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MicroOS in layman's terms (i dn write this/done by Tinroad?):
Electronic machines understand only one thing and that's electric pulse 'on' and electric pulse 'off'. That's called 'machine language' and is digitally represented by 0s and 1s. When one presses an alphanumeric key, it sends a set of 0s and 1s to a next level operating system (like DOS) which gives a command to the machine to do an action (such as print a letter to the monitor).
The next layer of operating system runs on top of DOS and makes things more user friendly, such as Windows, CE or Mac OS, which are graphical user interfaces (icon representation). These are what the general public thinks of as operating systems. These systems have become quite bulky, and in their complexity create many conflicts with the vast number of applications available today.
Enter a new operating system: Edig's Micro OS which is directly compatible with MS-DOS. Micro OS is written in a programming language called 'C' that is highly flexible and already widely used for text, image and voice applications. Its compact size (about 6Kbytes) makes it ideal for handheld devices, which may include music players, still/video cameras, telephony, etc. Its duty, if you will, is to act as a flexible general file management system. It is particulary well-suited for the smaller footprint storage products such as flash memory and microdisks, but is fully capable for standard IDE hard drives as well, and also is not limited in the number or files it can manage (a drawback inherent in DOS).
The emerging products, for this example, will use a flash memory chip (about the size of a postage stamp) for storage. One flash chip can be used for multiple purposes... just like a floppy disk can be used for a computer and a Sony Mavica camera. This chip, which is re-writeable, will need an operating system that can function with voice, image, text and so on in a universal, flexible way and that can also support other TASK SPECIFIC operating systems.
This is where systems like Jini or Epoc (etc.) operating systems come in. These systems can be layered with the base file management operating system (such as our multi-patented Micro OS). They are not competitors.
Digital signal processors (DSPs) are like railroad switching stations that relay varied signals, for example directing voice to one channel, streaming images to another and so on. The DSPs are especially worth looking at when speed enhancements are announced. A noteworthy new DSP from Texas Instruments is reprogrammable via software, to allow it to adapt to evolving systems for file compression and encryption.
In summary, there are hundreds, thousands of integral layers which make up the complex products for the electronic markets of today. Most are based on old and slow, bulky systems. What is emerging are lean & mean wireless machines, capable of multi-tasking at far greater rates which require a flexible file management operating system.
MicroOSTM - Micro Operating System - e.Digital's proprietary MicroOS is extremely compact, full-featured and highly customizable embedded operating system designed specifically for portable digital devices. MicroOS manages data files as well as codecs, integrates security systems for content protection and handles uploading and downloading files to PCs. Important features include:
Power and memory conservation - eliminates the need for a high-powered CPU by paring down all code to run efficiently on a low-cost microcontroller preserving valuable memory for other applications.
Extends Flash memory capabilities - Memory management transparently deals with bad blocks, erase blocks, wear leveling and is independent of data and erase block sizes.
Advanced editing features - insert and delete allows editing of files by inserting material at any point without erasing what follows, and deleting of selected portions of a file without spaces, blanks, or silences being left behind.
MicroOS is applicable to any product that utilizes flash memory or rotating media as its primary storage medium including:
Voice Recorders
One and two way voice pagers
Digital cameras
Cellular phones
Portable Internet music players
Handheld PCs
Set-top boxes
Kiosks
EDIG's MICRO-OS OVERVIEW
Note that Fred Falk states that EDIG's MircoOS can also be used to store video images in items such as digital cameras.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
E.DIGITAL RECEIVES PATENT
FOR MicroOS™ FLASH MEMORY FILE SYSTEM
MicroOS Supports IBM's New Microdrive Technology
SAN DIEGO, September 14, 1998---E.Digital (OTC: EDIG) announced that it has received the third in a series of patents protecting its core technology. United States Pat. No. 5,787,445 covers the MicroOS™, a file system devised by the Company that improves file management in devices utilizing flash memory. In addition to flash memory compatibility, the MicroOS contains built-in support for IDE hard disks and is fully MS-DOS compatible.
"This patent protects some of our most important intellectual property," stated Fred Falk, President and CEO. "MicroOS is poised for inclusion in a number of devices, such as increasingly-popular digital voice recorders, solid state music players and digital cameras."
Mr. Falk continued, "In addition, the recent introduction of IBM's 340MB capacity 'microdrive' technology permits inexpensive development of compact music and video recorders. MicroOS has been ready for the portable digital music and video explosion for some time, but was limited by the relatively high expense and low capacities available in portable devices. We see
great potential for our MicroOS to be part of a new generation of powerful video and music products based on IBM's microdrive technology."
EDIG's MicroOS stores and manipulates compressed voice, image, text, graphic or video files. The highly compacted and optimized C code delivers high performance for manipulating large amounts of digital data even in the smallest applications, and it can support an unlimited number of files, directories, and subdirectories.
E.Digital is the internationally recognized innovator in utilizing flash memory for digital voice, audio, image, video and data recording, storage, computer interface and playback. E.Digital specializes in computer-compatible OEM products utilizing its patented MicroOS™ flash memory management system. E.Digital licenses its technology for use in OEM products
and performs custom OEM development and manufacturing.
EDIG BROCHURE:
Digital technology converges at e.Digital
The convergence of Internet, wireless and digital content technologies is causing an explosion in demand for consumer electronic devices that are portable, powerful and connected. Voice, music, video, photography and text applications combined with Internet services are creating entirely new categories of products. As consumers embrace the digital lifestyle, demand for innovative, portable devices is soaring and manufacturers have an urgent need to accelerate product development cycles in order to stay ahead of the competition in the fast-changing digital marketplace. e.Digital™ offers comprehensive engineering services, technology licensing and private labeled products designed to keep you well ahead of the curve.
e.Digital provides original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with comprehensive product development services for the next generation of digital devices. Our core competencies in embedded operating systems, digital signal processing, removable recording media and wireless communication protocols such as Bluetooth, along with hardware, firmware and software customization, help OEMs develop innovative digital products.
To help you bring products to market faster, we design, engineer and manufacture complete hardware, firmware and software solutions for private labeling.
Fast-tracking time-to-market cycles
e.Digital offers an integrated package of expert, specialized digital product development services
and technologies designed to accelerate time-to-market cycles.
Turnkey Product Development: Design, develop, manufacture and test products using e.Digital
technologies, industry standards or your proprietary technology.
Custom Software Development: PC software including portable device interface development for user uploading and downloading of data and/or firmware.
Custom Firmware Development: Embedded signal processing and file management firmware with features for user upgrading.
Custom Hardware Development: Mechanical and electrical engineering, PCB design, electronic packaging design, industrial design services.
Manufacturing Management: Relationships with ISO-certified manufacturing and assembly facilities in the U.S., Malaysia, Singapore and Korea. Our services include technology transfer, manufacturing supervision, documentation and quality control.
Licensing of Third-Party Technology: Facilitation of licensing of third-party technologies includ-ing
Digital Rights Management systems, music and voice codecs, as well as music players and audio managers.
Technologies ready for integration
e.Digital has developed a suite of proprietary digital technologies that you can leverage in your
product development program. These technologies are fully developed and ready for integration into
the next generation of portable digital audio, video and imaging products.
MicroOS™ – Micro Operating System: Extremely compact, full-featured and highly customizable embedded operating system designed specifically for portable digital devices. MicroOS manages data files as well as codecs, integrates security systems for content protection and handles uploading and downloading files to PCs.
MicroCAM™ – Micro Compressed Audio Manager: Embedded software enabling portable units to transparently manage multiple audio compression and decompression formats in a single device.
AMIS™ – Audio Manager Interface Software: PC driver for interfacing portable devices to various PC-based song managers.
TWIRL™ – Two-Way Infrared Link: Embedded firmware for bi-directional data transfer using high-speed infrared.
Building your digital future with e.Digital
technology platforms and reference products
At e.Digital, we help you stay ahead of the curve by anticipating market and technology trends.
We license both technology platforms and reference products to OEMs around the world.
Optimize your product development cycle by leveraging any combination of e.Digital’s technology, prod-uct
or service offerings. e.Digital technology platforms bring together customizable chip sets, PCBs, firmware and software for digital products such as audio players and video players. Reference products are more fully
developed, integrating e.Digital technology plat-forms with customizable feature sets, electronics packaging and even industrial design. Here are just some of the digital product categories we are developing solutions for:
Digital music players and jukeboxes featuring high-quality audio, multi-codec capabilities
and removable storage including: CompactFlash, Secure Digital Card, MMCard, Microdrive, PocketZip and DataPlay digital media.
E-book and multimedia tablet platforms combining music, video, text and voice storage, and play-back
functionality with larger displays.
Digital voice recorders with advanced digital features and infrared, cable or docking station PC connections.
Digital imaging including still and video integrated with audio in handheld products.
Cell phone audio components for recording and playback of voice and/or music files.
Set top boxes for real time streaming or downloading of digital music in Internet formats.
In-dash car audio systems for recording and playback of Internet music formats.
In-store kiosks for recording personal mix of digital music onto removable media.
And there are more developments every day. Please visit our website to find out how e.Digital can help you fast track your digital product development cycle.
MicroOS 9/19/00
We are focused on our efforts to make e.Digital and MicroOS standards in the Internet download devices industry. MicroOS is increasingly recognized as a robust, compact, flexible basis for a number of portable digital devices. It supports any type of data including text, voice, full-motion video, still images, or music, and is compatible with a variety of popular removable storage media including CompactFlash, SD Card, Multimedia Card, IBM's Microdrive, and DataPlay's rotating media. We are integrating rotating media into portable devices to take advantage of their larger storage capacities and lower costs relative to Flash memory. We still believe the future holds many applications for Flash memory in portable devices, but we foresee a market quickly emerging for less expensive, removable, rotating media and have already incorporated several into our designs as options for our licensees and OEM customers. Our early involvement with new storage media such as IBM's Microdrive and DataPlay is one of the reasons OEM customers are attracted to our state-of-the-art product design services.
Corporate Positioning
Because of the industries connected with our technology and services: digital dictation products; DSPs; digital music players; cell phones; automotive and home stereo components; set-top boxes; voice recognition products; Flash memory; and rotating storage media, we have created and maintain significant partnerships and relationships with industry giants in a variety of sectors. In many cases these companies are the source of referrals and OEM business.
The world of consumer electronics is being revolutionized, and we are proud of the leadership position we have achieved. We are recognized as innovators and we continue to focus on strengthening our reputation for creativity, innovation, and reliability in the OEM market for portable digital devices and engineering design services.
Internet Music Industry
Many of the developments we anticipated in the Internet music industry are becoming reality. Readily-available, secure music content is the key to moving this industry forward, and the news is filled with encouraging developments from the major record labels. Better quality music codecs, advanced security, and online distribution channels are currently emerging, creating a legitimate online music market and increasing consumer awareness and demand for Internet music players. Multiple OEM opportunities have come before us, and we are currently in various stages of integrating our technology into set-top boxes, cell phones, cell phone accessories, pocket-size players, digital jukeboxes, automotive stereo products, home stereo components, PC peripherals, and portable, stand-alone music players.
Regardless of the outcomes of well-publicized music Additions to Board of Directors
Summary
The past year has been extraordinary for your company. The capabilities, adaptability, and dedication of our employees and our board have positioned e.Digital for success. We continue to add to our board, management, and staff, individuals who contribute their leadership, talents, and skills to meeting our goals as a company, and ultimately contribute to shareholder value. Advances in Internet technology and portable device markets make us more certain than ever that our contributions in portable technology and design, integration, and connectivity will be well rewarded financially.
We look forward with great anticipation and excitement to sharing more about our relationships, revenues, products, and expected contracts before, during, and after this year's Shareholder Meeting.
Sincerely,
Alfred H. Falk
President and CEO
MOS 1/31/00
Through our participation in the recording industry's Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) over the last year, and our membership in IBM's VoiceTIMES alliance, e.Digital is helping build the foundation for the portable Internet devices industry. Different beneficial technologies are converging in ever-more-compact portable devices. Compatibility between future products is insured when standards are set and agreed to in the development stage. These portable devices will include Flash memory and IBM MicrodriveTM technology as the storage media. Our MicroOS file management system supplies the intelligence inside this new generation of digital products.
Through our patented MicroOS technology, we enable the convergence of multiple standards and technologies into small, powerful, hand-held devices. We offer our OEM customers and licensees a full menu of options. We work with--and plan to continue working with--the companies and organizations that set these standards.
We are also a full service OEM technology provider with the capability to incorporate our technology, perform the Industrial Design, and oversee manufacturing of the finished, OEM-branded product.
MicroOSTM
When flash memory became available for data storage several years ago, it was primarily used as backup memory. Data or code written to flash was WORM (write once, read many), difficult to edit, erase, or write data. In 1995, e.Digital was the first company to create and market a voice recorder using removable flash memory, a product that was later branded and sold by Sanyo. Out of these efforts, we developed a proprietary flash file management system named MicroOSTM that is the basis of our designs to this day. MicroOS is protected by four patents containing dozens of claims. All of these patents and their rights are the exclusive property of e.Digital.
MicroOS simplifies the design of products that use flash memory to store voice, image, text, or full-motion video files in portable devices. It also enables the portable devices we develop to easily exchange information with desktop computers, and through desktops, with intranets and the Internet. According to Semico Research, the global growth of flash memory devices will grow from sales of $4 billion in 1999 to sales of $8.5 billion in 2001.
