New Apple patent: Non-GSM data sharing

[Nepenthe]

Just noticed this ars technica article on a new Apple patent.

"Future iPhones could utilize technology that converts text to voice messages and do so over voice channels instead of GSM. Such a system is described in a recently-published patent filed by Apple called "Multimedia data transfer for a personal communication device," which would essentially turn the mobile devices into walkie talkies for multimedia data. It could also serve to benefit users who are visually impaired by providing vocalized versions of the data being sent."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...s-could-share-data-over-non-gsm-channels.html

 

[Daremo]

Wow. I just saw this concept on American Inventor, where a hearing impaired young man had the idea for a device that would do this. When I saw it, I said to my wife, the iPhone could basically do this already if they incorporated text to speech and/or voice recognition software into the iPhone.

I wonder if this kid will sue Apple for this.

 

[Nepenthe]

I have always wanted to be able to use voice recognition to input text messages (while driving, etc... ). It sounds like that concept may be covered by this patent.

 

[kdarling]

Back in 1999, we were spending a lot of time figuring out how we were going to trasmit data through a bunch of legacy systems, where modem speeds were terrible.

As a joke, one day I prepared a presentation slide for the "Master Recording Business Enterprise Aural Network"... otherwise known as the "Mr. Bean" system.

I explained that we would take the data, do a text-to-speech conversion, transmit the speech over the old voice networks, then convert it back to text data at the other end... unless it was a limited device like a phone, then just listen to it.

It took nearly 15 minutes before everyone in the room caught on that I was pulling their legs... sort of, anyway. I kind of liked the idea myself.

If Apple is doing something similar, then I still have the notes and slide, fully documented. My price will be reasonable

Some things should be just too obvious to patent.