Nuance Bringing Voice Recognition to Televisions and Intel Ultrabooks

[george-brooks]

Wow, this is pretty shocking news, especially if Apple really IS making a Siri enabled TV. I have to think that they would've negotiated some exclusive deal with Nuance in the first place. Maybe this means the Siri TV rumors AREN'T true and Steve meant something else by the "simplest interface possible."

 

[WestonHarvey1]

So Apple is leading in design (make it pretty)... big shocker.
But this topic is about VR, not the design.
Without Nuance, Siri doesn't exist.

And without Siri, there aren't very many appealing uses of Nuance's technology. They're all the voice equivalent of Newton's handwriting recognition. Try to think of a comedian who hasn't incorporated a malfunctioning VR phone system routine into their act. It's become a cliche right along side men-leaving-the-toilet-seat-down jokes and Christopher Walken impersonations.

 

[*LTD*]

Yes, made it user friendly.
So people actually enjoy using it.

Regardless of who built it, at the end of the day, it's about user experience.

100% correct.

Had Apple not done what they did with Siri, we wouldn't be reading this news.

 

[george-brooks]

Sorry to call out you specifically - but this is a pet peeve of mine on here. This seems to be the "go to answer" for posters. Really? Any time Apple runs into a company that competes or has something Apple might want/need/is developing they should just buy the company. I'm glad you're not running Apple.

And on the flip side - not every company is for sale. Some companies actually enjoy being - you know - their own company.

Normally I would agree with you but if Apple is going to put Siri in the spotlight on future devices, maybe they SHOULD be developing it themselves instead of relying on another company that can just turn around and sell their technology to Apple's competitors.

 

[blackhand1001]

Yes. That would be a hell of a feature update. Voice commands and dictation as an OS function? awesome.

All windows 7 (and vista) computers already have builtin voice recognition and your can buy nuances dragon speech recognition for windows as well. Its been around for years. Hardly a new concept.

 

[gprovida]

Siri is much more than voice recognition and commands

Siri tries to understand what you want done, not merely convert voice to a command. For example, most commands for save are "save," but what if I said store. Siri would understand my intent not the literal word aligned with a command.

Nuance can with pretty good accuracy convert voice to text, 70-85% accuracy. For editing or creating a document, not so good, but usuable for matching a small set of commands in an OS, probably closer to 99%. This is great for speaking commands and of course knowing the commands.

Siri is so much more and we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. If I say I want to watch "once upon a time" last episode in season 1, then the intelligence needs to understand what this means as a TV show and if it is stored in iTunes as a download get it, or ask if I have it on a DVD, or do I want to buy or rent it, or know it is being rerun tomorrow on TMC .... this is probably the complexity that Job's broke not merely "voice recognition" as well as the business model that goes with it.

It is not a better remote control or better like an iPod, iPhone, iPad, and MacOS were better than anything before them, MP3 player, cell phone, tablet, and DOS.

 

[samcraig]

100% correct.

Had Apple not done what they did with Siri, we wouldn't be reading this news.

Nuance was in the news long before Apple acquired or even thought of acquiring Siri. Nice try though.

 

[rjohnstone]

And without Siri, there aren't very many appealing uses of Nuance's technology. They're all the voice equivalent of Newton's handwriting recognition. Try to think of a comedian who hasn't incorporated a malfunctioning VR phone system routine into their act. It's become a cliche right along side men-leaving-the-toilet-seat-down jokes and Christopher Walken impersonations.

Now I have to laugh since Siri is a repackaged product from the AppStore.
Which worked beautifully on older iPhones until Apple pulled the plug.

 

[lilo777]

Apple: "Ok, guys. The way forward is safe now. Get in behind us, single file."

What else is new.

LTD, instead of posting stupid comments like this, you'd better go watch Samsung press event at CES (starting right now). That's where innovations happen.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Nuance was in the news long before Apple acquired or even thought of acquiring Siri. Nice try though.

Yes, but Nuance has never made for very exciting news.

They are a company that has a virtual monopoly on speech recognition technology. Their core technology is now decades old and the quality of it has barely improved in the last 10 years. I know this because I've been using their software in telephony applications for the past decade. Most of their efforts are spent on marketing and novel licensing arrangements. From a pure voice recognition perspective, there's hardly anything that new versions of the software do any better than really old versions of the software.

Honestly, they got where they are through a long series of mergers and acquisitions. They are on a not broke/don't fix business model that serves them well, but they aren't visionaries. Now we're expected to believe they're going to create revolutionary consumer-focused products, and you think they deserve credit that rightly belongs to Apple?

----------

Now I have to laugh since Siri is a repackaged product from the AppStore.
Which worked beautifully on older iPhones until Apple pulled the plug.

Now *I* have to laugh because you apparently don't understand the history of Nuance.

Both companies benefited from buying someone else's technology. So what?

 

[dgree03]

100% correct.

Had Apple not done what they did with Siri, we wouldn't be reading this news.

Siri isn't even that powerful, yet. I could do more with Google Voice Recog software than I could with Siri.

"Navigate to XYZ"
"Open Twitter"

 

[rjohnstone]

Now *I* have to laugh because you apparently don't understand the history of Nuance.

Both companies benefited from buying someone else's technology. So what?

Tell me what did Apple contribute to VR... answer... looks.

And yes, I understand fully the history behind Nuance.
Nuance (aka ScanSoft) has been doing VR research for nearly two decades. They didn't buy it, they built it.
Go back far enough and you'll see their roots at Xerox.
Between two spin-offs and ONE merger (ScanSoft and Nuance), the development has been largely between those two groups.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Tell me what did Apple contribute to VR... answer... looks.