MicroOS is a pure software flash file management system that is compact yet robust, and incorporates such features as:
Wear leveling - dictates use of cells within the flash to prevent uneven wear
Power management - important in portable, battery-powered devices
User interface - enables record, edit, insert, delete, play, fast forward and rewind functions with an intuitive command set
Bad block management - enables use of flash even if sectors become unusable
Portable device companies and consumer electronics companies recognize the importance of having an effective and robust flash file management system that enables all of these functions to take place in microseconds, while remaining transparent to the end user. MicroOS is proven effective and is extremely well suited for use in portable devices where physical space, cost, and memory are at a premium, but where maximum flexibility and functionality are a must.
Flash Memory 6/27/00
Much of our development over the last several years has focused on portable products using Flash memory. MicroOSTM, our patented, proprietary Flash file management system, is extremely well suited for use in portable products that store data on removable or embedded Flash memory. This year's Flash memory market is estimated to be worth $10 billion, according to Alan Niebel, Managing Director of market research firm Web-Feet Research, Inc., more than double last year's total of $4.6 billion. It will swell again in 2001 to $15 billion.
Flash memory is so popular, in fact, that short-term shortages have arisen. To meet these shortages, Flash manufacturers are investing billions to increase manufacturing capacity to help meet demand. Product designers are also seeking alternatives to Flash, utilizing small-form-factor rotating media such as Microdrive, DataPlay, and Clik!, that can fill the same niche. Our MicroOS file management system is capable of supporting any ATA/IDE/ATAPI-compatible memory including rotating media. After building Microdrive compatibility into our portable Internet music player offerings, we continue working to make our portable product designs compatible with other rotating storage technologies that we believe can be successfully integrated into new products. We believe that Microdrive and other mechanical storage media are the best suited for large-capacity downloads such as video until Flash memory capacities increase.The Future
Voice Technology Industry
Speech is the most natural way to interface with computers and portable products. In the future, keyboards and pen-based data entry systems will go away in favor of voice recognition and spoken data input. We continue to be more and more active in this industry. Through our membership in the VoiceTIMES Initiative, we are helping build the infrastructure and set standards for the voice technology market. Recent activities by the larger voice technology companies-Lernout & Hauspie's recent acquisitions of Dictaphone and Dragon Systems and IBM's strong positioning with their ViaVoice product line-indicate that the voice technology industry is beginning a strong period of growth. Cahners-InStat estimates that the voice technology market will reach $30 billion in the United States by 2006. Because of our pioneering role in developing portable digital voice recorders, our patented technologies including MicroOS, and our early work integrating portable voice recorders with the PC and the Internet, we believe we are well positioned to participate in this market as an OEM technology innovator and integrator.
E-Books
By 2004, 91 million consumers are expected to embrace personalized digital audio content, defined by Forrester Research as music, news, information, and spoken word delivered anytime, anywhere. E-books, customized newspapers, spoken news, or other information will begin emerging in new markets. In MicroOS, we already have a system in place that supports all types of data in portable devices, including voice, images, music, video, and text. Portable devices, improved wireless bandwidth, and Internet-enabled car radios are expected to push self-serve audio adoption to 118 million people, or 41% of US consumers, by 2005. (Forrester Research.)
Embedded Applications for Portable Devices
We are working with major manufacturers to have our technology embedded into their programmable DSPs and/or microcontrollers. The market for chips for function-specific devices (which includes but is not limited to DSPs) was estimated at $6.3 billion last year (1999) and is expected to grow to $18.8 billion by the year 2003, according to Forward Concepts Co. of Tempe, Arizona. Our MicroOS file management system can be incorporated seamlessly into Flash memory, DSPs and/or microcontrollers, offering increased efficiency and a compact, yet full-featured, flexible, real time operating system for a variety of portable devices. This combination can speed the development of consumer products such as smart phones, palmtop computers, handheld digital music players, e-book playback devices, and various wireless Internet access devices.
We continue to focus on portable digital devices that integrate with the PC and the Internet. It is our goal to become a standard in the digital download environment. As we are successful and our OEMs are successful, our technology could be the engine that drives millions of digital download devices over the next several years.
Wireless Industry Explosion
The next revolution in the information-based economy is the development and deployment of new wireless products that communicate with the Internet-giving users updated, personally-selected information-and communicate with each other-creating constantly shifting personal area networks. We continue to upgrade and modify MicroOS so that the technologies we have developed will work in a wireless environment with standard and emerging communications protocols such as Bluetooth, WAP (Wireless Access Protocol), CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access), TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), GSM (Global Standard for Mobile Communications), iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network), HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data), and the 3G ("Third Generation") wireless platform. International Data Corporation, a market research firm, estimates that nearly 62 million people will use wireless devices to access the Internet by 2003-an increase of about 728 percent over current levels.
We believe that over the next two to three years we will see a tremendous explosion of available digital content and portable devices to support it. We are working on developments surrounding e-books, video, and other types of content as the pace quickens for convergence in portable devices. We are working with, and expect to continue working with, a number of OEM customers in the digital music and voice industries. Bandwidth and content are becoming more available, with data transmission rates expected to improve over the next few years to allow transmission, recording, and playback of video images and other large-capacity data files over wireless digital networks. This is vital to developing new markets, and portable digital download devices will be key to customers' ability to capture, use and play back the critical, up-to-the-minute information they need. We are working to support all the other major technologies that are emerging from worldwide technology leaders who share our belief that digital download devices will become an essential ingredient of the New Economy.
Voice Recording Technology 3/14/00
In addition to an Internet music player design, e.Digital has portable voice recording technology which we license to OEM customers for business and dictation use. Developments in the speech technology industry continue to open doors for us. Advances in voice-to-text programs and voice command recognition programs from third parties (such as IBM, Lernout & Hauspie, and Dragon Systems) make new product categories possible. Powerful systems connected to phone lines and/or PC's, formerly the exclusive territory of huge conglomerates, are becoming more accessible to smaller businesses and individuals. Our portable digital voice recording technology is capable of interacting with these systems so that consumers do not have to be out of touch with their desktop speech technology even when they are away from their desks.
As illustrated by Lernout & Hauspie's recent purchase of Dictaphone, we are seeing important developments in the speech technology industry. Hardware companies and software companies are joining forces and combining technology to make the most of this emerging market. We can add portable capability to these systems. We continue to devote research, development, and marketing efforts to applications for our technology in this area.
26 November, 1999, Japan eyes wearable PC
IBM's Erina Sakurai keeps an eye on the new machine
Those tired of hauling around "portable" computers may be able to wear a Pentium PC from next year.
On Friday, Japanese camera-maker Olympus and IBM Japan revealed a prototype of a wearable PC.
The monitor is a 100 gram 'monocle' headset that projects a 10 inch virtual screen. The mini-monitor flips out from the headset and covers one eye.
The hardware is stored in a 380 gram box, which is controlled by three buttons. It has a Pentium processor, 64 megabytes of memory and runs Windows 98.
A banana-shaped handle with a mouse and right-left click buttons is used to select icons on the virtual screen. The battery pack lasts up to three hours.
The Wearable PC doesn't have a keyboard yet, but "we may develop that in the future," said Olympus spokesman Shinichiro Murakami.
Mr Murakami said the companies would decide next year when to launch the computer.
Re: 6 figure orders:
Bonsil and others have delved into the confusion of the "6 figure orders" It seems to be the sentiment that these figures were just thrown out there by EDig and are no longer relevant. NOT SO. If I might add my two cents worth without be repetative........When an OEM places an initial order for any NEW product, he doesn't know if he has a Thunderbird or an Edsel so the initial order is meaningless. (it could be 100 units it could be 10,000 units) Interest=Sales=Large reorders, No interest=no sales=Donation to the Friends of the Earth for distribution to the hillside natives of Tupula Mountain in Borneo for their use in attracting their dinner which consists of large spiders wrapped in Kuppabara leaves and slowly roasted in a fire pit.
The six figure orders are a different story however. These figures are still VERY viable and are in present discussion with PC, and other types of manufacturers who wish to bundle their product, to increase sales, with an EDig product inside. It is common to see this in todays market and in fact I just purchased a new DEll 8100 that came with a number of BONUS choices of which I chose a scanner, FREE.
We are dealing with two separate aspects of EDig's business plan. Both are there and are being implemented.
Robert was extremely candid as he always is, but seemed moreso this time. I have known him for 10 years and never have I seen him more confident in his pronouncements. (See Bonsil's posts)
He said two things among many others that struck me with more force than the sales figures everyone wanted to hear. One very positive one negative.
1. "We don't lack for business folks" His exact words stated with force and stated at least 3 times in 3 different aspects of our discussion. He went on to iterate that many different companies have come to them with ideas they wish EDig to develop but they had too much on their plate now, turned away these requests or put them on the back burner for later consideration. These "ideas" were in different areas not relevant to what EDig is now involved in.
The negative, (my opinion) was the constant hammering of Edig customers by us, the shareholders, for information to satisfy our need to be "RICH TOMMOROW". He stated two or three times that it did cause EDig concern with those OEM's and some delicate explaining to allay the irritation of customers. Robert was fully accepted of and felt it was an integral part of his job FOR HIM to deal with every shareholder and their concerns who contacted him but wished questions to customers would be such that he didn't have a fire to put out afterwards. He does recognize that will happen however and states often that EDig is a public company, has shareholders to satisfy and his job is to do that. He has come to the point however, in not advancing any more information than is available and verifiable. He knows and stated on numerous occasions that he in particular and all at EDig WERE NOT SATISFIED with the share price of the company. Orders, sales and bottom line were his solutions to raising that price. NOTHING ELSE, no hype, no president's letters, no feely good pronouncements AND IN THAT REGARD HE WAS AS CONFIDENT AS I HAVE EVER SEEN AND HEARD HIM.
There was no doubt that shipments of the Treo and perhaps OTHER PRODUCTS would begin THIS QUARTER.
There was NO DOUBT that Data Play would start this fall and with HUGE promotion of which EDig would be a part. The most interesting aspect of that relationship is that Robert stated (perhaps my understanding only) "THERE IS NO TELLING HOW MANY OF DATA PLAY PRODUCTS WE WILL BE IN) Not just a music player but EVERYTHING ELSE we have all heard about on this board.
Also mentioned were numerous other, unnamed, OEM's that are in the same markets and WOULD NOT BE LEFT BEHIND in this huge potential market. Not much was said in this regard but you got the feeling we will be hearing about other's we have not heard about. EDig is talking to more companies than we all realize. Maybe some are just conversation but from Robert's tone and conviction, SOME ARE SOLID.
Robert also stated with muted enthusiasm that Voice products, Powered by EDig, would be out by the end of this year. I say muted enthusiasm only because of his uncertainty of the timing, NOT THE AVAILABILITY OF THE PRODUCTS.
A lot was left unsaid but was under the surface of all our conversations. Many of Bonsils questions were answered guardedly because information could not be given at that time but you knew the news was THERE, IN FACT, IN CONCRETE. No hype. This meeting was conducted as a give and take. No pronouncements. We started out asking questions, many, many questions and Robert answered as if we all were sitting around the dinner table discussing who the first draft pick in the NFL should. The entire meeting was not stilted at all.
I left with an EXTREMELY SOLID feeling. Excuse my description but I know of no other way to say it. I felt if Robert had let us go behind that closed door we all passed on our way out that everything we all have wanted was behind that door just sitting there waiting.
Folks, there are no "maybe's" "if's" no "hopes" here. We have long passed that stage in the development of this company. I feel we all have to realize a new technology with new products has not really started yet. To be a major player in that market, a STANDARD in that market, does not happen in day, weeks or months. EDig has come from obscurity in less than two years, with no backing from any outside entity to its present position. I don't think Microsoft went from its garage to being what it is in that short period of time.
I do believe and have stated to many on many different occasions, ad naseum, the worst thing that ever happened to EDig was the hype that $24.00 a share for a FLEETING MOMENT did to raise unrealistic expectations. Without that event most of us would be very satisfied with the status, direction and potential we all see.
As my "little grey cells" get tickled I will bother you more with my observations of that meeting. I hope I won't bore you
Sunpoop,
SD Bash edig meeting Part II; 2/26/01 10 am
7) What is eDig’s competition? There is no real competition to MicroOS, there are competitors, but none offer what we have, a small, compact program with excellent features that uses very little power. Other companies could develop similar programs, but they would have to work around our patents. Only one of our patents has ever been challenged, and it was one of our earlier ones, not a big deal because the challenged patent was designed as the “carrot” rather than the “stick” ones – which have never been challenged.
8) Some posters have indicated their disappointment in Hy-Tek because they believe Hy-Tek will only sell the Treo online. RP didn’t know one way or the other, but he pointed out that Hy-Tek is working with many OEM’s, and that they would be selling their product in stores.
9) Are you familiar with Sonic Blue’s Rio Car which holds 1000 hours of music, and edig is not in it? RP asked us how well we thought it would sell at $1,200 a unit. He added that in order to make it really big in the car industry, you have to not only think of the after market, but work with the auto manufacturer’s themselves – WHICH edig IS DOING (both directly and through OEM’s). Edig is working with manufacturers to replace all the 6 cartridge CD changers in cars.
10) How many trips to Europe has management taken this past year? Not many, but sales personnel have taken many trips to Asia this year.
11) Employees and facilities: Edig is currently advertising for 5 more engineers, their facility can handle 10 more people before expansion is necessary. They have an option on 4,000 adjacent square feet, so are prepared for expansion. I (bonsall) am in the leasing business, and can tell fellow board members that I am glad edig is not one of my tenants. They negotiated an all inclusive lease (including all utilities, trash pick up and cleaning) before California’s power crunch hit, at only $1.17 psf. The lease runs through 2003 and then they have three 1 year options through 2006. Edig is lean and mean, they watch their pennies, and are to be congratulated for it.
In my last post on the engineers, I meant to state that edig employees are upside-down with their stock options, all the more incentives to work for a high stock price.
