Speech and REALbasic
Volume Number: 15
Issue Number: 12
Column Tag: Programming Techniques
by Erick Tejkowski
Add powerful speech and recognition abilities to
your REALbasic application
Ever since the first Macintosh arrived, speech has been an interesting addition to the
Mac OS. Computerized speech has been a mainstay on the Mac since day one. It has
evolved over the years into its current state, changing names a couple times along the
way. The ability of having your computer speak to you is invaluable, leading to the
development of a variety of applications. You can now have your email, caller ID, or
web pages read to you thanks to Apple's speech capabilities. A little later, the Mac OS
began shipping with English speech recognition software. Instantly you could control
parts of the Macintosh through AppleScripts in the Speakable Items folder. There is
also a SDK available from Apple that shows how to implement speech recognition in
your own applications. Although it has been possible for a number of years now, it has
not always been particularly easy to implement. The SDK required extensive
knowledge of C++ object programming. Luckily, some thoughful programmers have
put together a whole collection of tools to control and use speech and speech recognition
in your own applications.
What this means for REALbasic programmers is that you now have convenient access to
all of the aforementioned speech abilities. With little effort, you can quickly have your
computer barking out phrases. Furthermore, you can implement speech recognition in
your own applications. REALbasic offers several manners in which to implement each
of these functions. This article will attempt to cover all of the various ways to add