MacSpeech, Inc. Launches MacSpeech Dictate Medical

MacSpeech, Inc. today announced the release and immediate availability of MacSpeech Dictate Medical, the medical professional's speech recognition solution for the Macintosh.

Designed specifically for the medical and dental professional and their support staff, MacSpeech Dictate Medical empowers dictating text directly into applications and practice management systems, and issuing numerous commands by voice, on the Macintosh. MacSpeech Dictate Medical includes a digitally enhanced, USB headset microphone.

Korean scientists develop voice control system for PVRs and Video On Demand

Soon you may not need that remote control to find and play TV shows recorded on your favourite PVR.

South Korean scientists have a developed an innovative speech control system, which allows users to search for programmes and navigate menus with voice commands rather than words.

SKorea's state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has developed speech recognition software which allows the set to recognise TV shows, actors and other metadata as vocal commands, with 92 per cent accuracy. Viewers might soon be able to request VOD movies simply by asking their set top box for the show of their choice.

A lexicon database of more than 500,000 words can be stored in a set top box. The first user trials will begin later this year.

Microphone picks up pillow talk

A pillow which uses speech recognition software to record people's worries when they cannot get to sleep has been invented by an Edinburgh student. The sleep microphone, which was created by Edinburgh Napier University student, Nekani Guezala, 23, has been unveiled at a special exhibition in Edinburgh.

Yap Announces Release of iPhone SDK

Yap, developer of the world’s first fully automated speech-to-text hosted platform for communications service providers, today announced the availability of its Software Development Kit (SDK) for the speech-enablement of iPhone applications. The Yap SDK for the iPhone gives developers a simple interface to rapidly voice-enable existing mobile applications such as email, instant/text messaging, search, social networking, voicemail-to-text and others

Sensory Announces 'Truly Hands-Free,' the First Always-On, Always-Listening Voice Control for Bluetooth Devices

Sensory Inc., has announced Truly Hands-Free, a significant enhancement to the BlueGenie Voice Interface, the leading voice control and speech output solution on Bluetooth headsets. For the first time, Bluetooth devices -- including headsets, car kits and stereo headphones -- will benefit from a hands-free trigger or phrase spotting technology. With Truly Hands-Free, the BlueGenie Voice Interface is always listening and virtually impervious to background noise so the user can initiate functions without using even one button trigger.

Study: TV can impair speech development of young children

A new study adds to the debate over whether television impairs children's language development.It found that parents and children virtually stop talking to each other when the TV is on, even if they're in the same room.

For every hour in front of the TV, parents spoke 770 fewer words to children, according to a study of 329 children, ages 2 months to 4 years, in the June issue ofArchives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.Adults usually speak about 941 words an hour.

Christakis and his colleagues fitted children with digital devices that recorded everything they heard or said one day a month for an average of six months. A speech-recognition program, which could differentiate TV content from human voices, compared the number of words exchanged when televisions were on or off.

Microsoft Debuts Full-Body Controller-less Gaming At E3

At today’s Electronic Entertainment Expo press briefing, Microsoft unveiled Project Natal, a technology that eliminates the controller from gaming on the Xbox 360. In one demo, a player used her arms and legs to hit balls in an attempt to destroy a brick wall, and in another game, an employee threw virtual “paint” on a canvas to create a painting, even drawing an elephant using a silhouette feature. An accompanying video also demonstrated automatic login using facial recognition, videoconferencing with other Xbox Live members, and participating in a gameshow against another family through the Internet using speech recognition.

Twitter to Facebook: 5 Ways to Post to Both (1 way with speech)

There are times when we’d really like to phone in our Twitter and Facebook updates with little to no effort. Vlingo’s mobile application for Nokia, BlackBerry, and iPhone does speech recognition for a variety of functions, but we love it for status updates.

Once your Facebook and Twitter accounts are configured, you can hit the “press + speak” button and say the “status update” command to start verbalizing your update. Vlingo will then transcribe your audio to text and update your status on Facebook and Twitter. We also really like the fact that you can double check the speech to text translation before you update your social presence.

Mobile Speech Applications Market Set To Triple By 2014

Speech recognition software is expected to increase considerably in the next 5 years as today’s world becomes even more fast-paced.

As part of their latest report, independent data analyst Datamonitor has forecasted that the global market for advanced speech recognition (ASR) technology in mobile devices is set to triple to $99.6 million by 2014 from the current $32.7 million and that ASR in-vehicle telematics will also grow to $208.2 million from the current $64.3 million.

Mobile speech applications allow users to voice-control the operation of a device. Speech applications are also widely made use of in voice-based search for voice-dialing and voice input, where a user can vocally upload data. Also, the increasing trend towards restrictions placed on operating mobile devices while driving is expected to contribute to a growth in the speech recognition software market.

Globally, several nations, including 15 states in the U.S., have come forward to enact legislation that restricts the use of handsets while operating vehicles. Most of these legislations permit the use of hands free devices as an alternative and telecom carriers have been promoting command and control and SMS based services to combat theses restrictions.

In-Vehicle Telematics also make use of ASR and text-to-speech technologies, commonly to input addresses, manage music playlists, read out addresses and more. With an increasing number of devices using network based ASRs, recognition rates have also improved.  In addition to this, the popularity of application stores have allowed feasible options to emerge for smaller operators who can now reach out to the market and provide innovative solutions.

ARM Based TI Chip Drives Headset So You Can Forget A Laptop

The days of lugging a laptop around may be over, thanks to Kopin Corporation’s Golden-i - a lightweight Bluetooth headset providing a 15 inch virtual display with hands free speech recognition, which is driven by an OMAP3 dual processor platform from Texas Instruments.

The three ounce device uses natural speech recognition for wireless remote control over an array of host devices from cell phones and PCs to company networks and wireless systems. Golden-I accepts conventional user interface from any host device touch screen, keyboard or wireless mouse.
Golden-i provides hands-free spontaneous access to all digital information, broadcast programming and Internet services, including real-time, full-color D-1 high resolution (720 x 480p x 30 fps) streaming video over industry standard Bluetooth 2.0 which was developed in partnership with BlueRadios, Inc., the company said.

Running the 32-bit native, componentized, hard real-time Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 operating system, Golden-i is capable of remotely waking a PC from practically any location. After Golden-i establishes a Bluetooth, WiFi or cellular link through a host device, users will see their PC desktop screen on a 15-inch virtual display, offering full hands-free access to all PC applications, data files and services. When work is finished, the PC can be placed in hibernation with a single spoken command. With Golden-i, users will no longer need to carry a PC or laptop everywhere they go.