iSpeak Voice-Based App for iPhone Announced

Fonix Speech has announced a voice-based application for Apple's upcoming iPhone 3G. Fonix iSpeak will enable iPhone 3G users to initiate operations like calling a person or skipping a song in the playlist, simply by speaking the command in natural language. Pricing and launch date are still to be announced, but the company is hinting at a release through the App Store.

You can call a contact either by saying that person's name or by saying the phone number, provided that you know it by heart. As for browsing your playlists, simply pronounce the name or the artist, song and even playlist title.

The run-time engine at the base of Fonix iSpeak sits on the phone allowing users to interact with the personal contents of their Apple iPhone. Fonix iSpeak is a "client-side" application that gives users the power of voice interaction with their personal content, eliminating network latency, unlike other voice applets that enable voice searches on the Internet by sending commands over the airwaves.

"The powerful and dynamic tools provided by Apple have allowed the Fonix team to quickly and efficiently develop Fonix iSpeak for the Apple iPhone 3G," says D. Lynn Shepherd, Fonix Sr. VP product engineering. "The feature rich iPhone is easy to use and our robust embedded speech interface will further create a positive and natural user-friendly environment which will further illustrate the dynamic features of this phone."

The official Fonix report also notes that iSpeak is the first of several anticipated products that support the growing mobile device, as well as the gaming industry. While Fonix Speech can confirm that iSpeak will be available for release directly from Fonix Speech Inc., the company doesn't say anything about a particular launch date or price. In the same announcement, Fonix also mentions that it expects iSpeak to be available "through traditional Apple distribution channels."

Fonix Corporation is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The company operates through its wholly owned subsidiary, Fonix Speech Inc., an innovative speech recognition and text-to-speech technology company. Fonix Speech embeds its voice solutions in mobile/wireless devices, interactive video games, toys and more.