Hi Sudhir, I am not sure about the development cycle at Texas Instruments. But there is a small point to clarify here. Texas Instruments does not manufacture cell phones for the retail market. They only manufacture the chips that are used by a lot of companies like Motorola and other retail manufacturers. What this essentially means is that although TI provides the technology to embed speech synthesis in the chips that the retail manufacturers buy from them, there is no guarantee that the retail manufacturers will actually activate these additional capabilities of the chips. Of course, it is a different story if the features are activated by default and the retail manufacturers are forced to provide them to the users. But this rarely happens because of the corporate considerations. Additionally, there is also the cost factor if any. What additional price would TI charge (if any) for a chip with speech capabilities. But I am sure this is a step in the right direction and there may be a cheaper alternative for the costly combo of a smart phone and the Talks or Mobile Speak software.
When it comes to the feature set itself, these chips are aimed at the low end market. The phones themselves will not have many features apart from basic voice calling and text messaging capabilities. I cannot really guess the level of accessibility that a speech enabled chip will provide to the phone functions because the software or firmware on the phone is again designed by the retail manufacturer or a third party vendor. But for your information, there are phones in the United States which work on the CDMA technology and offer basic speech capabilities. They read caller ID info as well as in some models, the first level of menus and important info like signal strength and battery level. For dialing a number, you can use the voice dialing feature. There is no direct access to the phone book, calendar, tasks, alarm clock and a number of other third party applications we take for granted on the Smart Phones like the 6600. Smart Phones are a totally different technology, They have operating systems on which you can install a number of third party applications. Screen readers like Talks or Mobile Speak are also third party applications. This is a very powerful platform which offers a lot of opportunities in terms of scalability. A number of users who purchased Smart Phones initially thinking that they would only need voice calling and text messaging. However, we started using them for a lot of other purposes, playing music or listening to books, using them for knowing our rough location, keeping appointments and so on. I am not supporting the Smart Phones or anything like that but jut telling you the differences... Regards, Kiran. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sudhir R Sent: Monday, 03 July 2006 10:42 AM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Subject: Re: [AI] Fw: msg from Rakhi, ET Hi folks ! Congrats to Asif for guiding research at Texas Instruments in the right direction. Keep up the good work interfacing with decision makers in the Indian corporate world, boss ! Now, I need a little guidance from technology watchers on this list. I was about to invest in buying a Nokia 6600 and the Talks software when I received this wonderful news that talking telephones are going to be available for about Rs 3000. I can easily wait for another 6 months if it means getting a comparable performance at 25% of the proposed investment. The moot question is, will this new, speech-enabled chip help us do the same things that Talks enables us to do on a Symbian-based cell phone ? (specifically, reading out text documents stored on the cell phone ?) Would appreciate if Asif or someone else could clarify the matter so that I can take a call on the investment. Thanks in advance and regards RS M: 98 472 76 126 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mohammed Asif Iqbal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <accessindia@accessindia.org.in> Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 10:22 AM Subject: [AI] Fw: msg from Rakhi, ET > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Rakhi Mazumdar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 6:23 PM > Subject: msg from Rakhi, ET > > > > > > Dear Asif, > > > > The article has appeared today in ET Kolkata edition. I have pasted it > below this message. > > > > regards, > > ---Rakhi Mazumdar > > ET Kolkata > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- > --------- > > > > Rakhi Mazumdar > > Kolkata > > > > Texas Instruments' (TI) sprawling campus in Bangalore is buzzing with > excitement these days around designing a 'single chip' cellphone that can be > priced at around Rs 1,500-2,000. The phone could hit the market as early as > September 2006 and for big vendors like Motorola or Nokia, who currently > manufacture multiple chip phone sets, it could be the breakthrough to > penetrate a market like India. Globally, TI also has leadership in speech > recognition software and possesses crucial IP in the 'text to speech' area. > > > > Are we then perhaps looking at the next big thing in cellphones -- > integrating the two to create a 'talking' phone? The phone would 'read' out > incoming call numbers and SMS-es and support various Indian languages, > Bengali, Marathi etc. This can open up a whole new segment of users among > visually impaired and even the illiterate. > > > > The idea excites Biswadip 'Bobby' Mitra, managing director of TI India . > "The concept is alluring. TI or its partners could potentially look at it," > Mr Mitra said in recent chat with ET. > > > > What perhaps lends a poignant note to this whole initiative is the pivotal > role of Mohammad Asif Iqbal, an IT consultant at PwC, who incidentally has > 100% vision impairment. Even before it decides to embark on such a project, > an innovative TI team already seems to be seeking inputs from Asif, who > advises PwC clients on business process restructuring with the help of IT. > > > > But he realises only too well how technology can change lives. Born with > 50% eyesight, Asif was determined to make it through life. An uncle took him > to the US where at age 16, he had to battle with grades and also cope with > the shock of a compete loss of sight. Asif managed to bag straight As in > both. He is the first blind candidate to graduate in BCom. under Calcutta > University from St. Xavier's College and followed it with an MBA from > Symbiosis, Pune. Job offers flowed in from the likes of Infosys, Bangalore > and iFlex, Mumbai. He was picked up by PwC in 2004. > > > > Asif's laptop is equipped with 'JobAcess', a special software that helps > him work on Word documents by reading out the images and characters on the > screen. It also helps him navigate through the internet. > > > > Similarly, his Nokia 6680 is loaded with MobileSpeak, a speech-enabled > software that reads out the incoming call number, his SMS-es and his > location. But with a price tag of Rs 6,000, MobileSpeak is expensive ware. > Most low-end cellphones cannot support such software which raises the total > cost of the phone to a pricey Rs 15,000 plus. That's what makes a low-priced > 'talking' phone so attractive. > > > > "I want to work with people who are trying to develop affordable > software," Asif told ET inspired by none other than the President, A P J > Abdul Kalam to help create a Job Access like software, with a price tag of > Rs 1,500. "There is definitely a market for such a product. It is also > scores as part of corporate social responsibility of an IT company," he > added. > > > > > > > > > > end > > > > > > Disclaimer: > > "The information in this e-mail and any attachments is confidential and > may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee or > addressees. If you are not an intended recipient, please delete the message > and any attachments and notify the sender of misdelivery. Any use or > disclosure of the contents of either is unauthorised and may be unlawful. > All liability for viruses is excluded to the fullest extent permitted by > law. 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