Apple patent reveals data-to-voice translation system for cellphones

Apart from Steve's not-so-subtle hatred of buttons, Apple has traditionally been a fairly accessibility-aware company, and its latest patent application, for the "Multimedia data transfer for a personal communication device," outlines a method by which the visually-impaired can use services like SMS. The system eliminates the need for backend servers and data transfers by having the transmitting device first read the text and then send it over a voice channel to the receiver. The application also details an extension of the system where received voice transmissions are forwarded to a mail server and stored for later retrieval -- kind of like reverse voicemail. As always, Apple's pretty vague about how we might see this patent applied, but that doesn't make trying to read the patent tea leaves any less entertaining.

[Thanks, Brian]

[Via MacNN]

[andrew @ Jul 28th 2007 8:56AM]

Did I miss something here, or isn't this text to speech which has been done for awhile?

[Argot @ Jul 28th 2007 9:04AM]

No. It's never been done before. Steve Jobs said so.

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[entelucal @ Jul 28th 2007 9:34AM]

Some Nokia phones (for example nokia 6290), at least, already read out loud your SMS... This isn't new..

[James @ Jul 28th 2007 10:02AM]

Wow, is nobody seeing the incredibly glaring irony here? He submits a patent for accessibility technology for visually-impaired users, *who will never be able to use his phone* since it has no buttons they can feel. If you can't see the "soft buttons" on the touchscreen, you can't press 'em, simple as that.

I posted in the last article about Jobs' "war on buttons" about what a terrible idea it was, and this patent inadvertently highlights exactly how it screws people over. Heh.

[nine9nin @ Jul 28th 2007 10:23AM]

I think this patent is related to some work apple was doing at one point (and has another patent related to - filed recently) a specific iPhone custom ringtone scheme, where you get to send data (text is a red herring here) to the phone before you call it. The theory here is that you take a picture of yourself calling the person, so they get the picture at the same time you care calling. Re-read that patent filing for incorporating pictures into voice feeds, not only is it for Garageband's recoding of iChat's conversations for podcasts, but it also can be applied here.

I suspect A. it's not ready, and B. since it will be an iPhone specific feature, Apple may be waiting to see if the iPhone becomes ubiquitous enough to incorporate that feature.
"vocalized phone number" could be anything. "Calling you from 555-1212" could just be as easily "hey! it's AlexJ! pickup!" in case I don't want to go all photographic on you.

[Josh @ Jul 28th 2007 12:06PM]

"The theory here is that you take a picture of yourself calling the person, so they get the picture at the same time you care calling."

This is - hands down - the worst idea I have ever heard. Prank calls are bad enough without having a picture of some asshole's asshole pasted on my caller-id screen.

I guarantee you that the two types of people who will ever, ever use this if it is ever implemented are tweenage girls (which is a can of worms unto itself) and prank callers.

[jilie @ Jul 28th 2007 12:15PM]

Windows mobile voice command anyone?

[robjennings @ Jul 28th 2007 12:32PM]

I think Engadget may have interpreted this patent incorrectly. As nine9nin observed, this is actually a patent about sending multimedia data between phones directly, without the use of a server, by converting it to voice data as part of a call. This is not text-to-speech.

[bigname @ Jul 28th 2007 12:47PM]

there are a lot of text-to-speech and email systems around, used for emergency notifications. Thinphone since 2001 lets anyone send a text message as a voicecall to any US/canada telephone for a quarter.

Perhaps this patent app is preparation for the wifi ipod having a number on an apple server to receive SMS and interrupt the music to read it, rather than just formatting the text for the screen?

[Jeff Lewis @ Jul 28th 2007 1:40PM]

"[Apple] has traditionally been a fairly accessibility-aware company"

That depends a lot on how you define 'fairly'.

I worked as the lead developer for one of the two disability-solution companies who specialised in Macintosh-specific products during the 90s. I developed a single switch software mouse replacement that would allow Mac users to completely control their Macs - even allow quadraplegics do serious artwork and phototouch ups. I spent a lot of time working with Apple's Disability group and our products were in the running to provide touch screen facilities for the PenMac (I was one of the few people to actually SEE a PenMac).

The thing we got out of it was that Apple was way more about looking like it cared than actually doing anymore more than the minimal needed. To our surprise (an as Mac fanatics - our dismay) Microsoft was far more open to doing things to help users with disabilities.

Then Jobs took over and essentially *shut down* their Disability Group. It's only been recently that there's been a reemergence of interest in serious disability assistance.

The real kicker was when a group of developers from a bunch of companies including myself developed a protocol for Macs to allow any developer to add access awareness to their apps. Apple presented it at WWDC... made posters with pictures of the people it would help... did the soundbites... and then promptly ignored it.

Meanwhile, Microsoft took up the protocol, improved it and integrated it into .Net making it trivial for any .Net developer to add access aware support.

Since then, the company I worked for bought the competition and then faced with little or no support from Apple - switched to Windows.

So yeah - define 'fairly'... I think a better word would be 'barely'...

PS: Lest you think this is sour grapes, I left the biz long before it collapsed. None of that affected me. I just regret how it affected the people with disability who wanted to use Macs.

[michael @ Jul 28th 2007 3:39PM]

I really agree with you on that one.

I have a grandmother who wants to use computers, but she's really slow at pecking on the keyboard (which makes her lose productivity) and it's real hard for her to see.

Vista has Speech Recognition and it really helps her. She just talks, and words appear on the screen, just for her. She got used to it real quick. Unlike that famous YouTube video of Speech Recognition in Vista going haywire, Speech Recognition really does work, and does it real well.

It was also easy for me to find a way to fix the computer so it could improve how she can see the screen. There's a Magnifying window you can drag around, tips for brighter text contrast, and other neat stuff.

Best of all, it's easy to find in Vista, and it's really helped. Microsoft also has a site that shows how you can use their accessibility options. It's pretty good videos. http://www.microsoft.com/enable/demos/windowsvista/default.aspx

I don't know if it's available in OS X, but it was easy for me to find in Vista, and it's really helped.

[Niles @ Jul 29th 2007 1:53PM]

Does Microsoft ever patent anything? Or are we just apple crazy over here? I wanna see a Microsoft patent for fat coffee tables that you can also touch.