Smart mouth
Speech recognition for smartphones
Margot Suydam, Technology Editor -- CommVerge, 8/14/2002
In the mobile world, quick access to information is the key. But that's a growing challenge for today’s devices, which must be not only feature-rich but also as tiny as possible. Luckily, many high-end devices come equipped with ample processing power, and more and more these days, that power is being harnessed to provide speech-interface features. With more vendors porting their speech software to mobile processor platforms, it looks like speech recognition is positioned to claim a place for itself in the burgeoning smartphone market.
Sensory, a provider of embedded speech technologies, this week joined the ranks of speech-technology providers who have chosen to port their software to the Texas Instruments OMAP platform.
Offering low power consumption and high performance, TI's OMAP processors provide the hardware muscle required to enable new mobile applications. Sensory’s Fluent Speech software-development kit for OMAP supports the TI DSP and the TI-enhanced ARM9 processor in the OMAP1510 application processor, and is also compatible with the OMAP710 device.
First publicly demonstrated on a convergence phone at the TI Industry Analyst Conference in May, the OMAP-optimized version of the Fluent Speech engine will enable voice-driven user interfaces on 2.5G and 3G devices. The embedded software is well-suited to tasks such as contact lookup, voice-activated dialing, Internet favorites, command and control, and password security. And the recognition engine functions without a network connection.
Fluent Speech is an accurate, noise-robust, small-footprint voice-recognition engine that requires no training, according to Sensory. The phonemic speaker-independent recognizer is part of a technology suite that includes continuous-digit recognition, speaker verification, and support for multiple languages.
In supporting OMAP, Sensory joins ART (Advanced Recognition Technologies), which recently ported its latest speech-recognition product, smARTspeak XG, to the OMAP platform. Bringing phonemic recognition to wireless mobile devices, smARTspeak XG provides embedded, speaker-independent name dialing and other command functions. The XG version is an evolution of the smARTspeak NG previously ported to the OMAP platform.
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