And yes, I understand fully the history behind Nuance.
Nuance (aka ScanSoft) has been doing VR research for nearly two decades. They didn't buy it, they built it.
Go back far enough and you'll see their roots at Xerox.
Between two spin-offs and ONE merger (ScanSoft and Nuance), the development has been largely between those two groups.

Nuance is just a tool Apple uses as an interface to Siri. Siri has as much to do with voice recognition as IBM's Watson does.

 

[george-brooks]

Siri tries to understand what you want done, not merely convert voice to a command. For example, most commands for save are "save," but what if I said store. Siri would understand my intent not the literal word aligned with a command.

Nuance can with pretty good accuracy convert voice to text, 70-85% accuracy. For editing or creating a document, not so good, but usuable for matching a small set of commands in an OS, probably closer to 99%. This is great for speaking commands and of course knowing the commands.

Siri is so much more and we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. If I say I want to watch "once upon a time" last episode in season 1, then the intelligence needs to understand what this means as a TV show and if it is stored in iTunes as a download get it, or ask if I have it on a DVD, or do I want to buy or rent it, or know it is being rerun tomorrow on TMC .... this is probably the complexity that Job's broke not merely "voice recognition" as well as the business model that goes with it.

It is not a better remote control or better like an iPod, iPhone, iPad, and MacOS were better than anything before them, MP3 player, cell phone, tablet, and DOS.

I have used Dragon to compose documents and I would say it is more than 75-80% accurate. Its very useful. But you are right, siri isn't merely voice recognition, it is intelligent language recognition. I am shocked that even with its limited functionality that it works so well on an iPhone, considering that the supercharged version (IBM's Watson) took 90 servers. I think Apple rolled Siri out too early. Its impressive but it has a way to go. It will get there.

 

[QuiteSure]

Also, voice DVR control? Those are functions that make a handheld remote a delight to use.

Have you ever tried to tell another human being to control a DVR to your satisfaction? "Rewind it! No, further! No, no! Too far!" If it's that hard to control via proxy through an intelligent human, imagine how much worse it will be with an AI.

For that to work, an entirely different paradigm is needed that doesn't involve traditional concepts of realtime rewind/fast forward/pause. A paradigm shift I'm not creative enough to think of, and one Nuance certainly isn't going to be bringing.

I don't know. "Rewind 45 seconds" seems like a pretty easy command to implement.

 

[george-brooks]

I don't know. "Rewind 45 seconds" seems like a pretty easy command to implement.

DVR commands seem easy, but when are you really going to be able to know that you need to go back 45 seconds. I think it needs to be more like "go to the end of the last commercial" or "replay that last line." That is harder to implement because then the DVR needs to know where the breaks in the video are and understand what is happening on screen

 

[Krazy Bill]

I'm tellin' you all... this is how "skynet" started.

Run.

 

[Caliber26]

Okay, I'm over this voice recognition stuff. I get it, it's cool, a neat feature, but nonetheless a gimmick. Unless this all entails some TRULY REVOLUTIONARY capabilities, that are far beyond our collective imaginations, I can't see what's so freaking amazing about speaking to my computer or television set. I certainly have no problem tapping a few keys or buttons.

Having an iPhone 4S, I can say that my personal use (not saying this is the same for everyone - just me) of Siri has been minimal. Once in a while I might use it to send a brief text while driving, or if I'm feeling extra lazy and using my finger to swipe and touch my screen a couple times seems like a burden too great to handle at that moment, I might instruct her to place a call for me, but that's about it. I'm sure I'm not alone in this way of thinking.

I guess something has to replace the recent "3D" obsession.

 

[Marzzz]

Nuance has a fairly robust Dictation Program for Windows users, yet their Dragon Dictate for Mac lags severely behind. If Apple is going to license/incorporate so much of the Nuance technology in the near future, it would be nice if they could also get Nuance to bring DD Mac up to speed. Some of the most important software I use (Dragon, Quicken/Quickbooks, etc) lags on the Mac, yet the alternatives are either suboptimal or don't exist.

 

[CubusX]

Reminds me...

Even though I dislike Tracy Morgan, this reminds me of that 30 Rock commercial on Comedy Central.

TELEVISON ON! PRONOGRAPHY!

 

[rjohnstone]

Nuance is just a tool Apple uses as an interface to Siri. Siri has as much to do with voice recognition as IBM's Watson does.

"Just a tool".... it's the heart of the tool.
Without it there is no Siri.
Siri doesn't do any voice recognition... the Nuance speech engine does.
Siri is the interface to that engine and performs an action based on the output from the speech engine.

And Apple didn't create Siri, they bought it and gave it a visual facelift.

 

[Apple Key]

If Apple makes a TV, siri is going to be the least impressive feature, and certainly not the major selling point.

 

[thenerdal]

If Apple makes a TV, siri is going to be the least impressive feature, and certainly not the major selling point.

I agree.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

"Just a tool".... it's the heart of the tool.
Without it there is no Siri.
Siri doesn't do any voice recognition... the Nuance speech engine does.
Siri is the interface to that engine and performs an action based on the output from the speech engine.

And Apple didn't create Siri, they bought it and gave it a visual facelift.

Electricity is at the heart of all these technologies. Are you going to dismiss Nuance and give all the credit to Edison and Westinghouse now?

 

[thenerdal]

Electricity is at the heart of all these technologies. Are you going to dismiss Nuance and give all the credit to Edison and Westinghouse now?

Electricity is not a company...