Before some big Edig products can be released, forces and decision makers outside of edig will have to establish industry standards on at least 3 items:
a) Security – it may never be totally fool proof. But on line down-loads will work if it’s more hassle than it’s worth to bypass the established security systems. For instance, you want to shop at the Mall, parking next to the mall is $5. You can park in the street for free, but you’ll pay $5 for the convenience, safety, closeness, ease of carrying packages, etc. etc.
b) Interoperability standards, a standard still needs to be worked out, but edig will work with any of them.
c) A micro-payment system – As secure system to collect 25 cents, and make it profitable for all parties, still needs to be worked out. Many companies are working on all of these items.
The company knows that revenues are required for increased shareholder value, they’ve got their heads down, are pushing hard and are focused on making that a reality. Sales of OEM products, but more importantly, and RP emphasized this several times, what will make edig a world class company is dependent on the size of OEM reorders. If the reorders are huge, edig will be huge. After listening to RP, I believe edig will be huge.
SD Bash edig meeting 2/26/01 10 am
Let me start by stating that all of us who attended the meeting will keep our shares of edig, we will definitely not sell, and are in fact buyers at these prices.
OZ, Chincha, zeroman, sunpoop and bonsall met with RP for about 1 ½ hours. After signing for security badges, we were escorted into the back conference room. RP opened the meeting by showcasing the TREO player, and the 500mb dataplay and 350mb IBM storage devices. We each took a turn listening to the Treo’s superb sound quality. RP stated that the company realizes that revenue will drive share price. Revenues will not flow until product is released and that edig’s “serious money” will be made with the reorders, because reorders are the true test of consumer acceptance. RP would not venture into revenue projections, but by asking questions a different way, we were able to get a sense of where the company thinks they are going financially (question 2).
Since we had met at Chincha’s the night before, we had questions prepared, and RP preferred the format of responding to questions, rather than delivering a scripted speech. All answers are paraphrased but substance-wise accurate (other attendees please correct me if I misquoted RP).
Here are some of the questions:
1) Where do you see edig 1 and 3 years from now? This year it’s the coming out with products, some relatively soon, like the Treo, Jukebox; and others in the fall, like the Data-Play products. We should also see some voice enabled products THIS YEAR. In 3 years edig hopes that it’s technologies will be the world standard. He mentioned that edig would be in many products; VTT and TTV would be very big, OEM’s are working to have books and libraries on the mini discs. We are in the best place we’ve ever been in as a company, and we’re in the best part of the current technology sector. Hand held devices are and will be very big. There have been a total of 10 million palm devices sold, but this does not compare to the huge cell phone industry. Future cell phones will do much more than just make and receive calls, there will be many voice features and download capabilities. There were 420 million cell phones purchased just last year, and we could be bigger than cell phones. Our current agreements call for us to receive $3-$14 per device.
2) Financials: What is eDig’s burn rate? $250K-$300K/month, Follow up –Since cash on hand is approximately $4million, and if you do not get any revenues soon, you’ll be out of business in 13 months – are you looking for additional financing or other funding at this time? NO – we have all the funding we need, we are not looking for money, we’re very strong financially. (This means they have a good handle on revenues and when they will be coming in).
3) What is the main role of the new PR firm? Is it primarily for the OEM’s or consumer? The PR firm was hired to get the word out and to coincide and precede product introduction.
4) When do you plan to re-apply to Nasdaq? When the price stabilizes above $5.00. We don’t anticipate the acceptance process will take as long as last year.
5) Have any of your engineers left voluntarily? NO, they have all stayed and desire to continue to work here; we did let one engineer go. They are all upside on their stock options and are working hard to put a good product out so that the share price will increase.
6) Can you comment about shareholder interface with OEM’s at CES? We don’t blame shareholders for trying to find out information about edig and it’s products, but sometimes it makes our position more difficult. Shareholders must also understand that we are dealing with many different OEM’s, and many competing OEM’s. All with different standards and technologies. These OEM’s share their proprietary secrets with us and we are bound by Non-disclosure agreements, the OEM’s do not want their competing OEM’s to know what they are doing. We have had to apologize to some OEM’s and explain that all our shareholders were doing was trying to find out more about their investment.
In the interest of getting some of the word out, I will post this much now and will post the remainder later in the day.
Bonsall
By: cksla $$$$
Reply To: None Thursday, 25 Jan 2001 at 4:17 PM EST
Post # of 672632
interesting post from gmgc board:
By: wfwnebms $
Reply To: None Thursday, 25 Jan 2001 at 2:28 PM EST
Post # of 22518
I have had an interesting brief discussion with a development executive at Compaq.+ He mentioned that he would be in meetings with IBM and I jokingly asked him to find out what they are doing with GMGC. To my surprise he mentioned that while he had no direct knowledge, the buzz in his group was that GMGC was even further ahead then is widely believed and that they think it could be on the cutting edge of a number of applications.
Again, there was nothing concrete in this conversation, but it was interesting that he would not only know of it, but have heard good things. He did mention that he would ask when he was at IBM, but I do not foresee them letting anything out of the bag until they are ready.
If I do hear any news, I will post it.
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idle speculation: could Compaq be considering developing its PDA with the voice enabled PSA module? Before yelling at me about such shameless dot-connecting; consider this old post that Jimee posted before the days of whine and roses:
By: jimee11 $$$$
Reply To: None Monday, 13 Dec 1999 at 10:46 PM EST
Post # of 598278
Compaq Develops Linux Handheld Prototype
June 15, 1999 -- Compaq has released details of a prototype handheld developed using the Linux operating system.
Dubbed the Itsy, the device is smaller than a PalmPilot or Windows CE palm-sized device but has more computing power, according to the company. With a 200MHz StrongARM processor and a 320 x 200 pixel LCD display, the company claims that Itsy supports applications such as voice recognition.
The device is unlikely to be sold, according to information available at its Web site. Rather, the project is a public demonstration that Linux can be modified for small-footprint devices.
According to the site: "The primary goals of the Itsy project are to gain expertise in building tiny, low-power electronic devices, and to provide a research platform for investigating the issues involved in designing applications, operating systems and user interfaces that scale to small devices."
While the PalmOS and Windows CE dominate the handheld market, Linux is starting to be mentioned in other Net device applications, particularly for set-top boxes, which have more memory and other resources. This is the first Linux handheld application.
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Compaq's Itsy - novel interface method for handhelds....
http://research.compaq.com/wrl/projects/itsy/Quicktime/RocknScroll.mov
(Big movie 7MB)
Other links:
http://research.compaq.com/wrl/projects/itsy/
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http://www.ragingbull.altavista.com/mboard/boards.cgi?read=342517&board=EDIG
http://www.ragingbull.altavista.com/mboard/boards.cgi?read=3129&board=EDIGOT
http://www.ragingbull.altavista.com/mboard/boards.cgi?read=465348&board=EDIG
One Voice shows off talking Web navigator 'IVAN'
by Margret Johnston, IDG News Service\Washington Bureau
November 14, 2000, 11:16
LAS VEGAS - If a talking Web navigator is what you've been waiting for to quicken your navigation of the Internet and make it a seem little more natural, software being demonstrated at Comdex might just fit the bill.
One Voice Technologies is showing a Web mascot called IVAN (intelligent voice animated navigator) who appears on the user's monitor and responds to spoken commands, like "I want to buy flowers," or "Get me a recipe for Beef Wellington." Just like a text-based search engine, IVAN retrieves Web sites that have the information, prioritizing them based on licensing deals that One Voice has signed with various sites.
The IVAN mascot, which looks like a small globe with a face, arms and legs, is included in the free client software that One Voice officials are handing out at Comdex. The software, also available for download from http://www.myivan.com, uses IBM's text-to-speech and voice recognition technology.
IVAN understands human language and identifies concepts, said Mark Strumwasser, vice president of sales for One Voice. The company has created a context-based searching technology called MultiSite, which runs on an Oracle Corp. database and is used by IVAN to find multiple Web sites for more than 100,000 concepts, Strumwasser said.
"It's a needle in a haystack on the Internet right now," Strumwasser said. "IVAN makes the experience more human by responding to the user's voice."
Comdex is the first major trade show at which the two-year-old company has had a major presence, Strumwasser said, adding that the company was being "hammered" by people seeking information about the product. Crowds several people deep confirmed a high level of interest as One Voice officials on a stage with a large screen behind them showed off IVAN's features.
The spoken commands that IVAN processes appear on the screen in text so the user can see what IVAN heard and correct it if necessary. He also bows when his name is called and can be turned off by telling him to stop listening.
One Voice recently signed partnership agreements with 140 Web sites, including Monster.com and Britannica.com, which have added VoiceSite, One Voice technology that enables voice interactivity at their sites. For example, at the Monster.com site job seekers can talk their way through finding a new job online, while IVAN asks questions to help them focus their search. At the Britannica site the software takes users to an appropriate entry in the encyclopedia when asked for information.
In addition to MultiSite database and VoiceSite technology, One Voice has created intelligent voice interactive technology (IVIT) to provide human voice understanding.
One Voice Technologies can be reached found on the Web at http://www.onevoicetech.com.
Tuesday March 28 2000 Philips, One Voice start alliance
Philips Electronics said on Tuesday its Philips Speech Processing unit and US One Voice Technologies had signed a cooperation deal to work together on projects, licensing and marketing. The alliance will combine the speech recognition technologies of the two firms. One Voice's forthcoming Intelligent Voice Animated Navigator (IVAN) will incorporate Philips' speech recognition technology in 16 languages for personal computers, wireless and consumer electronics devices, Philips said in a statement.
IBM-SPEECH RECOGNITION-HANDHELDS AND AUTOS
Almaden director seeks a 'delightful' revolution
By Charles J. Murray
EE Times
(01/24/01, 9:26 p.m. EST)
The work surfaces in Robert Morris' San Jose, Calif., office are cluttered with computing devices: two desktop PCs and four notebooks, as well as a pager, a cell phone, a pair of Think Pads and a Palm computer that Morris carries when he travels.
The director of IBM's Almaden Research Center is quick to show visitors that all six of his computers are connected: When one machine receives an e-mail, the other five quickly chime in, letting him know that they, too, have gotten the message.
"Pervasiveness means that when you walk into a room, you're walking into a computing environment," Morris said. "The user should have an experience — it should be easy to obtain information and easy to participate in that environment."
This glut of computing devices is proof that Morris practices what he preaches. As vice president of personal systems for IBM Corp. and the holder of a PhD in computer science from UCLA, Morris is a firm believer in the future of pervasive computing.
Intertwined with pervasiveness is ease of use. Morris' definition of "easy" hinges on the concept of a human-computer interface so transparent that users barely know it's there. The company is working on a variety of such interfaces, including so-called "attentive" techniques that watch a user's eye movements and facial expressions, as well as autonomous systems that communicate with one another via Bluetooth, IEEE-802.11 or infrared methods.
IBM engineers around the globe are also stepping up efforts to bring speech recognition and handwriting recognition to the fore, for use in handheld devices and automobiles. Morris believes that such efforts will serve as the key to acceptance of pervasive computing.
"To start a revolution in computing, you've got to have an ease-of-use breakthrough," Morris noted. "If you don't have that, your new technology is not a revolution. It's just a pain."
Indeed, Morris insists that all of computing's major revolutions were prompted by breakthroughs in ease of use. Batch computing, for example, was displaced because time-share computing was simpler, he said. Similarly, personal computers replaced time-share because of ease of use, and browsers brought the Internet to millions for the same reason.
"Ease of use is more fundamental than engineers give it credit for," he said.
Morris and other IBM executives don't pretend to know how the shakeout of today's computer products will affect current human-machine interfaces, such as the mouse and keyboard. But he foresees two potential paths for future computing devices. The first path results in a single winner — a universal device, such as a multifunction Internet phone — that does it all. The second involves a variety of devices — handhelds, desktop units, laptops, tablet PCs. In that scenario, Morris believes, all devices coexist, and all are capable of talking to one another.
In either case, the company's engineers are preparing for a future of simpler interfaces. At the Almaden facility, they have already developed an alternative to the "Qwerty" keyboard (so named because Q-W-E-R-T-Y compose the top line of letters on the left-hand side of all conventional keyboards). IBM's new technique is designed to address the problems of typing with a stylus on a tiny, handheld, virtual keyboard. The solution consists of a collection of hexagonal keys, with the most commonly used combinations of letters located in the middle, around the space key. Less commonly used letters are placed farther from the center.
IBM engineers say that their new keyboard reduces the distance a user's hand travels between letters and therefore speeds typing time on cellular keyboards by about 50 percent.
"This design is not optimized for two hands," said Barton Smith, a research-staff member at IBM Almaden. "It's designed for one tap."
Engineers at the Almaden facility are also working on a potential future in which the human-machine interface will involve intelligence. In an internal project known as Blue Eyes, they've created so-called "attentive computers" that use cameras to watch a user's eyes and facial expressions, and then infer his or her desired actions.
Attentive computing may serve as the ultimate user interface because it enables a machine to make decisions and take action on its own. An attentive computer, for example, might recognize that a user is in an important conference, and hold all e-mail messages until that conference has ended. Or it could make a decision to interrupt the user and deliver an urgent phone call.
Ultimately, such techniques hold promise for the disabled, who could access a computer interface through eye movements. Attentive computing could also serve as an aid to effectiveness in so-called "smart houses," which up to now have struggled with voice commands.
"Part of the problem with smart houses is that they don't 'know' when you're talking to them," said David Koons, a research engineer at IBM Almaden. "The vocabulary is often too broad for the system to understand. But by using attentive computing, you can narrow the context of your commands, and the computer has a better chance of understanding you."
