Amazon.com’s acquisition of text-to-speech specialist IVONA marks progress along two separate paths for Conversational Commerce.
speech processing
Nuance’s Acquisition of VirtuOZ Signals Growth for Mobile Personal Virtual Assistants
Nuance has reportedly acquired one of the leaders in the Web-based virtual assistant business, VirtuOZ.
News from CES2013: Ford’s SYNC “Reads” News From USA Today, Powered by XTone’s Xavi
Ford Motor Company’s SYNC-AppLink adds a news reader based on content from USA Today, “powered by XTone’s Xavi(TM) voice assistant platform”.
Nuance Promotes Natural Interfaces at Lackluster CES
Nuance Communications took a three-pronged promotional strategy to CES.
Nuance and Expect Labs Combine to Showcase Power of Understanding Speech
Expect Labs will introduce its first product, MindMeld for iPads, to showcase how its core technology embedded in a tablet will support a new kind of interpersonal communication.
Microsoft’s Head of Research Showcases Speech-to-Speech Translation
Microsoft’s chief research officer Rick Rashid showcased real time speech-to-speech translation (English to Chinese) at Microsoft Research Asia’s 21st Century Computing event in early November 2012.
Conversational Commerce Paper: IVRs Take On New Tasks
People will go to great lengths to avoid interactive voice response (IVR) systems. Yet progressive, customer-pleasing companies like Hyatt Hotels are putting conversational IVR systems into place to the benefit of both their guests and their contact center agents. Therefore, in an age when some have said “The IVR is Dead,” we see “Conversational IVR” playing the role of Virtual Assistant in the enterprise, fostering a better customer experience and higher morale among customer service representatives.
Automated Speech Improves Personal Productivity
Voice-based productivity is attracting attention both on the investment and product introduction front.
Talking up Voice at SxSW
At “South by” I was invited to comment on the role of voice in social business for a video that IBM’s DeveloperWorks orchestrated.
Finally, Vlingo and Nuance Settle Their Differences Out of Court; Turn Full Attention to the Conversational User Interface
One step’s done and another’s begun as Nuance announces plans to acquire rival virtual assistant provider, Vlingo.