Conversational Computing Corporation has posted the first public working draft of Java Specification Request 113, the Java Speech API 2.0. According to the draft,
The Java Speech API (JSAPI 2.0) allows developers to incorporate speech technology into user interfaces for their Java programming language applets (or MIDlets) and applications. This API specifies a cross-platform interface to support command and control recognizers and speech synthesizers, with considerations for future incorporation of dictation and other features.
JSAPI 2.0 is primarily aimed at the J2ME platform (specifically CLDC 1.0 and MIDP 1.0). At first glance the API may look large, but it can be scaled in several ways. First, implementations may choose to implement recognition, synthesis, or both. Second, the types of engines used may be small or large depending on their capabilities. Recognition engines may provide full support for command and control or provide more limited support through specialized built-in grammars. Synthesis engines may support full text-to-speech capabilities or audio sequencing only.
At the same time, it has been designed to work well on J2SE. The subset of capabilities used from J2ME also work equally well on J2SE. A few very small building blocks have been included in the API to not only support this compatibility, but to also aid the developer with familiar programming methods and save space by using reusable objects.
JSAPI 2.0 has a large number of uses. It is designed to support not only the limited cases of name dialing and digit dialing, but the following applications as well (to name a few):
- Application switching
- E-mail interaction including both reading and manipulation
- Calendar management and interaction
- Accessibility including screen reading
- System alerts including low memory or low fuel
- Car navigation system
- Games
- Learning
- Data entry
JSAPI 2.0 is especially well suited for downloadable applications
Comments are due by April 23.