Sensory Announces New Time-Setting Technology

/


Sensory, Inc. has announced an update to its FluentChip(TM) firmware. FluentChip v3.1 includes TimeSet(TM), a technology that allows any RSC-4x enabled device with a clock to have its time set using natural spoken phrases. Sensory's
low-cost RSC-4x chips already make millions of consumer electronics devices more intelligent by enabling them to talk and hear with speech synthesis, voice recognition, and other advanced audio and interactive technologies. Now, the RSC-4x chips can even eliminate the confusing manner in which digital clocks are programmed. [click heading for more]

Do we need natural language?

/

So, do we need natural language? If speech recognition is a tool--like a keyboard--and if we can build useful applications based on the recognition of a few words, why do we need sophisticated natural language understanding? The reason why we need natural language is that it is not always possible to get away with keywords. [click heading for more]

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]

Don't be so emotional

/


AN Australian music expert believes voice recognition systems need to tune into our emotions to better understand what we're asking for. Dr Schubert, who is chairing the inaugural International Conference on Music Communication Science being held in Sydney, believes the secret to developing a better voice recognition system may lie in music. [click heading for more]

Nortel to Resell VoiceObjects Phone Application Server Software

/

VoiceObjects and Nortel announced today that Nortel has become a worldwide reseller of the award-winning VoiceObjects phone application server software suite and associated VoiceObjects services. The suite includes the VoiceObjects Server phone application server, the VoiceObjects Analyzer drill-down analytics tool, and the VoiceObjects Desktop service creation environment. [click heading for more]

Envox Powers Apptera's Speech-Enabled, VoiceXML-Based 'In-Call' Solutions

/

Apptera, a provider of technology for mobile advertising, search & commerce, has selected Envox OnDemand to power its "In-Call" solutions. Apptera will reportedly move its existing "In-Call" customers to Envox OnDemand and will use the solution for all of its customers in the future. Apptera's services are provided In-Call, at the exact moment a customer is interacting with a business over the phone, and are popular with companies that want to monetize their call traffic and automate many of the routine tasks of managing customer requests for information and order processing. All these Apptera's In-Call solutions are now available on Envox OnDemand. [click heading for more]

Voice mail re-emerges with a new relevance as text or e-mail

/


With the rise of e-mail and instant text messaging, the communications workhorse of the past 30 years - voice mail - is finding itself increasingly unloved and avoided.
But new speech-recognition and transcription services are laying the foundation for a revival of voice mail, helping it become as immediate, manageable and storable as its text counterparts. Companies like SpinVox, SimulScribe and CallWave are connecting traditional voice mail in-boxes to back-end servers that analyze and transcribe messages before returning them to users within minutes in the form of text messages or e-mails. [click heading for more]

Eleven strategies to ensure that you're hearing your customers loud and clear.

/

Few customer-care technologies have a more compelling ability to trigger a radical shift in both customer experience and contact center operating costs than interactive voice response (IVR) systems. IVRs with the ability to recognize human speech -- commonly known as speech-enabled IVRs -- pick up where their touch-tone or dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF) counterparts leave off. But just because customers can talk to the application doesn't mean it's a panacea to prevent their frustration. In fact, the design of the system is even more important when speech technologies come into play, and voice user interface (VUI) design continues to serve as a main hindrance to stronger satisfaction rates. [click heading for more]

Ford offers natter-interface car software in Europe

/

Ford will offer voice-operated controls on its European models, using software provided by Nuance, it was announced yesterday.
Nuance, which merged with ScanSoft in 2005, offers a range of voice-control and text-to-speech solutions. The company's VoCon® speech recognition and RealSpeak™ text-to-Speech platforms are being integrated into the Blaupunkt human-machine interface electronics (HMI). [click heading for more]