How to implement speech into text through a speech structure

Question

I want to make speech recognition in my Objective-C application using the iOS Speech framework.

I found some Swift examples, but couldn't find anything in Objective-C.

Is it possible to access this structure from Objective-C? If so, how?

Answer 1

Having spent enough time searching for Objective-C samples - even in the Apple documentation - I couldn't find anything decent, so I figured it out myself.

Header file (.h)

/*!
 * Import the Speech framework, assign the Delegate and declare variables
 */

#import <Speech/Speech.h>

@interface ViewController : UIViewController <SFSpeechRecognizerDelegate> {
    SFSpeechRecognizer *speechRecognizer;
    SFSpeechAudioBufferRecognitionRequest *recognitionRequest;
    SFSpeechRecognitionTask *recognitionTask;
    AVAudioEngine *audioEngine;
}

Method File (.m)

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    // Initialize the Speech Recognizer with the locale, couldn't find a list of locales
    // but I assume it standard UTF-8 https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/locale
    speechRecognizer = [[SFSpeechRecognizer alloc] initWithLocale:[[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"en_US"]];

    // Set speech recognizer delegate
    speechRecognizer.delegate = self;

    // Request the authorization to make sure the user is asked for permission so you can
    // get an authorized response, also remember to change the .plist file, check the repo's
    // readme file or this project info.plist
    [SFSpeechRecognizer requestAuthorization:^(SFSpeechRecognizerAuthorizationStatus status) {
        switch (status) {
            case SFSpeechRecognizerAuthorizationStatusAuthorized:
                NSLog(@"Authorized");
                break;
            case SFSpeechRecognizerAuthorizationStatusDenied:
                NSLog(@"Denied");
                break;
            case SFSpeechRecognizerAuthorizationStatusNotDetermined:
                NSLog(@"Not Determined");
                break;
            case SFSpeechRecognizerAuthorizationStatusRestricted:
                NSLog(@"Restricted");
                break;
            default:
                break;
        }
    }];

}

/*!
 * @brief Starts listening and recognizing user input through the 
 * phone microphone
 */

- (void)startListening {

    // Initialize the AVAudioEngine
    audioEngine = [[AVAudioEngine alloc] init];

    // Make sure there not a recognition task already running
    if (recognitionTask) {
        [recognitionTask cancel];
        recognitionTask = nil;
    }

    // Starts an AVAudio Session
    NSError *error;
    AVAudioSession *audioSession = [AVAudioSession sharedInstance];
    [audioSession setCategory:AVAudioSessionCategoryRecord error:&error];
    [audioSession setActive:YES withOptions:AVAudioSessionSetActiveOptionNotifyOthersOnDeactivation error:&error];

    // Starts a recognition process, in the block it logs the input or stops the audio
    // process if there an error.
    recognitionRequest = [[SFSpeechAudioBufferRecognitionRequest alloc] init];
    AVAudioInputNode *inputNode = audioEngine.inputNode;
    recognitionRequest.shouldReportPartialResults = YES;
    recognitionTask = [speechRecognizer recognitionTaskWithRequest:recognitionRequest resultHandler:^(SFSpeechRecognitionResult * _Nullable result, NSError * _Nullable error) {
        BOOL isFinal = NO;
        if (result) {
            // Whatever you say in the microphone after pressing the button should be being logged
            // in the console.
            NSLog(@"RESULT:%@",result.bestTranscription.formattedString);
            isFinal = !result.isFinal;
        }
        if (error) {
            [audioEngine stop];
            [inputNode removeTapOnBus:0];
            recognitionRequest = nil;
            recognitionTask = nil;
        }
    }];

    // Sets the recording format
    AVAudioFormat *recordingFormat = [inputNode outputFormatForBus:0];
    [inputNode installTapOnBus:0 bufferSize:1024 format:recordingFormat block:^(AVAudioPCMBuffer * _Nonnull buffer, AVAudioTime * _Nonnull when) {
        [recognitionRequest appendAudioPCMBuffer:buffer];
    }];

    // Starts the audio engine, i.e. it starts listening.
    [audioEngine prepare];
    [audioEngine startAndReturnError:&error];
    NSLog(@"Say Something, I'm listening"); 
}

- (IBAction)microPhoneTapped:(id)sender {
    if (audioEngine.isRunning) {
        [audioEngine stop];
        [recognitionRequest endAudio];
    } else {
        [self startListening];
    }
}

Now add a delegate SFSpeechRecognizerDelegateto check if the speech recognizer is available.

#pragma mark - SFSpeechRecognizerDelegate Delegate Methods

- (void)speechRecognizer:(SFSpeechRecognizer *)speechRecognizer availabilityDidChange:(BOOL)available {
    NSLog(@"Availability:%d",available);
}

Instructions and notes

.plist, , , <String> , , Property List .plist Open As → Source Code </dict>.

<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>  <string>This app uses your microphone to record what you say, so watch what you say!</string>

<key>NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription</key>  <string>This app uses Speech recognition to transform your spoken words into text and then analyze the, so watch what you say!.</string>

, , , iOS 10.0 +.

, , UIButton microPhoneTapped, , , ( NSLog - , ). .

Github repo , !