Google [GOOG] is believed to be working on a new voice system for Android. The system is codenamed Majel after the voice of the Federation computers on Star Trek. Majel is the next step in voice support for Android devices and will follow on from Google Voice Actions. Rather than just repeating set instructions such as “Sent text to fred”, Majel will follow more closely with Siri and allow certain variations so that more natural language can be used.
In the initial release, Android and Me reports that it will only work with Google search although future updates will bring more features to the device.
We don’t know exactly when Majel will launch, but have heard it could be as soon as this year although there’s only 17 more days of the year left which possibly means it falls in to January 2012.
As for the name of the service, Majel is believed to be the code-name for Voice. Expect it to be called something different when it launches.
In an earlier interview with Slashgear, Google commented said: “Our approach is more like Star Trek, right, starship Enterprise; every piece of computing surface, everything is voice-aware. It’s not that there’s a personality, it doesn’t have a name, it’s just Computer.”
Eventually voice will integrate in to all aspects of a smartphone which includes Windows Phone, Android, iPhone (iOS) and others that may arrive. For now, it’s still early days for voice and most people haven’t got around the awkward part of looking silly in public when talking to your phone. Eventually it will happen though where all we do is voice controlled.
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