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Talking iPods
chrisb33 writes to tell us the next iteration of the iPod may talk you through the menus instead of just relying on text. The Scotsman speculates on this new technology based on a patent filed by Apple in the US. From the article: "The patent reveals the idea is driven largely by safety considerations. It states: 'A user will have difficulty navigating the interface in "eyes-busy" situations. Such activities include, for example, driving an automobile, exercising and crossing the street." The patent also makes clear that text-to-speech technology is likely to spread to other hand-held electronic devices such as mobile phones and palm-top computers."
Rockbox has had this for ages now. It's a replacement MP3 operating system, originally for the Archos machines, but now even runs on the later generation iPods.
As Creative kindly reminded Apple, having defensive patents to make sure your competitors think twice about suing you for patent infringment is a smart move.
I'm more curious if Apple manages to make this feature a new defacto standard in the MP3 player market. I'm also wondering if this feature will come into play when and if they enter the cell phone market. It seems like a patent that applies readily to that market.
The Rockbox open-source firmware for iPods and various other players has been supporting talking menus for ages. (Sorry, the Rockbox wiki seems to be down for the moment.)
Furthermore, it's free and does not try to lock you out of your music.
So what's up with the patent?
If I whistle to my iPod a few seconds of a song melody, I would like to see it identify the track and then play it! I'm sure it would be impossible, but at least it would be more patent-worthy!
If MP3's are still arranged in a geometric structure (trees of various sortings) and unless some new metaphor is introduced, iPods will still require spatial reasoning to navigate. While driving, I argue that there is one task and one task alone that should be getting full spation reasoning awareness: driving.
What makes this worse is the translation from spatial to textual. This requires the user to reconstruct the spatial, requiring even more concentration.
How about voice recognition? Call out the artist or album and listen away!
The author seems fairly certain that a patent equals an imminent new feature, but that's not the case. A patent is a patent. Apple may implement this in 6 Gen iPods, they may wait for later revisions, they may never implement the feature.
Technology companies, especially Apple, have piles patented software features, devices, etc that have never seen the light of day. And speaking of piles, one of which is actually called "piles."
As I recall, Apple also has also recently patented several different new hardware interfaces for the iPod. You can bet money they're not all going to be implemented. Heck, none of them may be implemented.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
me > hello, thanks for calling me back_ man_and_dj_touch-tonight.mp3
*ipod changes* playing album: hello my name is q
*ipod changes* The Calling - Thank You.mp3
me > shut up!
caller > what?
*ipod changes* 03-lil_kim-shut_up_bitch.mp3
me > no not you, my ipod is freaking me out
*ipod changes* Ali G Indahouse-Da Soundtrack/14-another_level-freak_me-rns.mp3
caller > you know its weird to talk to that thing right?
me > your driving me crazy
*ipod changes* Fidel Cashflow (2005) - Rap/06-stack_bundles-hustlers_go_crazy.mp3
caller > what ever, forget the job!
me > no, wait a minute!
*ipod changes* ez-rollers/lickable_beats_lp_sampler/09-60_minute
real men dont mark this funny, real men mark it insightful!
Apple is probably doing this to make their devices more accessible to the blind. OS X has a fairly sophisticated accessibility suite, and perhaps their extending it to their iPods. I know a blind person who would love to have an iPod, if it were accessible.
All of that said, I really hope this is something I can turn the fuck off. When I got my mobile phone it made a noise every time I'd press a button, when I'd turn it off, when I'd turn it on, when I'd dial a number, and probably a few things that I never got to. I was glad that I could turn it all off, otherwise I would have had to return it.
There seems to be an obsession with our technology beeping and buzzing to respond to our input. I know when I press a button; I don't need a noise to tell me what happened. The only time my phone needs to make noise is when I'm getting a phone call.
Help I'm a rock.
Text to speech applyed to menu navigation. Nothing new here.
Indeed. I was playing with that concept some 15 years ago on a Commodore Amiga, and back then it wasn't a new concept either.
If this patent gets approved, it would show once more that the tests for non-obviousness and novelty are seriously broken.
Non-obvious:
Prior art in the form of existing text to speech implementations (Amiga and others) and menus (Mac, Amiga, others).
Known and/or well documented motivation to combine the 2: See any software aimed at making a computer accessable to someone who cannot read the screen for one reason or another.
Got to think of it, screen readers and such seem to implement menu to speech interfaces and have been for at least some 2 decades.
So.. the novelty part should be clear.
So now when i'm travelling to work on the train every morning, not only do i have to put up with excessively loud music coming from peoples headphones, and people talking on their mobile phones, but *now also* people talking to their ipods. Great, just ******* great. -_-
Anyone know where i can buy a portable, re-usable EMP device with say a 50m range?
I expect what they will patent is the system where the computer does the text-to-speech and then loads up the created files to the player along with the actual songs, then the menu system plays them as appropriate.
So a bit more than just a text-to-speech menu system.
Star Trek... that's the one with the laser swords, isn't it?
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