Engineers say that the same concepts can also be applied to such devices as Internet-enabled telephones. "There's no reason your cell phone can't 'know' that you're sitting in an opera house and that it's supposed to be quiet," Smith said.
If the future holds a variety of devices, however, IBM engineers know they will need to put more development effort into such technologies as voice and handwriting recognition. Those systems enable computing companies to meet diverse needs for diverse users, ranging from rush-hour drivers to customers in cultures where pictographic languages are the norm.
IBM engineers are working on those technologies at the company's Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., as well as in its research labs in New Delhi, India, and Beijing. "The pen [interface] is even more important in China and India than it is here," Morris said. "Today, there's not a good keyboard for those languages."
Although handwriting-recognition technology may still be years away from optimal performance, Morris said that pen interfaces are here today. Users can now employ pen technology to capture their own handwriting and store it as such, without the need for software to transcribe it into typed copy. "If we can electronically capture the ink, then we won't need handwriting-recognition technology right now," Morris said.
But speech has technological hurdles to cross before it can qualify as a revolution, he said. Today's best speech systems typically operate at accuracy levels slightly above 90 percent, said Morris, and they won't improve until engineers make breakthroughs in system intelligence.
"To get much higher than 90 percent accuracy, you actually have to understand the speech, not just the words," he said. "So the only way we're ever going to achieve 100 percent accuracy is by building domain knowledge."
Such breakthroughs could eventually constitute the missing ingredient to bring pervasive computing into the mainstream, Morris said. "In the end, we have to make the computing experience natural," he said. "Also, over and above being natural, it has to be delightful. Ultimately, the only way you'll start a revolution is to create a delightful computing experience.
Persuasive Reasons Drive IBM's Pervasive Computing.
Issue: June 17, 1999
By William Fellows
IBM Corp reckons it will be able to address up to 50% of the market for pervasive computing devices which is expected to reach $100bn to $120bn by 2003, from under $10bn today. That's persuasive computing. By pervasive computing, IBM means the ubiquitous use of technology in new devices and everyday appliances which are also connected to the internet. IBM's partners include Sharp in Japan for PDAs, Nokia for cell phones and France Telecom for screen phones.
IBM pervasive computing honcho Mark Bregman explains that the proliferation devices connected to the internet will means a huge increase in the number of transactions. It estimates that by 2003 as many as half of the devices connected to the internet will not by PCs by 2003, from cars to cell phones, household appliances to vending machines.
It is already committed to deliver Java software late this year which will enables applications developed for one platform to run on another and has just made available profile serving software on its web site enabling developers to create services which personalize content, translate protocols and document formats. IBM believes the Java software will lead to the creation of a class of applications which it calls web intermediaries.
Bregman told Merrill Lynch & Co analysts that it will shortly announce a MobileNet Connect for building applications on the Palm Pilot. In doing so it will join other heavyweight traffic driving a path to Palm Pilot which includes Sun Microsystems Inc's mobile and low-end Java efforts. Bregman says nomadic document management is another opportunity. It's also working with Sun on auto manufacturers to create standard technologies for use in driver info and car entertainment systems. In addition to widely-previewed household appliances IBM's also going to put a Notes ID file on a smart card to make it secure for mobile applications. Its MQSeries software is being extended with MQLite and other flavors to support secure messaging, Java and XML
IBM and Motorola team to help carriers deliver wireless data services to business customers worldwide
PARIS, 13 MARCH, 2000 -- IBM and Motorola plan to join forces to help meet the growing demand for e-businesses worldwide to link data and applications to wireless devices. The companies today announced their intent to jointly develop an open, highly scalable offering that will form the basis of a "voice and data engine" which will offer businesses an easy way to develop and access wireless applications and services.
For example, carriers could use this offering to allow businesses to provide mobile workers real-time access to email, stock quotes, news, and corporate resources via wireless devices. By combining Motorola's device-aware front-end technology with IBM's middleware technology, this framework will provide optimal wireless data services to businesses around the world.
"Together, we provide the broad mobile and computing technology base and systems integration skills that are needed for operators to succeed in this challenging business market," said Janiece Webb, senior vice president and general manager of Motorola's Personal Networks Group. "In addition, Motorola's experience in applications development and mobile device design, combined with our Aspira™ communications e-business platform, will allow us to seamlessly integrate these platforms and wireless devices in a way that can directly benefit both carriers and business customers."
"Wireless e-business applications for a variety of mobile devices provide a tremendous opportunity for carriers to drive new revenue from wireless services," said Mark Bregman, general manager of IBM's Pervasive Computing Division. "Working together with Motorola we will get to market faster with a product that operators need to give their business subscribers what they crave - access to information and services, virtually anytime, anywhere."
The companies will establish a joint solutions center to create a flexible framework based on a combination of technologies from both companies, including Motorola's Aspira™ Mobile Internet Exchange (MIX™) Feature Server, VoxML™, and WAP (wireless application protocol) gateway and IBM's software, such as WebSphere Everyplace Suite, systems and services. The initial framework, using existing products, is expected to be available in the second half of this year.
This relationship builds on the existing collaboration between IBM and Motorola to enable the delivery of innovative new telematics products. In January, the companies announced that they would work together to provide the end-to-end resources to help car manufacturers offer exciting new wireless services to their customers. The agreement builds on the strong position of Motorola's Integrated Electronic Systems Sector (IESS) group with IBM's systems and services expertise
IBM'S PERVASIVE COMPUTING TEAM READIES NEW SOFTWARE.
Issue: Nov 23, 1998
IBM Corp's pervasive computing division is working on software that will enable networks to host any type of client system and allow those clients to take advantage of any service on the network, regardless of what combination of hardware or software is hosted. The software will be made available probably late next year as a set of proxies or software servers that provide translation services. It is part of IBM's goal of establishing pervasive computing environments for the emerging world of networked information appliances. Pervasive computing is what IBM calls Tier 0 computing, or appliances and embedded systems below the desktop. Tier 1 is the desktop client, Tier 2 the departmental server, and Tier 3 the enterprise server with associated software. The division's head, Mark Bregman, formerly head of the RS/6000 business, told Merrill Lynch & Co that IBM will not make the appliances but will provide the building block components, infrastructure services as well as end-to-end solutions. Bregman identified six solutions segments. First is personal e-business, where IBM is working with France Telecom on internet screen phones. Second is mobile e-business, such as wireless PDAs, providing real-time. Third is the networked vehicle. He told the brokerage that one example here is IBM's work with GM for providing cars with wireless connectivity to the internet, a flat panel display in the back for entertainment, voice recognition for driver info, and a hook up for embedded systems to service for real-time diagnostics. Fourth is smart cards, which will be important in closed environments such as businesses or a campus. Fifth is the networked household for which IBM can provide a residential gateway. And sixth is nomadic document management. Merrill Lynch & Co notes a review board of vice presidents from various units oversees investments made in the area and that to be successful it needs other IBM divisions to buy into its vision by putting in their own people and money.
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IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMIN'- EXECUTION TAKES TIME
re video on cellphones
Tokyo, May 17, 2000 -- Intel Corp., the world's largest maker of computer chips, and Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said they will develop a chipset for the next generation of cellular phones.
Using Intel's technology, Mitsubishi will be able to make a cell phone that can send videos and browse the Internet while using little battery power, the companies said. Mitsubishi, Japan's fifth-largest chipmaker, said it will first sell the phone in Japan, then in
Europe.
Mobile phones are becoming the preferred medium for accessing the Internet in Japan, as more people use them to check on Web sites, send e-mail, trade stocks and make bank transactions. Mobile-phone subscribers in Japan outnumbered fixed-phone subscriptions for the first time at the end of March.
``Mitsubishi Electric is the world's leader in cellular phone technology,'' said John Antone, president of Intel KK, Intel's Japanese unit. ``It a natural for us to at least discuss collaboration.''
Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Electric is the No. 2 Japanese manufacturer of mobile phones by sales, after Matsushita Communication Industrial Co.
Mitsubishi Electric plans to ship 25 million mobile phones during the year ending in March 2001, and plans to introduce mobile phones using Intel-made chipsets in Japan in 2002.
Embedded Applications for Portable Devices
We are working with major manufacturers to have our technology embedded into their programmable DSPs and/or microcontrollers. The market for chips for function-specific devices (which includes but is not limited to DSPs) was estimated at $6.3 billion last year (1999) and is expected to grow to $18.8 billion by the year 2003, according to Forward Concepts Co. of Tempe, Arizona. Our MicroOS file management system can be incorporated seamlessly into Flash memory, DSPs and/or microcontrollers, offering increased efficiency and a compact, yet full-featured, flexible, real time operating system for a variety of portable devices. This combination can speed the development of consumer products such as smart phones, palmtop computers, handheld digital music players, e-book playback devices, and various wireless Internet access devices.
We continue to focus on portable digital devices that integrate with the PC and the Internet. It is our goal to become a standard in the digital download environment. As we are successful and our OEMs are successful, our technology could be the engine that drives millions of digital download devices over the next several years.
Wireless Industry Explosion
The next revolution in the information-based economy is the development and deployment of new wireless products that communicate with the Internet-giving users updated, personally-selected information-and communicate with each other-creating constantly shifting personal area networks. We continue to upgrade and modify MicroOS so that the technologies we have developed will work in a wireless environment with standard and emerging communications protocols such as Bluetooth, WAP (Wireless Access Protocol), CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access), TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), GSM (Global Standard for Mobile Communications), iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network), HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data), and the 3G ("Third Generation") wireless platform. International Data Corporation, a market research firm, estimates that nearly 62 million people will use wireless devices to access the Internet by 2003-an increase of about 728 percent over current levels.
We believe that over the next two to three years we will see a tremendous explosion of available digital content and portable devices to support it. We are working on developments surrounding e-books, video, and other types of content as the pace quickens for convergence in portable devices. We are working with, and expect to continue working with, a number of OEM customers in the digital music and voice industries. Bandwidth and content are becoming more available, with data transmission rates expected to improve over the next few years to allow transmission, recording, and playback of video images and other large-capacity data files over wireless digital networks. This is vital to developing new markets, and portable digital download devices will be key to customers' ability to capture, use and play back the critical, up-to-the-minute information they need. We are working to support all the other major technologies that are emerging from worldwide technology leaders who share our belief that digital download devices will become an essential ingredient of the New Economy.
http://www.edig.com/news/releases/alert062700.html
SUMMARY OF IBM'S PERVASIVE COMPUTING VISION from 1998 interview--
"EXECUTION TAKES TIME"
The Convenience Of Small Devices: How Pervasive Computing Will Personalize E-Business
When Mark Bregman, general manager, pervasive computing, talks about IBM's new pervasive- computing unit, he is careful to stress that the organization is not actually developing any technology. Bregman's unit, which formally came into being in the first quarter of 1998, is charged with supplying the vision that will underlie such development. Its job is to research the market, determine the most appropriate strategy for IBM and help all the other business units make the transition into pervasive computing. With a staff of roughly a dozen -- expected to grow to no more than 50 -- Bregman has his hands full. But he sees his role as temporary, destined to become redundant "once pervasive computing becomes truly pervasive." In an interview with IBM Research editor Rowan Dordick, Bregman airs his plans and predictions for what he sees as the next step in computer evolution.
Do you have a simple definition of pervasive computing?
BREGMAN: Pervasive computing is about enabling people to gain immediate access to information and services anywhere, anytime, without having to scrounge for a phone jack. However, while mobility and wireless technology are a big part of it, it's really about making e-business personal. Thanks to the explosive growth of the Internet, people will soon expect to be able to engage in electronic business effortlessly.
Are you saying that pervasive computing will spur the spread of e-business?
BREGMAN: Yes. Most of our focus on e-business has been in the corporate context -- an employee sitting in front of a PC with a browser and performing transactions. To some degree, we've extended that thinking to the consumer, to personal e-business. To make e-business truly pervasive, however, we need to lower the barrier to services. Surprisingly, the PC is part of that barrier.
The PC is designed as a general-purpose platform that can run many different kinds of applications. Yet we have found that individuals prefer separate appliances. Many people have a home PC as well as a separate fax machine and a stand-alone answering machine. Of course, in principle, you could use your PC for faxing and answering the phone; it's probably even cheaper. So why don't most people do that? It's not convenient. Convenience is driving our thinking in how to personalize e-business.
What other sorts of specialized appliances do you envisage?
BREGMAN: Say you're at home and you want to order a book from Amazon.com. You've got to turn on your PC, wait for Windows to start up, click on the icon for the Internet dialer, dial your Internet service through a global network service provider, launch your browser, type in a URL and wait for Amazon.com to load. It's doable but unnecessarily complicated.
Now, what if you had a telephone-like appliance, a "screen phone," sitting on your kitchen counter? It's connected to a back-end infrastructure so you can push one button and bring up the Web. It even has buttons for your favorite sites. So now you just push a button, and you're at Amazon.com. There's a little keyboard with which to enter your order, and you can touch the screen to select from a menu. It also has a smartcard slot so that the transaction is secure.
A product that's tailored to a specific task will always be more convenient than a general-purpose device. So although people could prepare every meal with some fancy Swiss Army knife -- which would be more economical than buying many separate implements -- people don't do that. It's a behavior issue, not a technology issue.
But how far do you specialize? Might you end up with one of these pads for ordering books, another for the weather, another for stock quotations?
BREGMAN: We don't know the answer yet. But we do know that certain activities tend to cluster around certain devices. You don't have different TV sets to watch news, movies and sitcoms. But you do have a different product to listen to music. You might argue that the TV already has speakers, an amplifier, power supplies -- why not make that your AM/FM radio as well? Again, because it's not convenient.
