names -- that is, it put them on a screen with three of the closest sounding names. For 83 of the names, the correct name was at the top of the list. The two names that weren't recognized properly were Guilherme and Guiseppe. You can also add nicknames or other pronunciations to any name to further improve accuracy.
Between now and October 18th, Vocalia is on sale for US$3.99 in the App Store (click opens iTunes). The regular price of Vocalia is $7.99.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
matthew said 9:46AM on 10-02-2008
It seems like voice dialing is something that ideally Apple would add, since for a third-party app you still have to manually launch the app. If you're wearing your iPhone headphones or using a bluetooth headset, that still means taking the phone out of your pocket, unlocking it and launching the app...not exactly the ideal hands-free experience while driving, carrying things, or otherwise trying to make a call without needing to look at/touch your phone.
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Giuseppe said 10:21AM on 10-02-2008
That's Giuseppe!
Please get it right next time.
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Hobbes said 10:26AM on 10-02-2008
I bought this app and it works as advertised. When you launch the application it takes a little while to initialize, but after it does it recognizes the names in my address book without flaws.
It would be nice to have more voice activated commands like "dial/call/email" as it would avoid having to tap the contact to place a call/email.
I agree with the other poster that this feature would be nicer if it was integrated into the OS, allowing you to use the phone without having to look at it.
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greenbook said 10:46AM on 10-02-2008
I wouldn't trust a program which looks almost identical to HAL. Then again, it might stop you from making drunken phone calls, which would probably be a good thing. I just hope it cant lip read.
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Joel said 12:15PM on 10-02-2008
Ha! You beat me to making a comment about being able to read lips!
Shunnabunich said 12:48PM on 10-02-2008
Well, of course it can't...unless you face the screen away from you for some reason. Then you're in trouble.
Murphy Mac said 2:58PM on 10-02-2008
Looks kind of like MRS. HAL. I like the look. I've always wanted a real HAL portal in my kitchen....
greenbook said 7:15AM on 10-03-2008
Well maybe it is SAL 9000, although apparently her eye was blue.
CaptSaltyJack said 12:27PM on 10-02-2008
The big question for people who have bought this app: can you speak through your Bluetooth headset to have it do voice recog?
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WSE97 said 10:58PM on 10-02-2008
Vocalia crashes for me every time. I confirmed with their customer support that this is because I have >1,000 contacts. They claim in 2-3 weeks a new version should resolve the problem, we'll see ... but if you have alot of contacts, just realize that Vocalia is not going to work for you.
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BEN ENGLISCH said 12:36PM on 10-08-2008
WOW YTOU Tested this with 100 names? That's Dedicatione!!!!
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