On Monday, speech technology company Sensory will release software that allows true hands-free speech triggers for both the Android and Apple iOS operating systems, Sensory's chief executive said Friday.
Sensory will release its Truly Handsfree Trigger SDK for both platforms, allowing each device to constantly "listen" for voice commands.
The Sensory hands-free trigger is already being used in the Vlingo InCar app for Android phones, where users merely have to say "Hey Vlingo" for the app to wake up and interpret commands, such as navigation and search queries. (Vlingo then reads back actual answers to your queries, a function that Vlingo provides, not Sensory.)
One of Vlingo's selling points for the InCar app was that users didn't have to fumble about for a touch trigger before using the hands-free device. As Mozer noted, "hands-free" solutions, like Ford's Sync, require users to push a button to initiate a call.
"Speech is popular, but it's still controlled by touch," Mozer said. "If you watch their [the Sync] videos of hands-free devices, it all starts with a touch."
"We do think that in-car is the low-hanging fruit, and that there's an immediate desire for this," Mozer added. "But there's a lot of opprtunities for triggers in the home and in the home gaming market."
Mozer said that Sensory was working with a number of car manufacturers, but that he wasn't allowed to name who, nor when they would ship. "However, it's very fair to say that nothing will be built into a car this year," he said.
Because Google and Microsoft give away their speech-recognition SDKs for processing voice commands via the clouds, there are numerous opportunities for what Mozer called SCIDS: Speech-Controlled Internet Devices, in the home.
For example, Google and Logitech developed an Android remote-control application for the Logitech Revue and other Google TV devices that allows voice-controlled search. But it still requires navigating to the app to launch, plus a touch trigger. Google has also said that 25 percent of all Android-based searches are now done by voice.
The problem with enabling voice triggers on mobile devices, Mozer acknowledged, is that the need to constantly "listen" for the speech trigger can use up a device's battery at an advanced rate. Dedicated devices, such as the BlueAnt Bluetooth headset with Sensory trigger technology built in, can be optimized for low power, with the device operating in a quiescent, low-power mode as much as possible to optimize battery life. Current Android and Apple iPhones can't quite offer the same capability, Mozer said.
"Android's better than most OSes, where you can tune things and offer more system control," Mozer said. "You really do want to turn everything off - the screen, everything - except for the microphone... and a low-power DSP" to process the speech, he said.
"I'm not an app development expert, but none of our developers have come up with an app that's optimized for battery consumption," Mozer added.
It's possible, Mozer acknowledged, that Google could develop its own hands-free trigger. However, Sensory has been working on the technology for more than fifteen years, with some "extremely novel approaches," he said.
For that reason, Mozer said, Sensory recommends its speech trigger technology only be used on rechargeable devices or those that can be plugged into a wall or another fixed power source.
The Sensory Truly Handsfree Trigger SDK costs $2,500 and includes five hours of development support, Sensory said.
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