Building an iOS App like Siri

Learn how to build an app that recognizes voice commands and speaks like Siri, using the SpeechKit framework. By Subhransu Behera.

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Comparison with Other SDKs

Remember that SpeechKit is just one of many frameworks you can use for speech detection and vocalization. There are a number of other frameworks you may want to consider:

  • OpenEars: It’s FREE but only has support for English and Spanish.
  • CeedVocal: It’s available in 6 languages (English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish and Italian). It’s not free, but you can buy licences per application or pay a one-time fee of 6000 Euros for an unlimited number of applications. Each license is good for one language, but you can add additional languages as needed. Try working with the trial version first.
  • iSpeech: This SDK has support for 20 languages as of now, and is free for mobile apps.

Both OpenEars and CEEDVocal share the issue of low function in a noisy environment. Out of all these frameworks Nuance’s SpeechKit supports more languages, understands different accents and remains useful when there is a lot of background noise.

However, there are two scenarios where you may need to consider other frameworks. If your application needs to process speech recognition in offline mode, then you might like OpenEars. All other frameworks require network connectivity.

SpeechKit requires that port 51001 be left open. Some non-Windows firewalls, and various antivirus software may disable port 51001. This will cause a connection error while using SpeechKit. If that occurs, you need to configure the software to open the port.

Where To Go From Here?

Here is the finished sample project with all of the code from the above tutorial.

Congratulations, you have successfully integrated Nuance Mobile SDK and built an iOS application like Siri!No doubt you’ve worked up an appetite, so why not test out your cool new app and see if it can help you find somewhere grab a victory snack or frosty beverage?

You can dive deeper and find more about Nuance Mobile SDK under the resources tab in the Nuance Mobile Developer portal. Make sure you check out the iOS developer guide and iOS API reference to learn more about the speech recognition process.

If you have any questions, comments or find a unique requirement about your voice recognition application, feel free to leave a comment here and I will be happy to help.

Subhransu Behera

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Subhransu Behera

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