Allow Drivers to Talk to Their XM Satellite Radios and Mobile Phones
IBM is seeking to capitalize on its considerable research efforts by disseminating its speech recognition, language translation and speech synthesis software to users and software makers in a variety of industries.
IBM Embedded ViaVoice Chosen by VoiceBox for Development of Conversational Voice-Enabled XM Satellite Radio and Johnson Controls for Applications in Mobile Devices for Cars
Although the company has many research irons in the fire at its Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., and at other facilities, Big Blue is reaching the breakthrough point in enabling cell phone users to use speech input to interact with Web-based resources, wedding Web services with speech technology.
We are putting speech technology into existing applications to give customers and cell phone user’s interaction with the Web, said Mike Nelson, director of on-demand business at IBM.
VoiceBox enables users to search and navigate information using conversational free form speech. VoiceBox then creates and executes intelligent searches by determining the intent of the user based on the context of the request. Whether users are searching for music and entertainment, asking for driving directions or making a phone call, VoiceBox and IBM’s combined technology will enable users to navigate and control information from mobile devices, accurately and intuitively with conversational dialogue.
IBM officials took the wraps off Embedded ViaVoice 4.4, which boasts what IBM calls "freeform command recognition," or the ability to understand the meaning of spoken words independent of strict word order using contextual algorithms. The company’s ViaVoice technology is based on some 300 patents the company holds in speech innovations as well as open standards such as Voice XML.
The first user of the VoiceBox platform with IBM Embedded ViaVoice is XM Satellite Radio, which offers 160 digital entertainment channels of commercial-free music and premier sports, news, talk and entertainment. The new application allows drivers to search and control XM channels raise and lower the volume or ask for traffic reports, stock quotes, sports and weather by simply talking to their XM radio.
VoiceBox chose IBM Embedded ViaVoice as its source for voice technology because of its proven quality and high performance on embedded platforms used in real world environments, said Mike Kennewick, chairman and CEO of VoiceBox technologies.
We are leveraging IBM’s leading voice-enabled telematics technology in additional markets including consumer electronics and service provider solutions, enterprise solutions, and set top box/digital media solutions, said Jim Holland, Product Line Manager Embedded Speech, IBM Software Group.
The combination of VoiceBox’s conversational voice-search capability and IBM’s Embedded ViaVoice telematics offering will provide consumers of products such as XM Satellite Radio with an unprecedented user experience. This type of experience is necessary to foster widespread adoption of speech driven applications.
IBM has an industry leading quality track record and we work closely with our customers to integrate our technology into their solutions. We view VoiceBox’s selection of IBM Embedded ViaVoice for the XM Satellite Radio solution to be an excellent example of what can be done when the technology from the right companies are combined to bring innovative solutions to the market.
The technology is expected to be made available to automakers and the aftermarket later this year.
At a showcase, IBM demonstrated 12 different applications. In one, a speech recognition system in an automobile dashboard took voice commands to control air conditioning and XM satellite radio dialing. Another system dialed a cell phone using a dashboard-based speech recognition system. IBM has a partnership with Honda to develop this technology and is trying to sell the technology to various automakers as well as to auto suppliers, like Johnson Controls.
While some similar systems are in place in automobiles today, the IBM work implements conversational speech—rather than obeying only specific pre-cast commands—and larger databases of information than current systems, said Igor Jablokov, program director of multimodal speech applications at IBM.
Mike Kennewick, CEO of VoiceBox Technologies, in Kirkland Wash., said his company is using Embedded ViaVoice technology to build conversational voice search applications to deliver digital content to mobile users.
In a partnership with XM satellite radio, VoiceBox has developed a speech-recognition application that will let a driver talk to his or her satellite radio set to switch stations or ask for stock quotes or sports scores, he said.
Johnson Controls and VoiceBox Enter Agreement
In addition, Johnson Controls, Inc., and VoiceBox recently entered a multiyear deal to provide VoiceBox Navigator’s conversational voice search and retrieval features using IBM Embedded ViaVoice on Johnson Controls’ BlueConnect wireless mobile device gateway to the automotive market. The telematics voice search capabilities include Bluetooth, hands-free dialing and in-vehicle music navigation.
The companies’ telematics offering will leverage technologies within IBM Embedded ViaVoice and VoiceBox’s Navigator Platform. IBM Embedded ViaVoice provides highly accurate and reliable speech recognition, while VoiceBox enables conversational search and navigation of media and other digital content from devices used in the car, home or mobile phone.
VoiceBox’s voice search capabilities will enable our customers to optimize the use of Johnson Controls’ BlueConnect technology by offering a more intuitive user interface, said Jim Geschke, vice president and general manager of electronics, North America for Johnson Controls.
VoiceBox Navigator is based on its Knowledge Enhanced Search and Speech Recognition algorithms that are designed to determine context and intent from conversational speech and its voice search engine that dynamically creates and executes context driven searches.
We selected VoiceBox after extensive testing because of its distinct, accurate and reliable voice user interface platform that allows users to speak in a natural informal way when operating in-vehicle devices such as navigation and music management, particularly in noisy car cabin environments.
VoiceBox is also working with Toyota to embed the technology in Toyota vehicles, although the car maker has not said when and in what models it will be available.