Foxlink and Sensory, Inc. Partner in Voice Interfaces for Bluetooth Devices

Sensory, Inc. and Foxlink Group announced their strategic cooperation to create Bluetooth products using speech I/O (recognition and prompts) as a Voice User Interface (VUI). The parties will initially focus on the Bluetooth headset market for mono and stereo headsets and hands-free car kit products where the convenience of speech control for small headsets and the safety of complete hands-free control while driving dramatically enhance the users’ experience.

Foxlink and Sensory believe they can speed the time to market for Bluetooth headset companies wanting to deploy this much needed VUI. Current Bluetooth headset designs rely on buttons to control input commands. There is only room for a few buttons due to the small form factor of the headset. The timing and order of these buttons being held down in various combinations is used to differentiate meaning. This mode of control makes it difficult for consumers to input commands while wearing the headset, and very hard to remember how to input the commands (e.g. “do I hold it down 3 seconds or 4 seconds?”). Using voice to control the headset has been found to be much more convenient and intuitive. Likewise, having a pleasant voice that confirms status, rather than beeps or light flashes adds to the VUI experience. This also allows for safe control of Bluetooth products in a car including answering calls without ever taking your eyes off the road or hands off the steering wheel. [click heading for more]

Try these on for size: Wearable computers -

Overall, "wearables represent a niche industrial and government market where freeing one's hands significantly enhances the capabilities of the user," said David Krebs, an analyst at Venture Development Corp. in Natick, Mass. "We have seen strong successes in warehouses and some in the military for situational awareness, with some adoption in health care and maintenance. But the big issue in the field is identifying appropriate applications."
Most wearables use speech for both input and output, he indicated. The reliability of speech recognition for input isn't a problem, because the voice software is "trained" to recognize a specific user, and the applications generally have vocabularies of less than 100 words, sources said.