Then why does the computer industry sell general-purpose platforms instead of specialized products?
BREGMAN: Because fundamentally the computer industry is still an industrial products business, not a consumer products business. Most consumer industries don't sell the customer a platform. Chrysler has a platform called a Jeep, but what they sell is a product with many different models.
The computer industry has only recently begun to change into an individual consumer products business, and I think specialization is a natural result of moving to consumer sales. That is what happened with electric motors. At one time, motors were sold as platforms. If you wanted to create something that required motor power, you bought a motor and integrated it yourself. But eventually, motors found their way into specialized products, where they became so ubiquitous and invisible that a lot of people don't even realize there's one in their refrigerator.
The same process of moving technology under the covers is happening in our industry. So far, IBM's business units have been selling platforms, whether they be hardware platforms like the System/390® or RS/6000® or software platforms like DB2 or the MQSeries®, or even our e-commerce solutions. But we've concluded there's a huge opportunity in moving to the next stage in the evolution of computing.
Is that why IBM has formed a pervasive-computing unit?
BREGMAN: If we want to enable personal e-business through pervasive computing, we need to provide our units with guidance. So we've created this separate organization, which has the task of working with all the existing units to execute what is needed for IBM to be the leader in pervasive computing.
Take the screen phone idea. We are working with a number of vendors who are going to be the branded manufacturers for these devices. There is an opportunity for our Microelectronics business to sell them the integrated chip sets. We also need to work with the telephone companies, because connecting these devices to their infrastructures will require changes in their billing, customer support, customer systems management and so on. And to manage secure transactions between servers and billions or trillions of devices, platforms such as those used by telecommunications companies will need to be enhanced. Finally, we need to understand how to bring the content owners -- banks, travel companies, retail companies -- into this new world.
No one piece of IBM is in a position to coordinate that activity, and frankly, if you don't do all of those things just right, you won't create the market. The goal of my team is to articulate these requirements and then work with the individual businesses within IBM so that they can take the actions that will enable the market to grow quickly.
What are some of the technologies that will be needed to implement the vision of pervasive computing?
BREGMAN: There are two separate questions we have to ask ourselves: What are the places where IBM can make money? And what are the areas in which IBM has to participate in order to ensure success whether or not we make money?
We can make money building chip sets for screen phones. And we have an opportunity with silicon germanium for wireless technologies, as well as with our CMOS technology because of the levels of integration and power we can achieve. There are also opportunities for our storage products, both traditional disk drives to handle the additional data guaranteed by these new devices, and innovative technologies such as our prototype one-inch disk drive, which is an ideal product for some of these new devices -- cameras, copiers and screen phones.
We'll also have opportunities to enhance our existing product line, as in the area of MQSeries [message-oriented middleware products], systems management tools, application development tools and so on, to deal with pervasive computing.
What about the other category you mentioned -- technologies that are essential for pervasive computing to flourish?
BREGMAN: On the software side, Java could play a critical role as an interface standard. And in infrastructure, there's an emerging area of "connectivity services" that require a new class of server. Different classes of devices will have different functions and capabilities, so they will not be able to access the same kind of content. Rather than write separate applications on the server side, the idea is to create an intermediate server that will sit between the network computing content and the devices. It will take content written in HTML or XML, say, and transcode it into a format for a particular device.
These new proxy, or content connectivity, servers also provide other functions, such as persistence in the network. For example, if I drive into a tunnel and lose my connection as I'm making an airline reservation, a proxy server will be able to complete the transaction and then notify me later.
Security is also going to be key, and we have a lot of activity there (see Research, Number 4, 1997). Brokerage firms, for example, not only want to be able to provide their customers with timely, accurate information, they also want to give them the ability to immediately act on the information. That interaction needs to be secure. Unless we offer a solution that is both effective and easy to use, security could be a barrier to the emergence of this market. Fortunately, there are some key technologies that we can both develop and deliver, and promote as standards.
Standards will be critical. My organization is seeking to ensure that IBM is a part of those key standards organizations, such as the OpenCard Consortium for smartcards (see "Smartcards Get Smarter"), and the Wireless Application Protocol Forum. It's important that those standards be defined in ways that allow us to participate in this market and that don't lead to proprietary protocols.
Should IBM be a player in the device arena?
BREGMAN:We need to ensure that devices are available with the right characteristics. But we've made an explicit decision not to be in the device business -- with IBM-developed, -manufactured and -branded products -- because we're not well suited to dealing in such a huge diversity of products. Instead, we want to have IBM technology in everybody else's products.
Is bandwidth going to limit the growth of pervasive computing?
BREGMAN: It depends on your expectations. Dick Tracy watches that provide live person-to-person video are a long way off, if they ever materialize. Even if you could provide that kind of bandwidth, everybody would want it, and then you'd run back into a shortage of aggregate bandwidth -- the bandwidth multiplied by the number of users. The cost of building the infrastructure is going to be the limiting factor.
How large a market are you looking at?
BREGMAN: You can measure this market in lots of different ways -- by customers, devices, applications and so on. We estimate that in 2001 there will be about a $14.5 billion opportunity for IBM just selling technologies to device manufacturers. There's a similar market for services that IBM could provide, including systems integration, consulting, and managed operations and outsourcing. Then there's another opportunity that is harder to quantify: the servers, storage and systems management needed to support the devices themselves.
How will pervasive computing affect the market for general-purpose platforms like the PC?
BREGMAN: The PC will still be an important part of the business environment. There, it's a capital investment that's going to be amortized. And, although you're procuring it for a particular task or worker today, a year from now you'll redeploy it for another task or another worker. So there is a reason to invest in a general-purpose platform. If the PC were too specialized, it might not meet that need.
For home use, it's a different story. While some people need a platform for writing programs, a lot of PCs are in the home because people want access to games on the Internet, and if they had a game machine in an Internet box, they wouldn't need a PC. So the PC could become less important as an individual consumer product.
What is the biggest conceptual difficulty in selling your vision of pervasive computing?
BREGMAN: There are two. Some people can't get beyond the platform model. The reasoning is: "I can do everything with my PC, and the PC has 40 percent market penetration in the home today, heading for 100 percent. And once everybody has a PC, why would anyone want any of these other gadgets?" And I would answer: "You have an oven at home, right? Do you have a toaster oven as well? Why? You could make toast in the oven!" The point is, in individual buying there are motives, like convenience, that defy the rational economic modeling used in the corporate world. And the market is shifting from corporate buying behavior to individual buying behavior.
The other stumbling block is that we have yet to figure out in detail the business models for entering the market. The biggest frustration for customers, and for us right now, is we've got a strong vision, and everybody says, "That's great! When can you deliver?" But execution takes time.
IBM's senior executive team shares a strong conviction that we'll get those models figured out, and that we shouldn't let that prevent us from getting started. In some ways, it's like the PC business in the beginning: we didn't know how it was going to evolve, but we felt we had to get into it.
Can the PC business serve as a model, then?
BREGMAN: Not really. Pervasive computing is quite a bit different, because it assumes a distributed business model. When we launched the PC, it was an independent business, separate from everything else in the company, and therefore able to succeed or fail on its own.
Pervasive computing is in many ways a return to IBM's earlier model as an integrated business. There are competitors who can play in each separate area, but you really need the whole solution to make it work. We're trying to leverage all the parts of IBM because the value here is more in the whole than in the parts.
http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/magazine/1998/issue_3/bregman398.html
In the area of cutting-edge tech- nology, GM’s Cadillac division was the first U.S. automotive manufacturer to bring a satellite locating system to market. Its OnStar system became standard equipment in the company’s flagship division in 2000 and eventually will trickle down into the remainder of the GM passenger car and truck lines.
Cadillac’s OnStar system is now standard equipment in all 2000 model-year Cadillacs.
Now, the automaker is taking that consumer-oriented e-technology a step further by offering unprecedented Internet access right on consumer dashboards. According to Karenann Terrell, director of e-vehicle product management at e-GM, Cadillac will become the first U.S. automotive brand to offer "web vehicle" technology.
"Generally speaking, the younger the consumer, the higher-tech they tend to be, so Cadillac is now aimed at the 30-and-under demographic," Terrell said, noting that 50 to 60 percent of this group already uses cell phones. "People are connecting information from their offices to their cars, to their homes, and OnStar is positioned to be the service delivery provider in the vehicle."
In fact, the company has launched a new OnStar feature this summer, designed to bring computer technology safely into vehicles. Using the "virtual advisor" will allow users to access their e-mail with voice commands so that their hands may remain on the steering wheel. In fact, e-GM’s plans call for the service to be available in 1 million vehicles by the year 2002, she said, noting that the new features will be voice-activated and hands-free for safety, and will be tied into GM’s Bose "Infotainment" audio systems.
http://www.sema.org/semanews/october2000/oemreport.cfm
Automotive News
By Les Jackson
Telematics industry booming
Telematics is a fancy word for all the high-technology systems now being installed in new vehicles. In addition to hands-off cell phones and the ever-growing selection of audio systems available in cars, now consumers can buy entertainment, navigation, night vision and Internet access systems. Telematics is the wave of the future, particularly in automotive marketing. Manufacturers are predicting sales of advanced telematics systems in over two million 2001 vehicles.
For 2001 General Motors is offering Bose Infotainment systems in some of its vehicles, notably its higher-end cars and sport utility vehicles. GM's philosophy on this system is, "hands-free and eyes-free to watch the road." The Infotainment systems itself offers cell phone, OnStar (remote, computer-controlled navigation, vehicle diagnosis and roadside assistance system), email, voice mail, Web browsing, vehicle navigation and other computer-based access technology, all for in-car use. The system has voice-recognition capability for personal security and everything is hands-free for maximum safety. Those who have the need for a "mobile office" or who feel they need to be in constant communication will find this system irresistible.
Other manufacturers are offering similar systems to the Bose Infotainment. Some are hands-free and some aren't, and some, like Mercedes-Benz, offer total voice command for everything, including the climate control and audio systems.
Technology such as this poses a dilemma for the safety community. On the one hand, advanced telematics will be required for future "automated highways" on which vehicles will travel under total computer control. Traffic planners have dreamed of such future travel systems for decades and the technology for doing so is now within reach. In fact, some automated systems exist today: speedpasses at toll booths and traffic alert electronic signposts are examples.
On the other hand, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and others are concerned about the growing incidence of "distracted driving" crashes. These groups cite that about 25 percent of today's accidents are the result of distracted driving and the ratio is climbing. Adding more and more in-vehicle technology that has the potential of taking the driver's attention from the road is a major concern and no studies show that hands-off control has any positive effect on distraction.
So far the two telematics devices implicated in crashes are the cell phone and audio system. According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, using a cell phone or leaning over to place a CD in the player makes a driver six times more likely to have an accident than glancing at the vehicle's instruments.
Reacting to the ever-growing distraction problem, Marlboro Township, in New Jersey, has banned the use of hand-held cell phones while moving in a vehicle. Violators receive a fine of $250 for doing so. Other towns and cities are studying ways of limiting such use of cell phones as well.
It's certain that vehicle telematics devices will proliferate in the near future and it's equally certain that federal, state and local governments will keep a sharp eye on any upward trends in accidents resulting from their use.
http://houston.webpoint.com/newcars/an000904.htm
how about MOS embedded in the dashboard of your cadillac or MBZ??
any of this sound familiar:
At A Glance
'Tomorrow's Web Radio
E-mail capability. The unit downloads e-mail and even reads it to you while you drive. At the moment there is only the capability to send short, standard replies, but future software upgrades are possible.
Cell-phone integration unit. Docks a handphone and allows control via voice recognition, or by the keypad on the front of the unit.
Infrared port. Exchanges information with handheld devices such as personal data assistants.
CD/CD-ROM drive. Plays music CDs as well as CD-ROM databases. Allows software upgrades.
Voice memo recorder. Records voice messages.
Flash memory cards. Expand the system memory, and provide removable data storage.
Navigation system. Displays area maps and guides drivers to their destination.
Voice recognition. Controls the system with voice commands.
Safety - the unit only displays navigation directions and radio-station details whilst the vehicle is in motion.
http://www.aas.com.sg/features/archive/w0700.htm
INFOTAINMENT WITH BOSE AUDIO SYSTEM
A significant addition to the 2001 Seville is the Infotainment with Bose audio system. The system integrates complete full-function color map-based navigation with radio, CD-ROM, compact flash memory and audio playback.
The system is voice-controlled, which supports the Cadillac philosophy of "eyes on the road, hands on the wheel." Drivers can interface with the system’s many features, including:
E-mail capability – Have your e-mail downloaded and read to you. The system provides a link to the Internet, allowing downloading of text files. This particular feature will be test-marketed in several areas of the country to gauge customer interest.
Cell phone integration unit – Docks a portable cell phone and allows cell phone control via voice recognition or front panel keypad.
Infrared port – This function allows handheld devices such as personal data assistants to exchange information with the system.
CD/CD-ROM – Plays music CDs, reads CD-ROM databases such as maps and allows software upgrades.
Voice memo recorder – Voice messages may be recorded, stored and played back at a later time.
Voice recognition – Occupants can activate the system through voice command.
Navigation – Drivers can select a destination and have turn-by-turn directions read to them, as well as see a color map of the display.
