Amazon today announced that it is acquiring Ivona Software, a Polish-based specialist in voice technologies that competes with Nuance and is already used in the Kindle Fire for services covering text-to-speech, voice commands and “Explore by Touch.” The terms of the deal were not disclosed. → Read More
TechCrunch has received a copy of a memo indicating that Nuance, the speech and natural language technology giant that also powers Apple’s Siri voice assistant, has made another acquisition: VirtuOz, a developer of intelligent virtual assistant services for online sales, marketing and support — dubbed “Siri for the enterprise” — that was founded in France and is now co-headquartered in the Bay… → Read More
At TEDx Edinburgh today, the BBC reports, mathematician Max Little has launched a new project that uses a speaker’s voice to help diagnose Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s, a devastating progressive neurological disease that develops very gradually and often starts with a very slight tremor in one hand, is notoriously hard to diagnose as there are currently no blood tests that can help doctors… → Read More
Looks like Apple might be loosening its grip even more on voice recognition apps? Or, it simply just feels that the competition is not as good as its own native Siri. We’ve just gotten word from Netherlands-based developer Sparkling Apps that its voice-response app, Voice Answer — rejected by Apple for nearly three months — has been approved by Apple and is now live in the App Store, and usable… → Read More
Android users finally have a way to show up their iPhone-toting, Siri-using counterparts. With Sonalight Text by Voice, a new Y Combinator-backed startup, you can perform entirely hands-free texting. And by hands-free, I mean you don’t have to push a button, tap the screen, or perform any other actions that would require you to take your hands off the wheel. Yes, that’s right – Sonalight is… → Read More
Android was doing voice recognition for a long time before Siri came around, but the truth is Apple’s implementation of voice commands made Google’s look limited and out of date. And that hasn’t changed in the last few months, despite a few Siri-like apps that have attempted to cash in on the “talking at your phone” craze.
This app, called Utter!, is the first one that actually makes voice… → Read More
Japan’s telecommunications behemoth NTT is working on a device that can transcribe discussions in meetings automatically and in real-time. Japanese daily The Nikkei is reporting that the current prototype features two cameras with fish-eye lenses and eight microphones to capture what is being said and detect who is speaking. → Read More
Outdated? OKI and a group of researchers of Waseda University in Tokyo have developed a device that is able to extract a person’s voice from a mix of background noise and other persons’ voices. The new voice-extraction technology is combined with a voice-recognition system that makes it possible to control appliances via spoken commands. The prototype (which there are no photos of, I… → Read More
I wonder how well it actually works. We’ll find out sometime today. → Read More
I know there have been things like this before, but this one actually looks like a really well-designed little device. The Moshi IVR alarm clock (caution, autoplaying music) is a good-looking little… you know, alarm clock, that has the benefit of voice controls that let you do everything from set the alarm to play a “sleep sound” — whatever that is. That’s a good idea… → Read More
AT&T has been working on a research project based on the WATSON speech recognition engine. The project, named Speech Mashups, is a web service that is only activated when the iPhone (or any other modern phone) connects to it. So that means that the actual voice recognition is happening on a remote server and not the phone itself; there is no need to install a plug-in or any other software on… → Read More
Hitachi showcased the latest version of EMIEW2, their two-wheeled robot, at the Hitachi uValue Convention 2008 [JP], the company’s annual private exhibition. EMIEW2′s biggest selling point is an array of 14 microphones integrated into its head. The robot is able to tell the difference between three human voices simultaneously. Hitachi developed a voice recognition technology that is… → Read More
Picture this; after a long night out full of white wine spritzers and Apple Pucker, the last thing you want to do is lift up your arm to hit the snooze button. It’d be much easier to yell “STOP!” while face-down in a puddle of your own drool, am I right? Luckily, this “voice interactive” alarm clock from Hammacher Schlemmer oughta do the trick. It responds to 10 voice commands, such as… → Read More
Oh boy, I gotta see this. Sprint’s offering its new “WebCapTel” service to people who don’t have trouble speaking but might be a little hard of hearing. The basic idea is pretty simple. You sign up for the service and register your phone number at SprintCapTel.com and when someone calls you, you can log into the site and have what they’re saying automatically… → Read More
Oliver at MobileCrunch and Mike at TC got to test out the latest version of TellMe, a voice-enabled search service that lets you tell a robot what you’re looking for. The robot then sends you a map, if necessary, and lets you call the locaation or SMS directions to friends. TellMe requires a tiny standalone app for the mapping and it seems to be free right now, so it’s a considerable… → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
