Introduction to Speech Interfaces for Web Applications

Since the 2025 Customer Challenge last fall, I have been interested in the current state of speech interfaces, especially how they could be exposed to browser-based web applications.  I put some of my research into presentation format and presented Introduction to Speech Interfaces for Web Applications at both Twin Cities Code Camp and MinneBar in April.  Here’s the abstract:

Speaking with your computing device is becoming commonplace. Most of us have used Apple’s Siri, Google Now, Microsoft’s Cortana, or Amazon’s Alexa - but how can you speak with your web application? The Web Speech API can enable a voice interface by adding both Speech Synthesis (Text to Speech) and Speech Recognition (Speech to Text) functionality.

This session will introduce the core concepts of Speech Synthesis and Speech Recognition. We will evaluate the current browser support and review alternative options. See the JavaScript code and UX design considerations required to add a speech interface to your web application. Come hear if it’s as easy as it sounds?

I thought it came together quite well, and I even have the tweet from Kate Boeckman (@kboeckman) to prove it.