Importantly, except for displaying station information in radio mode or navigation turn-by-turn information, the screen menus for e-mail and browser capability are disabled unless the vehicle is stopped – a built-in safety feature to help minimize the time drivers’ eyes are off the road and hands off the wheel.
the motorola iradio with bose infotainment
http://www.prismadesignintl.com/iradio1.html
the potential edig key is that IVAN uses IBM's viavoice
By: cksla $$$$
Reply To: None Wednesday, 24 Jan 2001 at 11:50 PM EST
Post # of 606113
One Voice shows off talking Web navigator 'IVAN'
by Margret Johnston, IDG News Service\Washington Bureau
November 14, 2000, 11:16
LAS VEGAS - If a talking Web navigator is what you've been waiting for to quicken your navigation of the Internet and make it a seem little more natural, software being demonstrated at Comdex might just fit the bill.
One Voice Technologies is showing a Web mascot called IVAN (intelligent voice animated navigator) who appears on the user's monitor and responds to spoken commands, like "I want to buy flowers," or "Get me a recipe for Beef Wellington." Just like a text-based search engine, IVAN retrieves Web sites that have the information, prioritizing them based on licensing deals that One Voice has signed with various sites.
The IVAN mascot, which looks like a small globe with a face, arms and legs, is included in the free client software that One Voice officials are handing out at Comdex. The software, also available for download from http://www.myivan.com, uses IBM's text-to-speech and voice recognition technology.
IVAN understands human language and identifies concepts, said Mark Strumwasser, vice president of sales for One Voice. The company has created a context-based searching technology called MultiSite, which runs on an Oracle Corp. database and is used by IVAN to find multiple Web sites for more than 100,000 concepts, Strumwasser said.
"It's a needle in a haystack on the Internet right now," Strumwasser said. "IVAN makes the experience more human by responding to the user's voice."
Comdex is the first major trade show at which the two-year-old company has had a major presence, Strumwasser said, adding that the company was being "hammered" by people seeking information about the product. Crowds several people deep confirmed a high level of interest as One Voice officials on a stage with a large screen behind them showed off IVAN's features.
The spoken commands that IVAN processes appear on the screen in text so the user can see what IVAN heard and correct it if necessary. He also bows when his name is called and can be turned off by telling him to stop listening.
One Voice recently signed partnership agreements with 140 Web sites, including Monster.com and Britannica.com, which have added VoiceSite, One Voice technology that enables voice interactivity at their sites. For example, at the Monster.com site job seekers can talk their way through finding a new job online, while IVAN asks questions to help them focus their search. At the Britannica site the software takes users to an appropriate entry in the encyclopedia when asked for information.
In addition to MultiSite database and VoiceSite technology, One Voice has created intelligent voice interactive technology (IVIT) to provide human voice understanding.
One Voice Technologies can be reached found on the Web at http://www.onevoicetech.com.
By: cksla $$$$
Reply To: 597461 by packers1 $$$$ Wednesday, 24 Jan 2001 at 9:41 PM EST
Post # of 606119
packers- re one voice and TI PR- did you know:
One Voice Technologies Announces Strategic Relationship With IBM
- World's First Intelligent Voice Interactive Technologyª (IVIT); Utilizes Industry-Leading ViaVoice by IBM. -
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - October 14, 1999 - One Voice Technologies, Inc., "One Voice," (OTC BB: ONEVE), developers of IVIT(tm) (Intelligent Voice Interactive Technology(tm)), today announced a strategic relationship with IBM( (NYSE: IBM).
One Voice's patent pending IVIT provides a layer of Artificial Intelligence that understands advanced linguistic concepts such as topic, subject and synonym. As a result, people can speak naturally to their computers, rather than being forced to speak pre-defined words and phrases. With IVIT, people simply ask their computer to launch applications, open files, search the Internet, pull up a stock portfolio, check weather listings or find current news - just as if they were speaking to another person. IVIT speaks back to users through a series of unique animated characters, which ask intelligent questions and read findings aloud. Through intelligent interactive dialogue and inference capabilities, IVIT asks questions to clarify users' requests and drills down to quickly find accurate information. One Voice's IVIT technology is the foundation for the company's upcoming IVAN' (Intelligent Voice Animated Navigator') application.
Utilizing IBM's ViaVoice speech recognition engine, One Voice's IVAN application will change the way people interact with their computers and the Internet. As part of the IBM Speech Product Line, the ViaVoice engine is a demand-generating enhancement of choice for speech recognition technology companies. According to One Voice Technologies Chairman and CEO, Dean Weber, the integration of IBM's ViaVoice speech recognition engine and One Voice's upcoming IVAN( application will forever change the way people interact with their computers and the Internet. "By adding a layer of Artificial Intelligence to IBM's powerful speech recognition technology, One Voice's IVIT enhances and simplifies computer and Internet interaction," said Mr. Weber. "We are pleased to work closely with IBM, a leader in speech recognition, to bring our exciting, fun and easy-to-use interface to millions of people around the world."
"IBM looks forward to working together with One Voice Technologies to reach our common goal to advance the adoption of speech recognition technologies and to provide voice recognition solutions that will make it easier for people to interact with their computers," says Ozzie Osborne, General Manager, IBM Speech and Pen Systems.
About IBM
IBM speech recognition technology is based on 30 years of speech recognition research and development. With a portfolio of more than one hundred patents, an established R&D business that includes researchers worldwide and a robust, proven speech technology available in many languages, IBM is a leader in speech recognition. For more information about IBM Speech Systems, visit the World Wide Web at http://www.software.ibm.com/speech.
About One Voice Technologies, Inc.
One Voice Technologies (ONEV) was founded in 1998 by human interface experts and linguists to change the way people interact with computers and the Internet. One Voice's flagship patent pending technology, IVIT™ (Intelligent Voice Interactive Technology™) enables users to retrieve information and navigate the Web through intelligent and natural-spoken language. The company is headquartered in San Diego. For more information, please visit www.onevoicetech.com or call Reba Rosenbluth at (858) 552-4466.
One Voice Technologies and IVIT are trademarks of One Voice Technologies, Inc. Patents Pending. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
++++++++++++++++
good old Ozzie
remember that IVAN uses ibm's viavoice
By: cksla $$$$
Reply To: None Wednesday, 24 Jan 2001 at 11:56 PM EST
Post # of 606124
Voice interactive Internet interface coming to the Mac
by Dennis Sellers, dsellers@maccentral.com
August 2, 2000, 1:00 pm ET
myIVAN, described as the worlds first voice interactive human interface for computers and the Internet, is now available as a free download from One Voice Technologies.
Though myIVAN currently is Windows only, Mac and Linux versions will be available "soon," according to One Voice. And there are plans to release the product in several languages including UK English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
According to Dean Weber, Chairman/CEO of One Voice Technologies, myIVAN is the only product of its kind and is different than any existing software or hardware by adding a human interface for the personal computer and the Internet. He says you can just talk to IVAN, the "Intelligent Voice Animated Navigator," like you'd speak with a friend, and IVAN brings you to any Web site. To use, you just strap on a headset (One Voice sells a US $20 headset).
IVAN is based on the IVIT (Intelligent Voice Interactive Technology) engine, which One Voice modestly describes as "the world's most advanced human interface technology." Comprised of artificial intelligence, an expert system, a series of knowledge bases and natural language processing, this technology engine doesn't just respond to "Command and Control" phrases. One Voice says that it understands concepts such as topic, subject, synonym relationship, and enables the computer to ask the user intelligent questions to help clarify and learn from their requests.
"Imagine asking IVAN to find a specific car and having IVAN show you all the top Internet car sites simultaneously," Weber says in a press release. "Whether you are buying cars, books, music, videos or simply trying to research any topic of interest, IVAN is fast, easy to use and effective. From teens to seniors, IVAN opens the door to an exciting new era of technology and now makes the Internet accessible to the mass consumer user. Our vision is to create a unified interface for talking to the Internet, whether it's from your home or office, car or mobile phone or Internet appliance."
IVAN can find Web sites for any given topic and will guide you through the site and help you find the info you're looking for in a simple and intuitive way, says Weber. Purportedly, IVAN understands human language and identifies concepts, eliminating the need to remember commands or predefined phrases as in telephone based systems. IVAN uses MultiSite, One Voice's contextual-based searching technology that can find multiple Web sites for any category and display them simultaneously.
Besides finding related Web sites and relevant content, IVAN also lets you talk to these Web sites using VoiceSite, One Voice's Web technology. According to One Voice, there are currently over 100 Web sites that are VoiceSite-enabled.
By the way, Weber will serve as chairperson for the Voice-Based Web Commerce conference in Chicago on Sept. 18-19. The Voice-Based Web Commerce conference will cover industry developments on separate voice technologies and applications.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
remember the IBM and Xybernaut posts and what Xybernaut wants to do with its transerable core-
put IBM/PALM/XYBR/ONEV/EDIG together and what does that spell-
WORLD WIRELESS HANDHELD DOMINATION!!!!!!!!!!!
New technology gives computers a voice
By George Lawton
An emerging crop of voice recognition tech-nologies promises to revolutionize the human/computer interface for the utility industry. These technologies will enable utility workers to manipulate computer data by speaking into laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and even cellular phones
Thomas Houy, manager, client systems marketing for voice systems at IBM, Armonk, NY (www-4.ibm.com/software/ speech/enterprise/), says, "The people that work on power and phone lines are using a lot of devices that could be voice activated. With voice you could take the device up on the telephone pole or electrical line and start filling out a trouble or incident form. The person could just speak the data."
There are a variety of options for exchanging data between company mainframes and workers in the field, but each approach has limitations. Traditionally, workers print out job lists and instructions on what to do. Then they gather data on paper forms, which must be keyed into the company's mainframe at a later date. But paper does not permit interactivity with field personnel. Furthermore, because many people handle the same data, the chance of error increases.
More recently, utilities have started deploying ruggedized laptop computers that let workers retrieve data from the mainframe in the field and type notes into electronic forms. But the worker still has to type the data into the machine, which takes hands and eyes away from other tasks--such as driving or operating high-voltage equipment.
Houy says, "Voice recognition gets rid of the cumbersome things that the graphical user interface [GUI] gives you. For example, if I want to look at my next appointment, I have to go into the datebook and look it up. With voice recognition, I can say, 'When is my next appointment?' and it will respond. The voice interface allows you to get to the information you want more easily."
Size is another limitation of traditional laptops. They cannot be operated in a confined space, on top of a pole, or while a lineman is walking around or working on something.
The use of speech recognition technology promises to overcome all of these problems. It allows workers to use a speech interface to find, retrieve, and enter data into forms, without taking their eyes or hands off the task at hand. Houy says one of the essential elements to utility worker productivity is being able to put computers in vehicles so a particular lineman or meter reader can download their entire route for the day. "Then they could ask, 'What is my next appointment?' and the system could display the route and guide the driver with verbal instructions."
Currently existing and soon to be released options will make this possible. Traditional laptops can be outfitted with speech recognition software, such as IBM's ViaVoice, or Lernout & Hauspie's (L&H, Burlington, Mass, www.lhsl.com) VoiceXpress. These applications allow a laptop to take continuous-speech dictation and navigate through the computer system for information.
Large-vocabulary, continuous-speech applications allow users to input data without pausing between words and can recognize tens of thousands of different words. However, these types of applications must be customized for each user. Much higher accuracy can be achieved by restricting the size of the vocabulary. Hank Pokigo, product manager for the VoiceXpress product line, says, "The more noise robustness you need, the smaller the vocabulary you are going to get."
Data collection in the field
Datria Systems, Englewood, Colo (www.datria.com), has developed a platform for collecting data in the field via special PDAs or through a telephone interface. Jay Lauer, VP of marketing, says, "Your speech is a way of getting data into handheld or ruggedized devices. In the old days, you would take a portable device into the field, be prompted on screen to enter customer information, and then have to type everything in with a keyboard. Later on, that computer would be brought back to the central office and the data off-loaded to the corporate server. Instead of typing information in, you can now use speech."
Datria's VoCarta Field software turns mobile computers into efficient data-collection devices by automating data collection through voice and sensor interfaces--such as global positioning systems, laser range finders, digital imaging, and bar-code scanners. For example, a person doing an inventory could drive to a pole, scan a bar-code at the base, take a picture, and then use the range finder to determine the distance to other landmarks. All the required data can be entered in seconds rather than minutes.
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"If you don't want to invest in speech, you will have to invest in toothpicks, because that is how you will have to access keyboards on new devices"
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These systems have tremendously improved the efficiency of various types of fieldwork. For example, the city of Austin, Tex, has been using VoCarta to locate and assess the condition of 300,000 street signs. Prior to VoCarta, the data were collected with pencil and paper at a rate of 18 to 20 signs per hour with an error rate of 15%. (Most mistakes were caused by typing and digitization errors and poor handwriting.) The Datria platform now enables workers to inventory 120-200 signs an hour with an error rate of less than 2%.
Datria has partnered with Xybernaut, Fairfax, Va (www.xybernaut.com) to incorporate VoCarta directly into the Xybernaut line of wearable PCs. Edward Newman, CEO of Xybernaut, says, "Anyone who acquires data in a mobile environment will benefit from the combination of these two technologies, which allows operators to work more effectively and productively in the field, wherever their work takes them." One limitation is the $5000 price tag for these wearable computers.
On the lower end of the price scale, Datria has a new technology called VoCarta Teleforms, which enables any cell phone to act as a data entry and retrieval terminal. Users connect to the back-end system via a voice call. Then, using a structured interface, users can quickly access, query, and update database records through Datria's speech and data interface.
Jim Blaha, Datria's CEO, notes, "Our objective is to fully empower mobile computers with a natural, easy-to-use interface that is compatible with the types of activities performed in the field. In addition, access to the data bases that drive the corporate enterprise and Internet applications is an exploding trend for field-force automation. VoCarta Teleforms answers that need by providing a simpler, more intuitive interface that allows technicians who are typically not computer literate to exploit automation technology."
