According to a recently published patent, Apple may be looking to introduce voice recognition as a standard option with its iPhones, iPods and Apple TV devices. Per iPodNN, the filing concentrates on the concept of the iPhone supporting the technology but also suggests that it could be applied to other devices as well.

They key addition to Apple's hardware would be the presence of a "voice-to-command analyzer," which would determine whether audio is meaningless or represents an action request as well as save other processors the burden of deciphering speech.

After the initial sorting, recognized commands could trigger a macro manager, which could then execute actions from a predetermined library. Voice commands could also trigger the name of a menu or other context-sensitive commands, such as "telling" a calendar applications to display assorted contacts, etc.

More iPhone-specific commands might involve controlling the camera, or choosing how to deal with voicemail or incoming calls. On devices such as an Apple TV, users might have to make use of a separate microphone, such as that on a headset to pass along commands along to another portable device, with a speaker included somewhere in the pathway to provide feedback.

As of now, an unofficial form of voice recognition is already available on the iPhone through third party applications such as Vocalia.

If you've heard anything about this or have your own ideas about recognition potential, let us know in the comments or forums.