SAPI: Enabling Communications in Windows Applications

SAPI, Speech Application Programming Interface is an API which was developed by Microsoft to enable speech recognition and speech synthesis within the windows applications. It can be termed as an interface that allows recognition and synthesis between web and software development applications and speech engines. Extensively used in varied web applications such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft Agent and Microsoft Speech Server, it enables affordable web development in India and enhances the development process.

SAPI: Historical overview

The first SAPI version was released to serve varied web & software development processes in the year 1995. It was then supported on Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51. This version was enabled with low-level direct speech recognition and direct text-to-speech APIs, which web applications could use to directly control engines, as well as simplified 'higher-level' voice command and voice talk APIs. Since then, various SAPI versions have been developed in the internet world, which have enabled betterment of communication in the software development processes. In most of the SAPI versions, following features have been predominant:

  • API definition files: Microsoft Interface Definition Language and as C or C++ header files
  • Runtime components: sapi.dll, etc.
  • Control Panel applet: to select and configure default speech recognizer and synthesizer
  • Text-To-Speech engines in multiple languages
  • Speech Recognition engines in multiple languages
  • Redistributable components to allow developers to package the engines and runtime with their application code to produce a single installable application
  • Sample application code
  • Sample engines: For implementations of the necessary engine interfaces.

SAPI is compatible with Microsoft windows vistas/ XP/ 2000/ millennium edition/ 98/ 90 and so on. SAPI and speech engines have not only improved performances of the software, but also have added to their reliability factor.

The web application development plans are further boosted by the speech engines calibrated by SAPI, as they help in deploying a larger web service network. Together, all versions of SAPI make a complete software development kit, a necessary toolkit to give your businesses the needed boom.

About the Author:

I am the webmaster at www.synapseindia.com ' A web development company offering affordable web promotion to businesses in India and abroad.

Author: Akhila Choudhary