Glimpse the PDA future
The leaders in speech recognition software have developed prototype PDAs to show how speech recognition can be used on ultra-portable devices. For example, L&H has a prototype PDA called NAK, which lets users check their e-mail and get other information through voice. IBM has made a prototype plug-in device for the PalmPilot that allows users to find and enter basic information using voice.
There are obstacles. Houy explains that you need a processor capable of executing a minimum of 90-million instructions per second (MIPS) to be able to recognize a vocabulary of 500 words when doing continuous speech. Many Microsoft Windows CE devices can deliver 130 MIPS today. However, the PalmPilot delivers less than 20 MIPS. Even these low-MIPS devices could be made speech-compatible by outfitting them with special processors, or linking them to more powerful computers via wireless networks.
Houy envisions a future in which field workers carry PDAs everywhere they go. The PDAs could communicate with a laptop in the car via the Bluetooth wireless protocol. (Bluetooth is an emerging standard, which allows devices to communicate with each other over a 100-m range.) The field worker could request information directly from the laptop, which could be linked back to a company's mainframe via a wireless data network.
Standardization
Several voice system vendors, including IBM, Dictaphone, Intel, and Olympus, are working on the Voice Technical Initiative for Mobile Electronic Solutions (www.voicetimes.org) to develop standards for voice applications and devices. Houy says, "We found that there was no standard organization for voice. As a result, everyone is out there doing their own stuff. VoiceTIMES has been chartered to create open specifications for voice. If you use an open spec, you can gather the info with any device."
As portable computing devices get smaller in the future, voice will be one of the few practical ways of entering data into them. Pokigo from VoiceXpress notes, "If you don't want to invest in speech, you will have to invest in toothpicks, because that is how you will have to access keyboards on new devices."
Electrical World T&D September/October 2000
http://www.platts.com/engineering/issues/ElectricalWorld/0009/0009ew-voice.shtml
By: Sentinel $$$$
Reply To: None Wednesday, 16 Aug 2000 at 11:10 PM EDT
Post # of 608146
A conversation with Robert Putnam….8/16/00
I spoke to Robert Putnam by phone tonight, after emailing him a lengthy list of questions this afternoon.. My intent was to go through each question point by point. As it was, our conversation was tangential, and his knowledge of topics far greater than mine. As such, while he spoke and I scribbled notes, some points were glossed over and some points were added. My apologies to those who helped author the questions, if my dictation fell short of your aspirations. Below is what I could decipher/remember from our conversation. Responses appear in bold. It is my own synopsis of his explanations, unless I attribute something specifically to him. Enjoy, or not, as you choose….
The Questions:
Q: In the past, the phrase ''double digit'' has been used to number the OEM's we have interested in the reference design player, as generated by both EDIG and Maycom. Is this still accurate, or are OEM's migrating toward more simple solutions (MP3 or single codec players) in light of the lack of significant content being released by the labels? Of course an interested party does not necessarily equal a revenue generating contract. Can you comment at all on how many of these "interested parties" can be considered "done deals" at this time?
A:No, EDIG cannot discuss the status of the individual relationships, even generally saying something like, "There are 4 done deals". The "double digits" phrase was a broad guideline from early on to give people the understanding that EDIG was working with a significant number of companies, rather than depending on one or two relationships. The "double digits" includes negotiations, deal, consultations, etc., a whole range of relationships. The OEM's are not migrating to simple players, and in fact are going to strive to distinguish themselves with unique feature sets, which is where the MicroOS shines.
Q: Can you comment at all on the caliber or status of these parties, i.e., are they household names in the US or Europe?
A: These companies are both household names and start-ups from around the world. EDIG is open to all who wish its services.
Q: In addition, can you comment on the proliferation of Napster and mp3 "piracy" in the Euro and Asian markets compared to US markets? Are the Euro and Asian markets more open to buying secure music? What comments are you hearing in the industry with this matter?
A:The US is the largest and major market in the world and will set the stage for content and business models to follow elsewhere. Copyright protection is being protected here in the US, but it is a must for the copyright holders to make content available and at a reasonable price in order for the emerging business models to work. Napster will need to go the route of MP3.com, namely to a subscription model.
Q: Shareholders have seen that EDIG management is quite confident of Nasdaq listing, and assume they remain so. We have also heard that the PR will come "in waves". Is there a PR (OEM contracts, etc.) strategy in place that will boost the current sub-$5 share price to the required levels, or does management believe the Nasdaq announcement alone will accomplish this? Is there a PR strategy to sustain trading levels on the first day of trading? Does the ''in waves'' strategy now have to be altered due to music industry stalling? Will some of the expected coupled PR's now have to be pushed to a later date hurting sustained momentum of PR's?
A: The "waves" comments were made at the beginning of the year, based on forecasted timelines of the Big 5 at that point. Unfortunately, there have been delays and also unfortunately, the timing of others actions is out of EDIG's control. EDIG believes that OEM announcements will drive the price higher, and above the $5 mark, and are not depending on the announcement of Nasdaq acceptance to do the work. (I got the feeling that something was close on the horizon, but that is speculation on my part.) In addition, Nasdaq is privy to all NDA's, relationships, predicted revenues sources, and even takes into account the infancy of this industry and the position of EDIG within it. My take on this is that Nasdaq has broad leverage in listing a company, regardless of price, and may decide that the exploding market will potentially reward EDIG down the road enough to validate a listing. Robert said that in general, Nasdaq is concerned about what will keep ANY company on Nasdaq in the future, and I believe our potential revenues will assure us of that. There does not need to be a "strategy" for PR's because they are not in EDIG's control. RP does believe that the acceleration of content being provided will lead to an acceleration of OEM announcements. He said the Nasdaq application is "open and pending" and they will keep providing any information requested or developed until Nasdaq is satisfied. As always, he was very confident of listing.
Q: Does SDMI stand a chance of approving watermarking, both fragile and robust, standards in the near future, and will OEM's have enough time to incorporate it into products to take advantage of the Christmas market? How exactly does fragile watermarking disallow transcoding solutions?
Doesn't the fragile watermarking issue practically negate the use of transcoding technology in any player which will play multi-codec/DRMs? This would make EDIG's technology a powerful solution. Do you see recent watermark discussions as giving EDIG more leverage in becoming a ''standard''?
A: As Phase II of SDMI kicks in, multiple compression of music files is disallowed. Sound quality suffers when recompressed, so EDIG doubts this will be popular for long, as plentiful and less-expensive content becomes available. It just won't be worth the effort for a low quality result.
Q: When Fred has spoken of EDIG's goal of becoming this ''standard'', what does the company believe this means, in terms of market share, units sold, or any other metric?
A: The goal is to have the products containing the MicroOS be publicly recognized as "products of excellence", meaning the MicroOS will become in demand from OEM's who wish to embed it into DSP's and other technologies. It's clear that the MicroOS is not essential for simple flash products at this time, but as devices begin to sport more complex flash memory feature sets, the MicroOS will offer a more efficient solution to OEMs. RP stated that there is a wide misconception out there that the EDIG reference design is a set of generic features which OEM's choose from. The fact is that each OEM comes to EDIG with specific and unique feature set requests, often with proprietary technology not appearing in the reference design, and asks EDIG to integrate the whole into a seamless working model. The EDIG reference design merely shows the extent to which EDIG is able to provide flexible solutions, encompassing a whole range of system features. In my view, it is more Marketing for EDIG than it is a specific solution for any OEM. RP believes the goal of having the microOS embedded into a DSP or SOC is attainable, and he mentioned something different was on the way. He said that there was new silicon technology coming soon which will be optimized for mulitple system management, and that the MicroOS was fully compatible with it. He called it a "hybrid technology". He would not say who it was coming from, but mentioned that several companies are working on solutions other than DSP's and SOC's. Again, I got the feeling EDIG might be announcing something in confluence with this "hybrid". He said "soon", but declined to define the term. LOL Robert also said the hardest thing about his job was not saying what he knew!
Q: Is the VoiceInside/Intel announcement still forecast to be made sometime this year? Is work with Intel proceeding satisfactorily? For the first time, the shareholder's letter released with the 10Q made no mention of the work with Intel. It has been mentioned in every other quarterly letter.
A: It is ultimately up to Intel to make announcements, but he stated that he felt there would be something made public this year. No specific timeframe given.
Q: Are we liable to hear any more from VoiceTimes Alliance soon? It seems like this is a very quiet organization, especially in light of the fact that VR/VTT/TTV technology seems to be moving along quite rapidly. Has the addition of Nokia to the VoiceTIMES alliance opened up new doors for the microOS to find its way in 3rd and 4th gen phones? What specific function would the microOS provide these phones?
A: With Microsoft and LHSP ramping up their efforts in the VR industry, he expects more things to come from the VoiceTimes alliance. Since I am not very familiar with this subject, I didn't catch all of what he had to say. I did ask if EDIG had ever heard of FONX (since I own some), and he said that they had heard of them, but that they were still trying to make a name for themselves among bigger fish. He said if an OEM came to them requesting that they integrate any of FONX's technology into a product, they certainly would, but for now, they remain more "IBM-centric". My apologies that I didn't go over the 3G/4G phone part of the question. My mistake.
By: timf
Reply To: 444063 by DABOSS $$$$ Saturday, 26 Aug 2000 at 11:32 AM EDT
Post # of 444339
Spoke with Robert a few weeks ago..while I am not technical, and I own alot of shares, I was nervous and he set me at rest. Two major statements came across: 1) it isn't the music player it is the VTT/TTV and dictation device that will smoke (verifying the above) 2) "Tim, I wish I could tell you the big names we are working with". I bought more. I can't wait for the exciting times ahead, and all my family, even my 12 year old are shareholders, and the difference it will make in our lives.
By: BusyBump $$$$ 9 Oct 2000 Comments From Robert.
I have been absent from the board for quite some time due to pressing family matters. Got an early morning call from Robert this morning and he explained that things were unusually busy at Edig. He said that the pace was picking up daily and that they were getting numerous inquiries from the press. The press was particularly interested in the "Merit" player as they see this as Edig's premier product which has incorporated many new features along with extended battery life, etc. He stated that the "Merit" player was going to be a "great calling card" for Edig in the near term!
In addition, he said that the "Merit" player was receiving the most attention among other OEMs and that there would be announcements from these OEMs before, during, and after the S/H's meeting!
He stated that the HanGo jukebox was also getting a lot of attention from OEMs but he felt that the biggest near term effect would be from "Merit" with announcements from HanGo-related OEMs to follow.
Question #1: Why didn't the latest PR reach the Dow Jones Newswire?
Response #1: It is up to them....their decision. With the Riva Richmond specter, it's no wonder! We have a lot of angry shareholders over this that are expressing their dismay!
Question #2: I realize that the announcement of any new product with Intel is up to them, but have we completed our portion of this product development?
Response #2: This is not a single product but an ongoing project which will continue along with our relationship with Intel. This project continues to take new directions.
Question #3: Any possibility of any VTT/TTV products before the end of this year?
Response #3: Possible...but, again, it is up to the OEMs that we are working with as to how the products will be rolled out. Some will make announcements in advance, such as HanGo did, while others will not make any announcements until the product is ready to hit the shelves.
Clarity lets drivers hear voices
By Shelley M. Johnson, #################
Oct 18, 2000 03:54 PM ET
DETROIT, Oct. 18 (LocalBusiness.com) -- Clarity LLC of Troy is off and running after unveiling its noise-reduction software designed to improve voice-recognition systems in voice-activated automobiles.
The technology firm said it has had an "overwhelming" response from DaimlerChrysler, Ford and GM, as well as a number of automotive suppliers attending Convergence 2000, an automotive technology trade show in Detroit.
The firm said it is ready to bring its product, dubbed Clear Voice Capture technology, to market. Clarity executives said the product surpasses existing standard noise-cancellation software because it can discern between background noise and the human voice spoken into a microphone.
Clarity's software actually does voice extraction, rather than remove high and low frequencies. It takes out simple noise or noise clutter and captures the voice signal of interest, using a dual microphone set up.
The voice then can be clearly transmitted to a voice-controlled instrument panel in a car so a driver's command can be understood.
The software has been tested by independent labs like MTS in the Detroit area and by automotive experts at Clarity.
Fred Nussbaum, vice president of business development at Clarity, told ################# that the software was able to emulate the 95 percent voice-recognition accuracy rate demonstrated in controlled laboratory environments. Current technology can only boast of a 65 percent voice-recognition accuracy rate in a noisy vehicle, he said.
"Traditional speech recognition programs don't solve the problem of background noise," said Nussbaum. "State of-the-art technology right now doesn't allow speech engines or recognizers to work in a noisy environment, by allowing clarity of sound before it gets to the speech engine to improve the accuracy rate of recognizing the driver's voice."
The Clarity technology reduces the error rates a driver will experience from voice-activated cars when the software within the auto cannot understand or recognize the driver's command, Nussbaum said.
He said the response to Clarity's technology this week would put the company a year and a half beyond what its business plan called for. Automotive suppliers, including Delphi Automotive Systems and Visteon, already are setting appointments, he said.
Clarity's noise-reduction technology was designed by Fathi Salam and Gail Erten of Okemos, Mich. Salam is an electrical engineering professor at Michigan State University and Erten has a doctorate in signal processing and computer software.
It is a commercial spinoff of software technology used by the U.S. Air Force.
The firm currently has five patents pending on its technology.
Clarity LLC is a privately held firm that was founded in 1998. It has received a total of $5.5 million in venture capital funding. The latest round in June, led by Duchossois Technologies of Chicago, netted $2.5 million.
