For years, people have wondered when they would be able to voice a command to a digital device, have it understand the query, and respond with some degree of intelligence. That day still isn't here, but speech-technology companies like Nuance are working on it.
On Tuesday, Nuance, maker of Dragon Naturally Speaking for the desktop, said that it has developed a prototype for voice search on Apple's iPhone. In August, the company plans to start selling a downloadable application for the iPhone that lets them speak a question to the phone to retrieve search results from Google or another search engine, according to Steve Chambers, Nuance's president of mobile and consumer services. Chambers said that Nuance hasn't set a price for the application yet.
The prototype, called open-voice search, demonstrates that with a click of a button, people can ask a question, such as "cholesterol of a cheeseburger?" to call up search results without typing on a keyboard. Nuance's application sends the audio file to the company's servers, transcribes it, and then sends it back to the phone's search box for results. Also, in the course of a person's use, Nuance will create a unique acoustical model that learns how that individual speaks. That way, it can deliver more accurate translations over time.
Up next: Nuance plans to tackle voice dictation for SMS, e-mail, and instant chat messages on the iPhone. And even further out would be voice commands for playing music or map directions.
To work well, that kind of iPhone search would require Apple to license the software--which is Nuance's ultimate goal. But there's no indication that the highly proprietary Apple would turn to an outsider for speech technology. One of these days we'll have speech-recognition software.
The next U.S. Air Force maverick may be talking to her plane instead of looking at its dash for updates.
The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, which the Air Force plans to roll out in 2008, will be the first U.S. fighter to respond to voice commands, the Air Force announced Wednesday.
F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.
(Credit: Department of Defense/Joint Strike Fighter Program Office)The Air Force Research Laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate has been working on the idea for some time, trying out different systems from a variety of companies.
After years of testing, it now has a speech-recognition system that works from a microphone within a pilot's oxygen mask in spite of loud ambient noise in the cockpit.
The DynaSpeak speech recognition software the Air Force decided to go with was developed by SRI International in conjunction with Adacel Systems. The system, which ties in to the plane's onboard computer, will be used to give commands for both communication and navigation. The requested data will then come up in the pilot's helmet display.
The advantage of voice recognition is that pilots will be able to stay focused on maneuvering their planes and not will not have to pause that focus to flip switches or press buttons to retrieve information, according to the Air Force.
Unlike many speech-recognition programs, the DynaSpeak system for the military requires no learning curve on the part of the system for a particular person's voice. Any pilot flying the F-35 could begin using it immediately.
The system was first tested in flight simulators in which data was collected on which words were optimal for commands.
The Warfighter Interface Division of the Human Effectiveness Directorate is now testing the system in real planes and collecting data on its accuracy to make sure it's ready for operational tests, evaluation and implementation in 2008.
Microsoft said Thursday it has closed its deal to buy voice recognition specialist Tellme Networks.
Tellme CEO Mike McCue remains at Microsoft as head of that unit, working with Zig Serafin, who is the general manager of Microsoft's Unified Communications Group. The company, which reports into Jeff Raikes' business software unit, is remaining in its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. Mountain View is also home to Microsoft's existing Silicon Valley offices.
Microsoft announced its plans to buy Tellme back in March, following months of negotiations and rumors and reports that a deal was near.
The deal could help Microsoft in a variety of areas, including mobile search, telephony and call center software. The fact that Tellme sells itself as a service, getting paid for each call its servers handle, as opposed to just selling software also may aid Microsoft in its efforts to expand into new business models.
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