Ask Ziggy is the Windows Phone answer to Siri. It’s a virtual voice-powered assistant that can change feet to yards, offer you stock quotes, and answer life’s most difficult questions. And today, the company announced that they have received a brand new $ 5 million round of funding from “a publicly traded multinational corporation” whose name has not been disclosed.
Ask Ziggy plans to expand beyond Windows Phone with the money, with hopes to launch on all Android, Apple, and Microsoft devices by Q3 2012. That’s a relatively short time frame considering the fact that Ask Ziggy is only currently available on Windows Phone.
Ask Ziggy is working closely with Nuance, also known for their voice transcription services (among other things), to bring this dream to fruition. The company has also added new strategic partners, including the Kopin Corporation and it’s Golden-i program. Golden-i devices are meant to recognize normal methods of input, such as touch, keystrokes, etc. but can also understand voice input.
“Our product relationship with Ask Ziggy will intensify over the next few months,” said Jeffrey J. Jacobsen, Golden-i Program manager at Kopin. “Combining Ziggy’s 22-language Cloud-based Natural Speech search engine with Golden-i’s world-class embedded real-time speech and gesture interface will rapidly transform ‘Siri’ class speech recognition from merely amusing into a fast, accurate, professional-grade access to information, and entirely ‘Hands-Free.’”
Jacobsen went on to say that Ask Ziggy’s cloud-based platform is the best way to expand Golden-i.
With $5 million in funding, Ask Ziggy not only plans to expand to new platforms, but will soon release an SDK to developers who want to leverage the voice-powered assistant.
Kopin Corporation’s voice-activated, wireless, hands-free Golden-i® mobile computing headsets, power-efficient, ultra-small liquid crystal displays, and heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) are revolutionizing the way people around the world see, hear and communicate. Kopin has shipped more than 30 million displays for a range of consumer and military applications including digital cameras, personal video eyewear, camcorders, thermal weapon sights and night vision systems. The innovative Golden-i computing headsets are generating strong interest in industrial, medical, military, homeland security and utility applications....
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