Nussbaum said Clarity plans to pursue one final round of funding to help the company penetrate other industries that need noise-reduction technology. No dates or investors were disclosed.
cksla $$$$
Reply To: None Wednesday, 7 Feb 2001 at 12:28 AM EST
Post # of 672522
no one is listening to me about Motorola iRadio or the Infotainment PC system going into the Cadillac Seville, but mark my words-----
Clarity Exhibits its Voice Enabling Clear Voice Capture 'CVC' Technology; Clarity's Proprietary CVC Technology Enables Voice Activated Products in Noisy Environments.
Business Editors
TROY, Mich--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 27, 2000
Clarity LLC (http://www.clarityco.com/), previewed today its proprietary enabling software technology for voice interface applications, including hands free cellular communications in automobiles.
The technology, Clear Voice Capture(TM) ("CVC"(TM)) which is a novel breakthrough that allows voice based systems to perform in real-world noisy environments, was shown at The Automotive & Consumer Electronics Industries Deal Making Summit at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance by Clarity, a privately held software development company.
CVC has been applauded for its ability to clearly extract and capture a single voice signal from a mixture of unwanted noise sources. Systems equipped with this novel technology will achieve a higher level of accuracy and performance, further accelerating the adoption rate and user acceptance of voice features.
Applications for Clarity's CVC technology include: speech recognition software, voice based command and control, voice authentication, and voice communications, such as Internet (VOIP) and cellular telephony. The technology can be embedded into many consumer products, including Automotive Telematics, desktop, laptop and palmtop computers, personal-digital assistants, cellular-phones, intelligent home appliances, educational toys, and voice recording devices.
With effective voice interface capabilities, all of these products serve markets poised for substantial growth over the next five years.
In the Automotive market alone, The Intelligent Transportation Society of America, a Washington D.C. "think tank" that supplies data to the Department of Transportation, reports that there are more than 201 million cars in the U.S. today and that Americans collectively spend more than 500 million hours in their cars each week with an average commuting time of 80 minutes per day and growing.
With the introduction and high adoption rate of the Internet, automobile manufacturers now have a mechanism to offer their customers access to a broad spectrum of services never before seen, such as Internet services through cellular phones and satellite Internet access, electronic mail, navigation tools, in-car satellite radio and video as well as traffic updates.
With many countries around the world having banned, or in the process of banning hand-held cell phones in automobiles, Clarity is in a position to deliver hands-free, headset-free digital signal processing technology that enables effective voice based command and communications in the noisy automobile environment.
Voice is the ultimate human-machine interface, however it has been a challenge for the industry to make voice features work consistently, particularly in noisy environments. Even moderate levels of unwanted noise contaminates the voice signal of interest and degrades the performance and quality of the results, because systems with a microphone input, generally cannot distinguish between what part of the input signal is the user's voice and what part of it is noise.
Jaques Nasser, The Chief Executive of Ford Motor Co, has been quoted as saying, "we will do nothing short of transforming our cars into portals for the Internet." When discussing the union of the auto and IT industries, Motorola Corp., Executive Vice President Joseph Gugliemli, stated that "virtually every major auto manufacturer in the world is looking at installing the systems."
And Delphi's President of the Delco Electronics Systems unit Dave Wohleen notes that "Growing consumer demand for these (electronics) products is being driven by the desire to have more convenience, connectivity and entertainment options while driving."
Fred Nussbaum, Clarity's Vice President of Business Development, reported that "We completed speech recognition accuracy tests of Clarity's CVC technology using the latest revision of a very popular speech recognition software program. The test results taken from actual in-auto testing under a variety of real world conditions, demonstrated that CVC drastically reduces background noise levels in this very demanding setting. The lower noise levels translate into a 35% to 40% improvement in voice recognition accuracy, thereby enabling speech recognition systems to perform at a customer friendly level."
According to Mr. Nussbaum, "these results will be formally presented by Clarity at the AVIOS ( American Voice I/O Society) trade show in San Jose in May, but, the results are so impressive, they are being made available at this conference for the automotive executives to see."
"Clarity's signal processing technology is a solution whose timing is exceptional. Just as voice activated systems are being promised to customers, regulatory agencies worldwide are forcing auto manufacturers to seek safer ways for people to interface with their planned automotive telematics. We believe that Clarity is here to provide a far-field (hands-free, headset-free) voice communication tool to enable voice interface systems to perform in the noisy automobile environment," said Ed Narens, president and CEO of Narens Associates, an automotive marketing firm, founded in 1952.
Clarity's objective is to be a leading provider of software products that improve voice activated human-machine interfaces and the quality and efficiency of telecommunication systems. Clarity's primary strategy for achieving this goal is entering into co-development alliances and licensing arrangements with Original Equipment Manufacturers and suppliers in a broad range of industries, as well as semiconductor manufacturers and telecommunications network operators worldwide.
All product names and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of Clarity
EDIG ON WHEELS- you could be driving around with e.digital inside if you want:
2001 Cadillac Seville
By Jill Amadio
Beneath a familiar skin, uncharted e-territory.
You don't think that the 2001 Cadillac STS (Seville Touring Sedan) is a car, do you? There's no such thing as mere four-wheels-and-an-engine transportation these days, especially around the lofty altitudes of the top luxury models like the Seville.
The next STS - outwardly little changed from the 2000 model but internally a jaw-dropper - is a rolling center of magical hi-tech computer technology. It's an e-vehicle, a computer on wheels. No longer a mere sedan, it's also an intimate friend with whom you can converse, and seek comfort and counsel on your lonely commutes.
We spend a total of about 500 million hours a week in our vehicles - more than some of us devote to eating, though at least by fueling our bodies we're doing something useful other than just sitting. Putting driving time to work for us so we can be more productive has become a favorite function that automakers are continually exploring. It's not enough to chat idly on the car phone in traffic. We can now also work - and Cadillac is in the forefront of this trend.
The mother of all motherboards
With a complete overhaul and redesign back in 1998, the 2001 STS's body styling and interior needed no changes except for a sport option package that includes larger wheels. This Seville still houses the fast, Northstar-engined powerhouse that leads America's luxury brands.
Infotainment integrates a computer, a navigation system, CD-ROM and radio functions. However, recognizing the hazards of having to dial up manually and read a display screen, Cadillac won't allow you to use some of these splendid advances while you're barreling down the highway. You must be parked. But you will be permitted to listen while driving, and that's where the new STS triumphs. Silken tones will tell you how your own specific stocks are doing, what the latest basketball score of your hometown team is, and will also read your e-mail to you until you have time to stop and download it yourself. All you have to do is program the Bose Infotainment software and you get personalized information.
Since the system is voice controlled, you can dock your portable cell phone and allow cell phone control via voice recognition or use the front panel keypad on the dash. To store your e-messages after you've listened to them, an infrared port connects your handheld device, personal organizers or Palm Pilots to exchange data with the system. The CD-ROM drive plays music CDs, reads CD-ROM map info and can be upgraded with additional software.
The Infotainment system also has a voice memo recorder so you can dictate notes and play them back later, as well as transfer them to your PDA to transfer to a desktop PC. One of the neatest features is that you can bark commands in the general direction of the dashboard to activate the system and receive, in return, location directions that are read to you as well as displayed on-screen. Yes, you can watch the color maps as you drive, but if you want to multi-task, as the nerds say, the e-mail and Web browser are safely disabled until your car's wheels stop rolling.
Okay, we're not finished with all this hi-tech stuff yet. New in the OnStar system for 2001 is Virtual Advisor. Although Cadillac introduced this telematics system three years ago in the 1997 models, the new feature answers the call for coddling our egos. If you don't want the same kind of information everyone else has, you can punch in your own preferences and get exact, exclusive hands-free feedback tailored to your own wishes. You can select news, for example, only about French railroad strikes, the latest prices on your five NASDAQ stocks (good luck), and college water polo results.
While the new OnStar is standard equipment in all 2001 STS models and gives you a free one-year premium service subscription, the Infotainment system is an option that's included in a special sport package. No price for it has been announced yet. [ now has price: 1SD STS Luxury Package (STS) Price Includes Bose 4.0 AM/FM stereo radio with CD and cassette players, 16" chrome wheels, wood trim package, wood steering wheel, and wood shift knob. NOT AVAILABLE with 1SE, 1SF. $1,687 $1,985 Invoice MSRP]
It drives, too
Included in Cadillac's midsize family alongside the Catera and the Eldorado, the four-door Seville has two 2001 models: the STS and the SLS (Seville Luxury Sedan). The former has a more high performance character and the availability of a sport package that includes 17-inch wheels and tires, a suspension tuned to the tires, tire pressure monitoring and the Infotainment system.
Both models have chassis improvements to reduce understeer, sharper steering response,and a better on-center feel. Our STS test drive took us to Colorado Springs where we dashed around Pike's Peak oval raceway, drove past the Rockies to the town of Pueblo, and charged through slalom courses and wet and dry skid pads. The Seville performed elegantly and competently though one is inclined to expect miracles in the face of overeager hype. In fact, the ride and handling from this heavy, 4000-lb car is excellent and less unwieldy than anticipated during emergency-style maneuvers.
Inside, the comfort zone is high. One of the most interesting features is called Adaptive Seating, which automatically recognizes front passenger positions when you're seated, and adjusts the support system to fit you. Sensors in a network of ten air cells in the seatback and cushions measure internal pressure and adjust the air inside the cells. The system cycles every four minutes as you move in the seat. However, my STS rode so smoothly in testing, it was difficult to detect much difference. The heating in the seats, however, was noted and appreciated in the high country cold.
Another feature I liked was the wiper system, standard on both the SLS and the STS, which automatically activates the wipers in wet weather, saving you from fumbling for a switch in a sudden downpour. Then there's the optional tire-pressure monitor whose sensor sends you a message on the display panel if the pressure is low, high, or okay.
If you're still feeling computer-deprived, you can order your 2001 STS with Night Vision to help you see objects 500 yards down the road in darkness. And don't forget Cadillac's Ultrasonic Rear Parking Assist that uses chimes and sensor lights to help you park.
The Cadillac Seville, by the way, is immensely popular in Bahrain, Israel, Egypt, Qatar, Yemen, Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal, the Virgin Islands and Guam, where it well outsells its stablemates Catera and Deville. How long before infotainment reaches Yemen and Ethiopia? If it's up to Cadillac, not very long, it seems.
Copyright © 2001 - The Car Connection, All rights reserved. The Car Connection is a Trademark of DA Acquisitions, Inc.
http://www.kbb.com/kb/ki.dll/kw.kc.rp?kbb&&11&cc01seville
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The IBM Infotainment system consists of 3 * 12" LCD screens built into the seats of the vehicle in front of the 3 passengers. This gives the passenger access to : radio, audio player, video player (multiple videos with 3 seat cinema mode), fax, phone, e-mail, calculator, satellite mapping, local information, word processing, Web browser, calendar and is controlled by mouse or speech using a specially written version of IBM ViaVoice. The video is based on Mpeg II (DVD equivalent) and passes true 6 channel AC3 digital surround sound audio to the 15 speaker BOSE audio system.
http://houns54.clearlake.ibm.com/solutions/industrial/indpub.nsf/detailcontacts/key_ibm_automobile_n...
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http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=CLB00154&read=18288
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http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=CLB00154&read=18283
By: Sparty $$$$
Reply To: None Thursday, 22 Feb 2001 at 12:14 PM EST
Post # of 672522
I was out at eDigital headquarters yesterday with Pokonchi and others, and can vouch for everything he reported. As he related, nothing earthshaking was revealed, but it was nice to see, hold and listen to the Treo and MP2000, and to be able to ask Robert just about anything.
Frequently he talked his way around the question, or just said he could not answer that right now. Regarding the Intel project, he said they worked on it with several other companies, and that it was a success, but as Pokonchi related, it seems the world is not ready for it yet - whatever it is.
Robert fielded questions about the number of projects/products in the pipeline (couldn't answer); whether this current quarter will be the best ever (Lanier shipments will help, revenues from music players will begin, but not an unequivocal 'yes' or 'no'); what happened last July (the labels said they would release content, but never did, so eDigital began working with DataPlay); will the labels crank it up for Christmas this year (who knows?); is their competitive advantage for music players still there (yes, they have the only solution that allows native multicodec interoperability).
In response to a question about music players being just a piece of what eDigital does, he went on for a while about an etch-a-sketch-sized e-book device that would replace the 40 pounds of books kids have to carry around in their backpacks. The technology exists for this now, he said, and look to Thompson, Gemstar and several other leading technology companies to see these types of things introduced. eDigital's role is to help bring these types of devices to market faster, with a kernal of code - MicroOS, MicroCAM and derivatives - that solves problems and doesn't use much power. Keyboards and styluses are not the input/navigation interfaces of the future - voice is, and they are well-positioned to help companies enable their products with voice-command technology.
He also talked about the business failure of Lernout- Hauspie last year - how that froze companies for about nine months while they waited to see what was going to happen with the technology.
For me, the benefit was to make all of this less abstract and more concrete. I saw the room where they put together prototypes. I listened to him talk about all the things they have going on, and the goal to increase revenues, quarter after quarter. He talked about that fact that he's been there for 12 years, and that six or seven years ago they locked up these patents with an eye to the future, a vision of computing coming off the desktop and into smaller handheld devices.
In my opinion, you don't have to look to hard to see that future unfolding. Foot-dragging by the record labels hurt us and could have killed the company last year, but they are nimble and flexible enough to look around, see an opportunity like DataPlay, and adapt. There are many such opportunities, they have a plan to capitalize on these, and they are moving the plan forward. It's not going to happen overnight, but it is happening.
The usual disclaimers apply - I listened without taking notes, so may have misheard or misunderstood, but this is all to the best of my recollection. Do your own DD, etc. etc.
Good luck to all longs!