conceptual question

Hi there,

I hope you can give me some advice for a student project. We want to
write a java application that

1. controls mozilla songbird via speech (we intend to use sphinx 4 for
that). For a start the basic functions like play, stop and pause will
suffice.

2. gets events from mozilla thunderbird, like the arrival of a new
email. We want to announce this with the help of a speech synthesis tool.

I've been looking several hours, if anything like this already exists,
but I'm still unsure, what the right approach might be. Embedding
mozilla songbird via javaxpcom, writing a plugin or an extension?

Thanks for your help.

Best Regards, Eileen