http://www.beyond3d.com/content/news/303

Tuesday 26th June 2007, 12:12:17 AM, written by Farid

In a press release issued yesterday, middleware provider Fonix Speech, Inc announced the availability of its voice recognition API to the Wii platform. The Wii joins the PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360 platforms as potential hosts for this middleware tool.

“Now Wii title developers can add Fonix’s award-winning voice recognition to their games. VoiceIn allows for new and interesting player interfaces via voice commands, while VoiceIn Karaoke makes it possible to increase the accuracy and quality of karaoke games,” said Tim K. Hong, Vice President, Fonix Games.

VoiceIn is capable of recognising multiple languages, including English (UK/US), French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Korean. Offered in two versions, VoiceIn Game Edition and VoiceIn Karaoke Edition, the former having as its goal to be used in general voice recognition cases while the latter, as its name indicates, is being aimed at karaoke games, with an emphasis on the timing, pitch and accuracy of the singer.

Look for some games to come out soon with a microphone attachment! I'd like to see them go beyond simple karaoke games and move to games where you command things with the mic, or have to hold real life conversations with NPCs in a more emotional context.